Dr. Gourmet's Food Reviews

Lean Cuisine Chicken in Peanut Sauce

Chicken in Peanut Sauce and Sesame Stir Fry with Chicken

A friend of mine told me that he and his wife really love the Lean Cuisine Chicken in Peanut Sauce. Like last week's item this is one from the Spa Cuisine Classics series by Stouffer's. My friend used to own a health food store and is very careful about his diet so I felt that this one would be an excellent choice for review.

I was not disappointed. Like its cousins, this Spa Cuisine meal also comes with whole wheat pasta but only comes in at 3 grams of fiber. Even so, the pasta has a fine texture for a frozen meal. The chicken is tender and well flavored with a rich, slightly Asian flavored peanut sauce.

Overall, a very good meal, with the only criticism being that Stouffer's should have included more veggies. There are some small snap peas, carrots and water chestnuts, and the dish would have done well to have about twice as many vegetables. There's plenty of sauce for this.

Continuing with the Asian theme, the Sesame Stir Fry with Chicken also comes in with good marks. The chicken is not quite as tender as with the other meal but there's lots of veggies along with it. These are served over a finer whole wheat pasta tossed with a light sesame sauce. I'm not sure what they mean by a "sesame" sauce - the flavor is much more like a light hoisin sauce - but overall it's very good.

As with most Lean Cuisine meals, the sodium content is fair with both meals at 680 mg. The stir fry does have more fiber at 5 grams than the Chicken in Peanut Sauce (from the extra veggies probably). At around 300 calories, these are good choices to keep in your freezer for that back up meal.