Marie Callender’s Homestyle BBQ Chicken

July 7, 2006 | Reviewer: Abi

“While Marie’s statements are true, I also take exception to her meal. First though, I will explain the excellence of the chicken…”

Marie Callender's Homestyle BBQ Chicken

Price: $2.00 (on sale)
Serving: 1 meal, 14.75 oz.
Calories: 590
Fat: 43%, 28g
Sodium: 48%, 1140mg
Protein: 38g
Carbs: 15%, 44g
Fiber: 24%, 6g

Marie says: At Marie Callender’s, our slow-roasted, juicy chicken is topped with a tangy BBQ sauce and served with a homestyle cheesy potato bake and sweet corn on the cob.

Abi says: While Marie’s statements are true, I also take exception to her meal. First though, I will explain the excellence of the chicken. It was a real piece of chicken that wasn’t minced and reformed! I could see and feel the grain of poultry muscle. I know that probably sounds gross, but it was a deliciously welcome change from the cubed chicken that appears in other meals.

Marie Callender's Homestyle BBQ Sauce

Even though the barbecue sauce carried a hint of tang (nice!), I wasn’t completely happy with its performance. It required a separate container for heating, which is a complete pain in the booty. The point of the meal is convenience, not figuring out how many other things you’ll have to get dirty because they’re not just putting the sauce in there with the chicken. Yeah, it probably turned out better this way, but the sauce packet separateness is the reason Marie Callender’s Chicken Parmigiana has been sitting in my freezer for months.

The homestyle cheesy potato bake is the nutritional downfall of this meal. It contains a variety of cheese products, including American cheese. I would have preferred mashed potatoes. Even better would have been potato salad with a viniagrette dressing (rather than mayo). That would have been a great counter-point to the sweet corn. Maybe it could come
in a little detachable container and there could be a freezer pack of flash-frozen fresh herbs too. Yum.

Ok, back to reality and the corn. The corn was delicious. I believe that it was cooked in a vat of butter. Ooooh, butter. This meal is insanely full of fat, which is probably why it tasted pretty good. Pick it up on sale (just $2.00!) and you won’t be sad. You won’t be healthy either, but that’s a choice you’ll just have to make.

comments

4 Responses to “Marie Callender’s Homestyle BBQ Chicken”

Jenny on July 9th, 2006

So your link on one of your DCWW email posts. Anyways…. you should try their ‘Country Fried Chicken’. O and love the blog! What a great idea. :o)
Ace N. on July 9th, 2006

I had this meal lying in my freezer and had it today.

The chicken’s skin was much soggier than I had hoped for. The sauce isn’t thick enough for my tastes, either, though the taste was fine. The potato bake was forgettable. Eh, 2 stars for me.

I too would like a potato salad in a frozen dinner, but I’m not sure how that would be possible.
Ann Jackson on August 30th, 2006

When is Marie Callender going to come out with the Packaged box of salisbury steaks that they used to make/
mike terry on February 13th, 2007

Please go back to your old bbq chicken meal. The new one is run of the mill at best. The old meal was very good , it was a cut above , nothing to write home about now.

Mike Terry