Hibachi House Chicken with Broccoli

July 31, 2007 | Reviewer: Jess

SRP: $5.00
Serving: 1 cup, 5.3oz.
Calories: 250
Fat: 6%, 4g
Cholesterol: 10%, 30mg
Sodium: 23%, 550mg
Protein: 20g
Carbs: 10%, 32g
Fiber: 6%, 1g

Hibachi House says: Tender pieces of chicken breast meat are fire grilled to juicy perfection and paired with broccoli florets, steamed rice and our Hibachi Grill Sauce.

Jess says: I am now well into my second (and final) lunch from the box of Hibachi’s “multiserve” Chicken and Broccoli. As with the (non) Hibachi House Mandarin Orange Chicken, which I have also tried) their recommended 4.5 servings translated to two filling lunches for me. Perhaps I’m just a healthy eater?

After eating this two days in a row, I have to say the meal is good. Broccoli is really a damn fine specimen of a vegetable if you ask me. Both crisp and chewy! A healthy shade of green! Little leaves that snatch on to sauces and rice. Yee-ha! Also these chicken chunks are mighty! In fact they require a knife to eat them any place outside of a Renaissance festival. The need of an extra utensil annoyed me, but I cannot deny that the quality is beyond what you normally find in microwavable entrees. You can see the chicken meat flake and pull apart. Lean Cuisine’s chicken looks condensed and ~~manhandled~~ processed. I did find a good bit of fatty chunks which grossed me out but maybe I’m just a big wimp. I watched some Planet Earth this weekend and did get all squirmy when the fox ate the baby geese. The sauce is really just soy and corn syrup but not to a fault. It is salty, sweet and satisfactory. I only used half of the packet and it was more than sufficient.

But in a Nancy Drew like fashion, I’ve got the sneaking suspicion that something is amiss with this meal. I just can’t get passionate about it. The problem may be that this meal is a complete pain in the ass to prepare at the office. Allow me to detail the steps:

Step 1: Heat water to defrost sauce packet. This isn’t so bad if you’ve got the hot water function on your water cooler. Otherwise this sucks.

Step 2: Throw bag o’ food into microwave. Don’t forget to slit the top. But not too much! Broccoli floret droppings suck to clean up. Heat it for 5 minutes and wait 2 minutes to touch it like the box told you to.

Step 3: “Borrow” a coworker’s bowl to dump the contents in. Try to hide the bowl from coworkers. You don’t want someone to get upset that you have their bowl. But hey, angry coworker, if you love it so much why did you abandon it? The bowl is too small. You stuff the food in there to make do (no use dirtying two bowls). After bowl quest the meal is now cold. Damn it. You dump some sauce on. That is still cold too. Damn it squared.

Step 4: You reheat again for 1 minute. Not enough. 45 seconds more. Yay. It’s hot!

Step 5: Eat. Talk to everyone about how broccoli is so kick ass. Start listing all the things that are made better with broccoli. Their eyes roll. Whatever. They are sooo jealous.

Step 6: Use a binder clip to seal up the rest of the sauce. You may want that later (tomorrow). Try to find something to seal up the bowl. Damn it. Where is the packing tape roll? Why would someone possibly steal it? And will that ruin the bowl? Is it worth it? Oh, look tin foil. I hope your office has tin foil like mine does.

Step 7: You have to eat this again tomorrow too. Man, a panini would be awesome. No, suck it up. Eat the Chicken and Broccoli. It will be gross to wait another day. Who knows how long reheated chicken lasts? Oh sweet relief from hunger, it still tastes good!

Step 8: Conclude that this meal is a good distraction from the norm once in a while, but too salty and calorieriffic to eat often. Perhaps its easier and better to make at home? And where do they sell this stuff anyway?

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comments

5 Responses to “Hibachi House Chicken with Broccoli”

Crow on July 31st, 2007

Fire grilled? I’d like to see “electrical grilled.” Bzzzap.
Julie on July 31st, 2007

$5.00 yikes. I can order Chicken & Broc from the local Chinese joint for only a couple dollars more. And that doesn’t require all this labour intensive preparation.
Andrew on August 1st, 2007

I had many of the same questions/comments/concerns when I was eating those things. I think they really are made to be prepared at home, where you can chop up some peppers or something and dump a can of water chestnuts in and make it a proper dish. It’s not an office-y type of food. For future reference, though, if you take the sauce packet out a few hours before you want to actually make the meal (I kept mine in my desk), it’s usually room-temp by dinner/lunch time. And no fussing with warm water!

Also, I’m with you, it’s 2 servings. 4.5 my eye!
MaryAnne on August 1st, 2007

I agree with Julie. In fact, up the street from me it’s $5.15 for a lunch special which is large enough to feed two and comes with fried rice, crab ragoon (ick), and a soda… and it’s about the same quality. However, your review was very entertaining and the pic looks good.
Abi Jones on August 1st, 2007

I think that the chicken in these is of significantly higher quality than the chicken at my local Chinese place. However, my local Chinese place does have lunch specials that feed two people for under $5.00. Sadly, the soda is not free.