Price: $3.50
Serving: 1 sandwich, 8oz
Calories: 660 per serving
 Calories from Fat: 240
Fat: 42%, 27g
 Saturated Fat: 41%, 8g
 Trans Fat: 1.5g
Cholesterol: 22%, 65mg
Sodium: 48%, 1150mg
Protein: 33g
Carbohydrates: 23%, 70g
Fiber: 11%, 3g
Sugar: 8g
Weight Watchers: 15 POINTS

Hungry Man says: Spicy Fried Chicken Patty Topped with Cheese on a Bun

Abi says: This sandwich was better than I thought it would be, but still needs a lot of help. Sure, the chicken patty delivers a nice hit of spice, and the bun is stable enough to handle 3 minutes in the microwave, but the actual texture of the chicken and the cheese are almost scary. Frankly, I’d rather eat something fried immediately before consumption.

Comments are appreciated. And no, I’m not going to eat the Hungry-Man XXL Sandwich Chili Cheese Dogs. Also, 15 Weight Watchers Points! Yikes!

A couple weeks ago the friendly folks at Hungry Man’s PR department sent my former coworkers a box packed with their new ‘Wild Man’ meals. This is one of those times when I can say that I’m glad I started having all of the free food shipped directly to other reviewers. Sure, I’ll take free pizzas, but free Hungry-Man? No thanks

For those of you who (similar to Nicole) enjoy Hungry-Man meals, you’ll be delighted to learn that we’re featuring them for all of next week. Yes, an entire week of Hungry-Man.

The new product line includes:

• Monday – Hungry-Man Country Fried Bison Steak: No need to haul out the skillet. Treat yourself to our country fried bison steak, with creamy gravy, mashed potatoes, and green beans. That’s one pound of tastebud-pleasing food.
• Tuesday – Hungry-Man Salisbury-Style Ostrich Steak: Take one bit of our tender Salisbury-style ostrich steak and you’ll be one happy customer. It comes with mushroom and onion gravy, mashed potatoes, and green beans. That’s one pound of tempting, terrific food.
• Wednesday – Hungry-Man BBQed Rattlesnake: This down-home dish is popular for good reason. You’ll enjoy rattlesnake patties in barbecue sauce, with mashed potatoes, and corn. That’s 1 pound of tongue-tingling, flavorful food.
• Thursday – Hungry-Man Boneless Wild Boar: Smokin’ sizzle! You’ll appreciate a home-made flair in our grilled wild boar steak strips, with onions and peppers in a zesty bourbon sauce, and mashed potatoes. That’s over one pound of fantastic food!
• Friday – Hungry-Man Sports Grill Beer-Battered Alligator: Enjoy favorite fan foods while watching your favorite team on TV. You’ll love our beer-battered alligator patties, and Cheesefries. It’s one-pound of yummy, winning food.

Meals like these make me wonder just how much market research Hungry-Man does before launching a new product line. Can you see yourself purchasing a box of beer-battered alligator patties and Cheesefries?

Price: $2.75 (4/$11 sale, Safeway)
Calories 920
Total Fat 54%, 35g
Saturated Fat 35%, 7g
Cholesterol 42%, 125mg
Sodium 39%, 930mg
Carbohydrates 24%, 71g
Dietary Fiber 5%, 6g
Sugars 34g
Protein 34g
Weight Watchers Points: 21 WW Points

Hungry-Man says: Fried chicken patties coated in a floured buffalo style seasoning with french fries, corn & a brownie.

Nicole Says: If chocolate milk comes from chocolate cows, where does chocolate corn come from? At some point in its short life, my Hungry Man meal must have defrosted pretty well, because not only did I have a significant portion of corn enter my brownie section, but some of the kernels were actually frozen in. So I had no choice but to bake them in. And that’s after 5 minutes of digging conglomerated frozen corn out of said brownie section.

The cooking is also less-than-straightforward. Remove film over all except corn, five minutes cook time, remove brownie (not so easy to scrape it all out) and then back in to nuke for two more minutes.

I went into this with some skepticism. Buffalo Chicken and a Brownie? Is this for overweight pre-teen males (1 LB. OF FOOD)? Although, hey, I’m excited about the brownie.

So beginning with the safest route, the fries are good, not too soggy, but they could use a touch of salt (and why, oh, why, don’t I have a small ketchup bottle at the office?) There are a lot of fries here – maybe a McDonal’ds Medium? But thick and crinkle-cut, like classic frozen fries.

The corn is buttery in flavor without being in a soupy pool of buttery water. There’s also a slight sweetness to the corn, but that could be bits of brownie mix baked on. In the brownie-to-corn direction, this is not a tragedy. The serving size is slightly larger than your average section-meal’s veg serving.

Four chicken strips sit atop my fries, each about the size of two McD’s nuggets – looking sort of splotchy red-and-yellow and … crispy?! Upon closer inspection, there is some visible sogginess on the bottom of a couple strips. Perhaps they should be flipped at the cooking-interruption point where the brownie is removed to crisp on both sides? Because the tops and sides are actually crispy, and I’m totally impressed. I think it’s the fact of cooking atop the fries that helps this out – on the undersides, the soggy sections were only those touching plastic during the cooking process rather than resting atop french fries.

(It’s too bad country/chicken-friend steak/chicken goes so well with smashed potatoes. Otherwise we could cook that atop fries, too, and make Nicole’s world complete.)

The “buffalo” flavor of the strips is questionable. I was expecting a sharp, tangy vinegar-hot sauce experience, but the tang isn’t really there. However, there is a subtle, slowly building spice and heat flavoring the strips, and it’s damn tasty. If you like REALLY spicy food, well, you’d better have your bottle of hot sauce handy.

After chicken-strip-happiness began, I decided to interrupt for a mid-meal dessert, out of fear that a less-than-great brownie might leave me on the wrong foot. The brownie (corn and all) is very so-so. It is chocolately but not very sugary (slightly towards bitter), pretty moist in texture. I think that chocolate lover (not connoisseurs, but lovers) would be very pleased. I, myself, am glad I have some crispy spiciness left.

Surprise, surpise, this meal is quite filling. I think that the spiciness of the chicken combines with the 1 LB. OF FOOD to make me . . . full . . . and happy . . . I will absolutely buy this meal again, but I may save it for dinner, because I might just be ruined as far as working goes for the next 30 minutes.

[Nicole, there's another one in Kitchen 2. -Ed.]

Price: $2.00 (sale)
Serving: 1 meal, 16.5 oz.
Calories: 690
Fat: 54%, 35g
Sodium: 78%, 1880mg
Protein: 49g
Carbohydrates: 16%, 48g
Fiber: 19%, 5g

Hungry-Man says: Rotisserie chicken with mashed potatoes, green beans, and a brownie

Abi says: One of the things I like about Hungry-Man is that they don’t try to gussy up their meal descriptions with words like ‘delectable’ and ‘fragrant’. This is obviously man-food (or Nicole-food, depending on audience) and needs nothing more than a listing of what the box contains.

I don’t like so much that the chicken is bone-in. Some people dislike bone-in chicken because they don’t like to be reminded that they’re eating animals. Please, people. If you can’t deal with chowing down on some feathered friends, get the heck out of Hungry-Man’s kitchen.

My personal dislike of bone-in chicken in microwaveable meals stems from the fact that I’ll either need to introduce another piece of silverware to the dining occasion (in this case, a knife) or I’ll need to eat microwaved chicken with my hands. Neither of these options could be described as ‘fabulous.’ Both could be described as ‘inconvenient.’ Fortunately, my chicken could not be described as ‘frightening.’ If you want to be scared by frozen chicken, please check out this news from North Dakota.

Hungry-Man’s chicken, sodium aside, tastes pretty darn good for something that came out of the microwave. It is juicy and tender and more than filling. The mashed potatoes were once again a disappointment (Marie Callender does them about 15x better) and the green beans were floating in an absurd amount of butter-dotted water. I don’t know about all of you, but I find it rather disheartening when my vegetables are floating in a pool of anything. Well, anything but ranch dressing. Mmmmm, ranch dressing.

Due to removal partway through the cooking process, the brownie becomes something of a mess. I have come to accept this because it is made of chocolate. Also, it is a brownie.