In its little beige tray, TJ’s adobo reminded me of airplane food, and it smelled like it, too.
How do I love Trader Joe’s? Let me count the ways.
Mini-bags aside, Trader Joe’s is best known for their affordable pricing, seasonal snacks, a great section of cheese and cold cuts, healthy and satisfying prepared salads and dips, and an abundance of tasty, easy-to-prepare meals when you are tired of cooking. The flowers are pretty, too.
While browsing the frozen food section at Trader Joe’s, I was surprised to find Filipino Style Chicken Adobo. Finally, a place among beloved Asian staples such as Indian Palak Paneer, Korean Bulgogi, Steamed Pork & Ginger Soup Dumplings, Chicken Teriyaki, and much more. A couple of years ago, they came out with Ube Mochi pancakes, which were flying off the shelves when they first launched. I had hoped to see more items with Filipino ingredients at TJs.
You can imagine a sense of pride seeing Filipino food and the well-loved chicken adobo finally going mainstream at Trader Joe’s. Unfortunately, I was not compelled to spend $4.29 on this meal. What self-respecting Filipino would buy chicken adobo from the frozen food section when it’s so easy to make it at home?
When I posted a photo of the box on social media last Sunday, everyone asked, “How is it?” “Hope it tastes good!” or “Let me know if you like it.” My cousin in Atlanta asked if it was worth it to drive 30 minutes to his closest TJ’s to buy some. I had to bite the bullet. Trader Joe’s is only 10 minutes from my house.
I went back to TJ’s and ended up not just getting a box of the chicken adobo, but also staples like fresh garlic, my favorite Indian Chicken Tikka Masala, which makes for a good lunch, a jar of marinated artichoke hearts, a block of Manchego cheese to go with pepper jam I bought the other day, balsamic vinegar and olive oil dressing, and a can of luxe nuts. Oh, and a fresh pine wreath with pinecones for our front door, which I get every Christmas season. It’s always fun to see the seasonal offerings TJ’s brings.
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Ironically, I needed the garlic for tonight’s dinner: chicken adobo from scratch for thighs we defrosted the day before. I put the TJ’s chicken adobo to the test: removed it from the box, poked holes into the film several times with a fork, and nuked it for four minutes. While waiting, I read the ingredients:
Cooked jasmine rice (water, jasmine rice, garlic, canola oil, garlic powder)
Sauce (water, soy sauce [water, soybeans, wheat, salt, distilled vinegar], distilled vinegar, diced onion, cornstarch, garlic, chicken base [boneless skinless chicken thigh, chicken stock, sea salt, cane sugar, chicken fat, onion, turmeric, celery seed, black pepper], sugar, canola oil, mushroom base [mushrooms, salt, butter {pasteurized cream, salt}, dextrose, wheat flour, garlic powder, onion powder, caramel color], black pepper, white pepper, xanthan gum, bay leaf)
Cooked chicken thigh (boneless skinless chicken thigh, garlic, soy sauce [water, soybeans, wheat, salt, distilled vinegar], distilled vinegar)
Green onion
Green onion? Hai-yah, Uncle Roger would not approve!
My meal was ready before I finished reading the list of ingredients on the box.
In its little beige tray, it reminded me of airplane food, and it smelled like it, too. To be fair, the dish transformed into something more appetizing than before it went into the microwave. They used dark meat for the chicken, and it came in a pool of sauce, the perfect way to eat adobo, despite there being waaay too many green onions (none is always my preference). I styled it in a bowl to enjoy.
First impressions: the chicken lacked that one-two punch of soy and garlic you look for when eating adobo, but it did have an aftertaste of sour. The chicken was tender, not dry or stringy, but the whole thing simply didn’t smell like adobo. Was it that mushroom base that was throwing it off?
Even weirder was the rice, which I realized is supposed to be garlic rice, whose scent and texture were what gave it that airplane food quality despite not being 10,000 miles in the air. Plain white rice would have been a better choice. That, and removing all those extra ingredients that weren’t garlic, soy sauce, cane vinegar, and black pepper. With such simple ingredients, quality is key. This version is pared down in flavor, and it tastes familiar, but also something not worth remembering.
My family members took one bite of this version of chicken adobo and decided to wait for the real thing.
Eating this version reminded me of the time when I first braved bringing chicken adobo and rice to lunch at work. As my food heated up in the microwave, the scent of roasted garlic wafted through the air. My Caucasian co-worker, a salad-loving man, came into the pantry and immediately knew it was chicken adobo. I was delighted he recognized our national dish. He exclaimed how much he loved it, and that his wife sometimes cooks it. I offered to bring him some authentic Filipino chicken adobo made by a Filipina. He couldn’t resist.
He did not eat it for lunch, but instead brought it home to enjoy for dinner. I was on tenterhooks to find out how my adobo fared. The next morning, he exclaimed it was delicious and did not share even a morsel with anyone else in his family. When I asked how it fared against the adobo he had tried previously, he said it was phenomenal and that if I ever made chicken adobo again, he would be a happy recipient. I had altered his perception of what adobo is supposed to taste like.
At dinner, my family sat around the dining table and devoured my homemade chicken adobo like they hadn’t eaten all day–leaving nothing but a chicken thigh bone on their plates (chickens are huge in America). The Trader Joe’s version still sat in the bowl, mostly uneaten.
The verdict? Save your money for something more satisfying, like their lobster bisque, which makes a pretty good pasta sauce. In the meantime, I’m going to tell my cousin it’s not worth his tank of fuel.
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