Review: Atkins Sesame Chicken Stir-Fry Frozen Meal

I don't often eat individual pre-packaged frozen entrees, but I usually keep a couple in my freezer just in case the situation ever arises where I'm not particularly hungry and/or I've gotten home late and just don't want to deal with throwing anything together.  Today's review was caused by one of those situations and is going to allow me to add to my Atkins review catalog when I take a look at this Atkins Sesame Chicken Stir-Fry Frozen Meal that was able to pick up on sale AND with a $1.00 off coupon for $2.99, so it's obviously not on the low cost end of the retail spectrum.  This 9.0 ounce frozen entree has 360 calories and a hearty 26 grams of protein.

As you can see in the photo above after I've heated this, this is kind a mish-mash of meats and vegetables in an unfortunately watery sesame sauce.  The sesame sauce definitely had that strong smell that I've come to recognize as I enter Chinese takeout restaurants, so at least it had the smell going for it.  In terms of the rest of the ingredients, they entree was made up of some surprisingly large sized chunks of chicken that were of medium thickness and also a collection of vegetable made up of solid sized broccoli florets, green beans and some red bell peppers.  It at least presented the visual appearance and smell of stir-fry, but the real question of course is if it had the taste to back that up as well.

Is I took my first spoonful and yes, I had to eat it with a spoon because the sesame sauce was so watery, I was pleased to find that this did have the general taste of a sesame chicken stir-fry, albeit with a few nit-picks.  First, the sauce definitely had the alternating taste of sweet and spicy, with a bit of late spice coming in, so that was good.  The broccoli, green beans and red bell peppers, when doused in sauce, also had that stir-fry flavor as well.  They were a bit tougher than a fresh vegetable, but since this was a frozen meal and that's generally what happens in frozen meals, I was fine with that.  The surprisingly thick and hearty chicken also mixed well with that sesame sauce (can you tell this entree is all about the sauce), although I will point out it also had the rubbery and chewy texture to it a bit, but since this is a frozen entree, I once again wasn't particularly surprised by that.  All in all, the veggies and chicken definitely carried the appearance of a stir-fry and that's good.

Buy It or Fly By It?  While the flavor of the stir-fry was fine, the watery characteristics of the sauce were a turn off.  Also, doesn't this seem kind of naked without rice or noodles to put this on top of?  I understand that rice and/or noodles should not be part of this since those carbs are very much anti-Atkins, but this whole entree just seemed so lonely without that stuff.  Because of that loneliness, the fact that the sauce was so watery after the microwave blasted it and it wasn't exactly a budget-minded priced item, I have to give this a FLY BY IT rating.  Maybe I could have looked past the loneliness and the watery characteristics if the price was right, but that price (even with the sale and coupon values added in) was just too much for me and was the final nail in the coffin.

BUY IT!!