I saw reviews of this peculiar item on both of the other Trader Joe's blogs that I regularly read (see here and here), and decided they were worth a try. I made two lunches out of them, having six at a time.
Liked but did not love.
I thought they held together surprisingly well, given that the outer coating is just tortilla crumbs of three different colors. I used a fork. I found them to be two-bite propositions, not one-biters. They did not fall apart eaten this way. However, some of that may be due to the fact that I baked them longer than recommended. I have had such consistent problems with TJ's freezer-to-oven directions resulting in cold, underdone foods that I now routinely add five minutes to the longest recommended oven time. That habit may be why I got crunchier, more substantial outermost layers than others have reported.
The taste is fine, but not to die for. Sort of generically southwestern/Tex-Mex. I could not separately taste the main ingredients--chicken, jack cheese, beans, spinach, and corn. It was just a flavor mish-mash.
Will I buy it again?
Probably not. The reason here has as much to do with my particular life situation as with the product per se. As I've mentioned frequently, I'm slowly moving to less and less meat in my diet--especially beef and pork, but also poultry. I'm not at a point of swearing off eating animals entirely. But I am at a point where I feel that each such choice should be a deliberate, conscious one, not just a habitual matter of "this is what I've always eaten." And that, in turn, means that when I decide to indulge, it at least ought to be for something I really, really enjoy. These chicken poppers do not pass that test.
Trader Joe's makes a decent chicken substitute, in both strip and nugget form. In these poppers, the chicken flavor is already so overpowered by the jalapeno peppers and other constituents that I can't clearly identify it--so why not replace it with the plant-based version? I probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference, and I'm guessing the same would be true for many others.
If TJ's did that, my answer would change from no to yes. I liked them enough to have them again if I didn't have to have a conversation with my conscience in the process.
I was hooked on these Chicken Poppers !! I was at Trader Joe's twice in April, and didn't find them in the frig, so I inquired and was disappointed to learn they had been discontinued. They were a welcome pleasure to my palate. I wish Trader Joe's would bring them back, or teach me how to make them!
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