Michael Angelo’s Chicken Parmesan

April 11, 2007 | Reviewer: Rebecca

Michael Angelo's Chicken Parmesan

SRP: $3.69
Serving: 2/3 tray, 8.11 oz.
Calories: 260
Fat: 15%, 10g
Cholesterol: 13%, 40mg
Sodium: 23%, 540mg
Protein: 18g
Carbohydrates: 8%, 25g
Fiber: 12%, 3g

Michael Angelo says: Our family’s version of an Italian classic begins with tender whole breast chicken covered in our delicious, authentic Italian breading. We set it on a bed of our 100% durum semolina spaghetti pasta then smother it with our classic tomato sauce made from vine-ripened tomatoes and imported olive oil and finish with a hearty layer of our premium mozzarella cheese.

Rebecca says: Good and bad things happen when you have to cook your lunch for six minutes. In this case, the good thing was that the smell of the chicken parmesan wafted out the microwave and into the kitchen area. It in fact smelled so good that even though it looked relatively nasty as I took it out of the microwave, I was still excited to eat it. The bad news was that I got bored and read the entire box, including the nutritional information. Why are companies allowed to produce meals that contain 1.5 servings? Do they think I am going to stop 2/3 of the way in and save some for later? Why do they lie to us? Suffice to say, I ate the whole thing. I gave the box to Abi to record the nutrition information and I forgot that I was supposed to stop and just ate the whole thing. I dare you to stop at 2/3 of this meal.

The chicken was well cooked-not overdone, moist and juicy. And it appeared to be a nice cut of breast meat. There was only one bite of chicken veiny-gristlely-grossness. The best part of the chicken (and, of course, the purpose for buying such a meal as this) was the breading. It was not too mushy, not to crunchy, not too thin. If I were Goldilocks I might say it was just right. It was a little salty and crumbly and there were green specks (which according to the ingredient list were fresh basil but I couldn’t identify the taste of those specifically). Altogether, it was relatively delicious.

The accompanying spaghetti and sauce was nothing to write home about. It tasted mostly like the spaghetti dinner one pulls out of the big warming tub on the buffet. Unlike most buffet spaghetti, however, there a good sauce to noodle ratio. The sauce may have been bland but it was not watery (close to tomato paste in consistency) and there was not too much of it left in the bottom of the tray. Don’t get me wrong-the spaghetti wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t good. But don’t buy this meal for the spaghetti-buy it for the chicken parmesan, which is the title ingredient, and really the most important part.

comments

8 Responses to “Michael Angelo’s Chicken Parmesan”

Colleen on April 11th, 2007

I have this in my freezer! I’m pretty sure its actually 390 calories, not 320. And I agree, having 2/3 of the meal as a serving is stupid, because its not like your going to give someone else 1/3 unless you’re sharing it with a child or someone who has another entree or something.
Colleen on April 11th, 2007

Oh, and you might want to do something about the rebelling apostrophe….
Abi Jones on April 11th, 2007

Thanks, something went wrong with the parsing of punctuation. I’ve pulled the nutritional information until I can go by the store and review an actual box of the product.
Steph on April 12th, 2007

You can go to the Michael Angelo’s and get nutrition info, just follow this link for the Chicken Parm: http://www.michaelangelos.com/pop_nut_chknparm.html
Abi Jones on April 12th, 2007

Thank you Steph. Hey Michael Angelo’s folks, I hope you’re reading this! Your product menu works in Internet Explorer 6, but not in Firefox 1.5!
Colleen on July 29th, 2007

Dude. I went to whole foods today and I looked here because I have this meal again that I’m gonna eat tonight and I was wondering what I said last time I had it. Then I looked at your picture and knew something was different, and apparently I’ve picked up Micheal Angelo’s “Natural” cuisine. Because the regular kind isn’t worthy of whole foods I guess. I wonder if its different at all…. it says on the back that the chickens were fed a vegetarian diet (do they normally feed them meat?!) and they used organic tomatoes. Other than that, the description is the same. The nutrition is different though, its the same size with more calories, less fat, and more carbohydrates. I wonder what the deal is here.
Abi Jones on July 30th, 2007

Yeah, they have a natural line and a non-natural line. I call them ‘white label’ and ‘black label’. White label doesn’t mean ‘healthy’ it only means that they use natural ingredients. See my review of the Chicken in Asiago Sauce for an example of that theory.

Oh, and on the chickens aren’t vegetarians front: Chickens are omnivores and like to eat bugs and grubs and worms along with grass and grains.
Boston Market Chicken Parmesan : HeatEatReview.com on January 16th, 2008

[…] definitely stick with the Michael Angelo’s Chicken Parmesan, a clear winner over this dud from Boston Market. Rebecca only gave it three stars, but that […]