Price: $3.00
Serving: 1 meal, 9.2 oz.
Calories: 410
Fat: 25%, 17g
Cholesterol: 17%, 50mg
Sodium: 48%, 1140mg
Protein: 20g
Carbohydrates: 15%, 46g
Fiber: 6%, 2g

Boston Market says: Our juicy chunks of chicken are honey-roasted and complemented with a sweet and tangy sauce made from balsamic vinegar, Dijon mustard, and brown sugar. It’s served up with a side of our signature Au Gratin Potatoes

Nicole says:

Dearest Darling Boston Market:

How do I love thee? Let me pay tribute.
Aroma from the microwave so sweet
And savory I could not wait to meet
Your cheesy sauce and honey Dijon soak.
I love thee among frozen meals no dispute,
Bland sauces and low-fat cheese can’t compete.
I love thy luscious, tender chicken meat.
I love its zesty aroma en tout.
I love the potatoes covered, no ruse,
In the creamy thick cheese bath like a cloak.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With all the mediocre frozen meals.
If forever I had to simply choose
Just one, Boston Market, our souls I’ll seal.

The only complaint I could possible make about this meal is its size - not even ten ounces, with a two larger chicken pieces, about five small ones, and a child’s fist of potatoes. Some might shy away from the sodium content, I know. And, no, you won’t get all your food groups. But it’s all worth it. This is probably the tastiest thing ever to go into the microwave frozen. Boston Market was already a heavy-hitter with me, but this meal is a home run.

The skin-on roasted potatoes were an unbelievable complement to the chicken. And that chicken? It was texturally perfect, swimming in amazing Dijon mustard/balsamic vinegar/brown sugar concoction. The cheese sauce cooks up creamy, with beautiful shreds visible before the meltiness comes on.

Suddenly, as rare things will, it vanished.

Price: $2.00 (sale, of course)
Serving: 1 package, 16 oz.
Calories: 390
Fat: 23%, 15g
Sodium: 72%, 1740mg
Protein: 30g
Carbs: 11%, 34g
Fiber: 17%, 4g

Boston Market says: Our boneless, skinless chicken breast is slow roasted to seal in the flavor. It’s served up with a side of our signature mashed potatoes, and topped off with a rich gravy. Chicken… it’s what we do best.

Abi says: While the chicken is the best part of this Boston Market meal, that isn’t saying much. The potatoes were lifeless and the side of veggies mushy beyond compare. In the meat department Boston Market must be soaking their chicken breast in vats of ultra-salinated water before slowly roasting them to seal in that salty goodness. Sure, you’re supposed to brine turkeys and roast chickens, but this breast was alarmingly salty. After all, how often does your mouth actually pucker when eating chicken? Mine did today.

For extra fun with this meal, play “Guess the Sodium” with a friend. I played this amusing and enlightening game with Kate. Oh Kate, such a believer in the goodness of others. She lowballed the meal at 30% of your RDA, but quickly rose to the 50% mark when I kept telling her that she was wrong. This meal will give you a shocking 72% of your sodium for the day.

Boston Market’s Glazed Chicken meal made me a little sad because I was quite excited to see the Boston Market items go on sale. I’d be more than happy to eat at a Boston Market (mmm, cornbread) restuarant, but eating a Boston Market frozen meal is a whole different story. Then again, Nicole seemed to adore the lasagna.

If you’re going for a Chicken Breast in Gravy option, I recommend the less expensive (albeit smaller) Stouffer’s meal. Your arteries will thank me.

Veda generally eats vegetarian meals at lunch. Today, she makes a foray into the world of Boston Market, one populated with breading and gravy.

Price: $1.19
Serving: 1 box, 14 oz.
Calories: 540
Fat: 41%, 27g
Sodium: 65%, 1579mg
Protein: 21g
Carbs: 18%, 53g
Fiber: 27%, 7g

Boston Market says: We use tender all white meat chicken dipped in a seasoned batter, breaded, then cooked to a golden brown. It’s served up with country style gravy and our Homestyle Mashed Potatoes along with a side of tasty peas and carrots.

Veda says: Where do I even begin with this one? I suppose I must first try to justify my shameful choice. If you knew me, you’d know that most of my dietary mistakes are preceded by the phrase, “But it was on sale”. So, I’ll begin there. It was on sale for $1.19. The little yellow sign made me do it, I swear. Even then, with such an appealing price staring me in the face, it took several minutes of pacing in the frozen food isle. Dare I sink to such a depth? Well, clearly the answer was yes.

So many things were wrong with this meal, but I’ll start with what could’ve been the redeeming quality and failed. The veggies. Peas and carrots. Granted that they are starchy, but they ARE vegetables and still have some healthful qualities. This was UNTIL Boston Market smothered them in so much salt and butter that I initially thought it was mashed potatoes with one or two carrots stuck in it. I kid you not. Once microwaved, these would be innocent veggies, floated in a sea of buttery shame. I had to drain them before I ate them.

Now onto what’s wrong with the concept of frozen, microwaved, “fried” chicken. I don’t think they lied. This chicken was oily enough to have been fried at some point. It’s just that somewhere along the way, the breading became a soggy, salty mess. How that soggy breading didn’t manage to share it’s moisture with the chicken, I cannot imagine. Thank goodness for the gravy (which I usually hate), because without it, I may have been forced to drink the carrot/pea butter, just to choke the chicken down.

Finally, we come to the mashed potatoes. Lovely, fluffy, favorite side dish of mine… Just not this time. The potatoes (what little there were) were heavy and weighed down with - you guessed it - salt and butter. Now, I am a fan of both, but how much can you consume? Not much. I didn’t even make it half way through this meal before I had to go shell out $5.75 for a palate-clearing salad. I can only conclude that you get what you pay for and apparently $1.19 only buys salt and butter. The next time a little yellow sign, attached to nearly inedible edibles, calls your name… Run, run fast.

Oh Glorious Fat and Sodium! Nicole dives into a Boston Market Lasagna with Meat Sauce while the rest of us wonder why she hasn’t yet had a heart attack.

Price: $1.72 (sale, of course)
Serving: 1 package, 12.5 oz.
Calories: 500
Fat: 35%, 23g
Sodium: 54%, 1290mg
Protein: 22g
Carbs: 16%, 49g
Fiber: 17%, 4g

Boston Market says: We hand place fresh-made lasagna noodles into each tray, adding a meaty sauce along with real Ricotta, Mozzarella, Parmesan, & Romano Cheeses. A bit of smoked Provolone cheese is added for a special twist. An Italian favorite with a Boston Market® touch.

Nicole says: I am accustomed to insubstantial microwavable lasagna - a few pasta sheets, a bit of cheese, a few chucks of meat if you’re lucky, all floating in a pool of bland tomato sauce. Based on those previous experiences, I was prepared with both a fork and spoon to eat this meal. Shockingly, this lasagna is solid and thick enough that a knife would have been a better idea.

And the taste - oh glorious fat and sodium! Oh, my lovely cheese. As you all know, lasagna is Italian for “lots of cheese,” and Boston Market doesn’t skimp - a covering layer of mozzarella melted atop my lasagna, and a generous layer of ricotta et al between the four sheets of pasta. The meat chunks in the sauce are large, and though not particularly lean - a bit chewy even - and they are flavorful. The sauce is good and doesn’t interrupt the pleasure of lasagna consumption with sugaryness.

Yum, cheese…. yum, meat… yum, cheese… this meal is actually filling. And though I’m a little girl, I have a big appetite.

(I’d like to verify that yes, Nicole is rather petite. She is also a hungry person and she enjoys large meals. She stays small by expending energy via tottering around on too-high heels. -Ed.)

Suffice to say that I’m returning to Giant Foods ASAP to invest more money in this tasty, super cheap meal. And 500 calories! That’s an entire 27.4% of the calories yours truly is supposed to take in daily, all in one meal!

Cooking Note: The box recommended a cooking time of 5 minutes and 30 seconds. This produced a hot meal with some burning and/or hardening along one edge of the lasagna.