We love buffalo mac and cheese here at the Freezer Meal Frenzy office, and we also love shrimp. However, those are two tastes we’re not sure we want in the same meal. So when we spotted the Scott & Jon’s Buffalo Shrimp Mac, we were hesitantly curious. While we’re not sure how these tastes might combine, we also think that if anyone could pull this off in a microwavable meal, it would be Scott & Jon’s. So we figured we’d give this one a try and see how it turns out.
Cooking this is a cinch. Just open up the box, peel back a corner of the film, and toss the bowl into the microwave for three and a half minutes. You’ll barely even have to think about this. (If you want to read the full cooking instructions straight off the box, check out the package scans at the bottom of this review.)
This comes out of the microwave smelling pretty weird. You’ve got the fishy shrimp odor contrasting with the buffalo sauce and cheddar scents, and then some broccoli thrown into the mix to really add a pungent smell to the whole ordeal. This is a really difficult combination to describe, but it’s not a great one.
The sauce also ends up super runny when this first comes out of the microwave, but it does thicken up if you give it a minute or two to cool off.
Now, the thing is, the shrimp here is actually really good. Shrimp is what Scott & Jon’s does best, and this stuff has that buttery, salty flavor that we’ve come to expect from the brand.
And the mac and cheese is really good as well. While we think the broccoli was a bit unnecessary, this is one of the better buffalo macaroni dishes we’ve tried. The sauce is delicious, and the spice level is pretty much perfect — not too hot, not too mild. Plus, these spiral noodles are a great shape for the pasta.
We just don’t like the way these flavors mingle. The creamy cheddar and buffalo combo is just not what we’d want to pair with the excellent shrimp. Sure, without the cheddar and broccoli, the buffalo shrimp would probably be stellar, but there are just too many different flavors that pull your taste buds in different directions here. We think the best way to enjoy this meal is to pick out the shrimp and eat that part separately, then eat the macaroni portion. Then you end up with two delicious flavors that are very different from one another. This is one of those cases where mixing two great flavors diminishes both of them.
Now, Scott & Jon’s is great about keeping their calorie counts low, and that’s the case here as well. With just 260 calories, this is definitely diet-ready. Compare that to our favorite frozen buffalo mac (by Devour), which has 460 calories, and this meal really stands out. Then again, the sodium level is a bit high, at 790 mg, and the overall portion size is pretty small. We think a grown adult might still be a bit hungry after consuming this bowl of mac and cheese.
The Scott & Jon’s Buffalo Shrimp Mac takes two amazing flavors and mixes them together to make something that’s much less than the sum of its parts. As two separate portions, the shrimp and macaroni are both incredible. Mixed together, though? Not so much.
To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for this frozen batch of macaroni, check out our package scans below.
