Kahiki Foods: General Tso’s Chicken

I don’t do much frozen food anymore, though I try to keep a couple of things in the freezer for those nights where you get home at 8 pm and cooking even the simplest thing just isn’t going to happen. (Usually it’s a couple of boxes of Trader Joe’s frozen mac and cheese.)

So periodically, I’ll try something new – hence the Kahiki Foods General Tso’s Chicken. I picked this up at Grocery Outlet, but they carry it at Whole Foods and when you’re talking about an unknown quantity, I’d rather pay the Grocery Outlet price. Side note: apparently Kahiki started as a kitchy Polynesian restaurant in Ohio, but after the passing of their founder, they went exclusively frozen food.

Side-by-side, it’s pretty surprising – at least visually. It looks amazingly like the picture on the box, doesn’t it? Seems like a good sign. The box says all the right things that should make it tasty — minimally processed, no artificial additives…ok, good sign #2.

But then there’s a flag on the play — the sauce isn’t spicy at all, so if you’re expecting sweet and spicy firecrackers in your mouth, like you’d get from take-out General Tso’s chicken, you’ll be disappointed. It’s really sort of a teriyaki sauce with the tiniest tiniest hint of heat. The brown rice isn’t nutty and rather bland, but the chicken does actually taste grilled. Usually frozen veg is just fine by me — can anyone live without frozen peas? But these tasted like they were once frozen. Bottom line — is it good? Eh…. it’s not the worst thing I ever ate. I’ve also got a box of the Mandarin Orange chicken in the freezer, but I’m not too excited about the prospect of breaking it open.

Back to the drawing board…