Hungry-Man Boneless Fried Chicken

December 18, 2006 | Reviewer: Abi

Price: $2.00
Serving: 1 package, 16 oz.
Calories: 710
Fat: 45%, 29g
Sodium: 90%, 2160mg
Protein: 34g
Carbs: 29%, 86g
Fiber: 25%, 6g

Hungry-Man says: Fried chicken patties with mashed potatoes, corn and a brownie

Abi says: There were two good parts to this meal: chicken and brownie. Not very good parts: potatoes and corn. This was the exact opposite of what I expected when heating this meal. I was looking forward to buttery salt-laden potatoes. Instead, I ate a forkful of bland reconstituted potato matter and wept silent tears for the Idahoans against whom such cruelty had been committed.

Ok, I didn’t cry. Instead, I moved on to the corn. Corn is so hard to screw up, yet Hungry-Man somehow manages to overcome that barrier. What’s especially confusing is that Hungry-Man is made by Swanson, the company that introduced the TV Dinner. Shouldn’t they be really good with the corn and mashed potatoes? They’ve had 50 years to perfect this, haven’t they?

On the other side of the dinner coin, Hungry-Man has discovered the secret to producing crispy chicken patties in the microwave: coat them with an impossibly thick layer of fried breading. While a little salty for my taste, the chicken was darn good. I can’t believe I’m saying that, but really it was quite delicious.

You know what else was good (for being from a microwave)? The brownie. Ok, it wasn’t so much good as ‘not awful’. There’s nothing like a dinner of fried chicken and brownie.

And for all of you Hungry-Men and Hungry-Women out there: the portions in this meal are enormous. If they cut the meal down to one patty, some delicious corn, a dollop buttery potatoes, and kept the brownie, I would probably buy this again. They could call the meal Hungry-Abi. Catchy, no?

Ok, it isn’t catchy and I probably won’t buy this again, but if you’re looking for a Hungry-Man meal, I can definitely recommend this one over the Mexican Style Fiesta.

comments

11 Responses to “Hungry-Man Boneless Fried Chicken”

Crow on December 18th, 2006

After reading about microwaved brownies for so long, it finally clicked. What do people think of Betty Crocker Complete Desserts, which are “baked” in the microwave? They were heavily marketed at roll out, I signed up to be sent a free sample in the mail, which they did. It tasted to me exactly as you’d expect a microwaved brownie with fudge to taste. Which is not very good, but not bad either. However, even with coupons, they aren’t selling them at an economical price, even if having it come in its own bowl and microwavable are pluses(?).
MaryAnne on December 18th, 2006

Abi, I don’t understand how you aren’t pushing 300 pounds. The only thing I like about Hungry Man Dinners is that they don’t lie to you or try to sugarcoat things. They understand that you won’t share this with someone else and you won’t eat 1/2 the meal. They present the nutritional, or lack there of, information without shame. Unlike Trader Joe’s (which don’t get me wrong, I love and adore for all the culturally diverse dishes the create to amuse my palate) which gives you the nutritional info for half the package knowing full well that you will eat the entire thing, Hungry Man stands in its disgusting glory and says yes! we provide you with a day and a half’s worth of sodium and enough fat to give you a heart attack at 30. I say this as I unwrap my third chocolate from the Ghiradelli chocolate tower that was sent to my office. Let’s do a review on that. I give it 4.5 stars. It doesn’t get 5 because the Christie’s cookies that were sent on Friday were the shining star and hands down winner in presents from clients and vendors. Thank you jesus guy for giving a Jewish girl chocolate pleasure on a Monday.
MaryAnne on December 18th, 2006

Also, thank you for the end of the mac and cheese reviews. I didn’t like mac and cheese before and while there was one that I might try (Smart Ones), I dislike mac and cheese even more. The disgusting pics aside, I think you have tortured yourself and us enough. What about a week of healthy frozen meals? Or a week of frozen Chinese meals? What about a week of “Is it worth it?: a guide to overpriced frozen meals?” The ideas are rolling in….
Syrra on December 18th, 2006

Mm, I love these. Even if they’re horrible for me. Good to know I’m not the only one. :3
Ace N. on December 18th, 2006

Swanson sells this exact meal with one patty and smaller portions in their normal TV dinner line. So you can buy that instead. I, however, eat a lot and always get the Hungry-Man. I save 2 cents per ounce and get 2x the fun, it’s win-win!
Clevegal42 on December 19th, 2006

My goodness - I’ve never purchased a Hungry Man meal, but I’m glad I don’t because a deer would break into my apartment mistaking this for a salt lick. But Swanson always has made a tasty fried chicken.
Abi Jones on December 20th, 2006

@Crow - I just createda new category for desserts. You can check it out here: http://heateatreview.com/category/dessert plus, it will be available in the sidebar when I finally create a ‘type of meal’ category.

@MaryAnne - I ate less than half of this meal. One chicken patty, two bites of mashies, two bites of corn, and the brownie. Unfortunately, the holidays are upon us and I have definitely been enjoying the cookies. Mmmm. Cookies.

I’m with you on the double-serving in an obviously single-serve package. I may have to make that my personal crusade in the New Year. It drives me crazy!

Also, yay for the season of candy, which runs from now through the end of the post-Easter sales.

Finally, (to MaryAnne) I have a few more review surprises up my sleeve. This week happens to be fattening chicken things week. That was not by design, really.

@Syrra - Yeah, I’m sort of glad that I didn’t grow up eating these. The chicken contains unbearably salty deliciousness.

@Ace - I don’t think my local grocers carry the regular Swanson’s line, just H-M and pot pies.

@Clevegal42 - Yeah, a week later and I’m still dehydrated.
kc on January 15th, 2007

i like how you guys rate your hungry-man’s…..but you may not be doing them justice by microwaving them… i happen to eat them alot… i love the chicken and cheese fry’s…. but i wouldn’t eat them at all if i had to if i had to nuke em….

keep it up,
casey
simoncornball on April 24th, 2007

Jesus Christ, how are you people still all alive?
Pam Scott on May 7th, 2008

Please check your machine pouring the brownie into the tray, the first couple of times I bought them, everything was fine. Now I have to clean up the brownie from the corn and the chicken….what a mess but I did it thinking it was just a fluke…….but I did buy them for a few more times and the brownie is still spilling over into the other food……..more messes to clean up. Can this problem be corrected?

Sincerely,

Pam Scott, NANA for the kids
how is frozen fried chicken made on May 29th, 2008

[…] Fried Chicken : Heat Eat Review : We Review TV …But Swanson always has made a tasty fried chicken.http://heateatreview.com/2006/12/18/hungry-man-boneless-fried-chicken/trackback/Contemporary Comestibles Quiz: TV Dinner Edition - EpicuriousIt would soon be joined by the […]