Eating In: Café Steamers - "Grilled Basil Chicken"

Today I continue the process of clearing out my stockpile of frozen lunches by diving into one of the Mediterranean Inspired dishes from Healthy Choice's line of Café Steamers: Grilled Basil Chicken.

Primary Ingredients: Grilled Chicken, Whole Grain Pasta, Red Peppers, Green Zucchini, Spinach, Basil Tomato Sauce
Calories: 270
Fat: 6 g
Fiber: 7 g
Protein: 20 g
Sodium: 600 mg
Carbs: 34 g

Let's not mince words, this dish was disappointing. So disappointing in fact, that I seriously debated just throwing it away halfway through.

Basil, unless used in excess, can provide a subtle yet delicious flavor to many sauces and foods. Given the relatively high sodium count, one would expect that the dish would be relatively salty. Color me surprised when, upon eating my first bite, the only word that came to mind was "bland". Really, that one word describes the whole dish.

It was not until the pasta and sauce had cooled to an annoyingly lukewarm temperature that I was able to taste anything that came close to how the whole dish should have tasted from the start. Due to the cooling, I could only guess that the sauce had attached to the rest of the food in large enough "globs" (a disgustingly accurate word, sadly) that some semblance of a real basil sauce had formed. The issue here is that a good sauce can portray its flavor without having to be highly concentrated in a single forkful.

The protein, often my favorite part of any dish, only contributed to my disappointment. The "grilled chicken" must have been left on the grill a little too long, because every bite was dry and chewy. Not quite "well-done steak/leather" chewy, but far too close for my taste.

The vegetables, like in almost every other Café Steamers' dish, were par for the course in their quality. Rather than praise however, that is just a neutral comment amidst a sea of letdowns.

Is the Grilled Basil Chicken terrible? No. But it's definitely not good. If nothing else, I would consider it edible. If you have absolutely no other choice and are dying of starvation.

I can't and wouldn't ever recommend anyone try this dish. Some of you may try it anyway, thinking "oh it an't be that bad", and that's your prerogative. As for me, I'll never touch this dish again.

*** Overall Score: 1.5 / 5

For additional information from Healthy Choice on this product: Click Here