Lean Cuisine Chicken Philly - Wow, what zip & flavor!
Written: Jun 01 '08 (Updated Jun 01 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Delicious flavor, kicking spice that woke up my taste buds and good flat bread!
Cons: Nothing really, unless you do not like spices!
The Bottom Line: Very delicious flavor, different than a lot of items that I have tried, very enjoyable!
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| Magick1's Full Review: Lean Cuisine Chicken Philly Flatbread Melts |
Wowee am I surprised by this little flatbread sandwich. I will tell you up front, if you don’t enjoy items with spicy zip, you might consider shying away from this item! There are some peppers and who knows what in the sauce on this flatbread sandwich that will tantalize your taste buds and give you that after mouth feel of a mild fire! Ok, maybe not fire, but you definitely have a little “burn” left after eating it for a while. It’s not something that you have to have water next to you to put out the zip, but you will definitely remember eating something spicy for a while!
This is the first time I have, or at least that I recall, purchasing a Lean Cuisine item. I see that they do include the Weight Watchers™ points scale on the side of the box, and it is a 6 point meal. This way, if you follow these plans, you can use Lean Cuisine items too. (But, I am guessing if you do follow this program, you already knew that!) I don’t follow it and I am not sure what the point system is all together, but, I know some out there will find it useful and if this helps you, I am happy to do it!
The Product
Heating this up in the microwave is quick. There is a tab where you are supposed to pull on the side of the box to open the package. This flap you create will be the plate for your flatbread to cook on in the microwave oven. When you pull the flatbread from the box you will have to tear open or cut open the plastic around the flatbread in order to microwave this. It only takes about 2 minutes and 45 seconds. I should have made mine a little less as it was in my lunch bag all day and it thawed out slightly. Therefore, mine was a bit tough around the edges when it cooled down to a palatable eating temperature!
Be sure to watch it when you microwave it. You don’t want to go over. If you take it from the freezer, the 2 minutes 45 seconds likely will be sufficient. But, if like me, you packed it with a freezer pack and had it in your office for quite a few hours; you will want to cut down on the cooking time slightly. (Or, deal with slightly harder flatbread to chew.)
The flatbread is about 6 inches in size and roughly ¼ to ½ inch thick. There are a decent amount of toppings on it, including green and red peppers. I wasn’t looking too closely so I don’t recall really seeing pepperocini peppers on the toppings. But, I rather believe they were in the sauce that was on the flatbread. The cheese wasn’t too bad, but I would have enjoyed more cheese. The white meat chicken had a good showing and it was very pleasant in appearance. Of course, the photo on the box makes it look excellent. I cannot say that it was like that but it was nice looking.
The flatbread disappointed me somewhat. There wasn’t a tray that gave it a crispy crunch at all. You probably have seen those on pizzas and other things where it looks a bit like foil in that it is silver and you are supposed to microwave items on this material to keep the breading or crusts of your product from being mushy. This was just the box only. The flatbread (except for the edges where I over cooked the product and they were hard) was a bit soft and a touch mushy. The flatbread, when I folded the two opposites sides together actually started to fall apart somewhat. But, fortunately, nothing fell out of the flatbread.
The flavor was truly amazing to me. I was expecting a little bite of flavor, but in a kind of washed out way that a lot of products using peppers usually are. Most times, you get a hint of the peppers and a small touch of the green pepper or the mild flavor from the red peppers. The pepperocini peppers truly gave this a wonderful zip that really pleased my taste buds!
The Ingredients
Flatbread: (enriched flour [wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid], water, soybean oil, isolated oat product, less than 2% of yeast, glycerine, dough conditioner (guar gum, calcium carbonate, datem, wheat flour, ascorbic acid, enzymes], salt, calcium proprionate, sugar, dough conditioner [monoglycerides, calcium sulfate, guar gum, sodium metabisulfite, ascorbic acid], dough conditioner [wheat starch, calcium carbonate, l-cysteine hcl], whole wheat flour), cooked white meat chicken(white meat chicken, water, isolated soy protein, modified rice starch, chicken flavor [dehydrated chicken broth, chicken powder, natural flavor], sodium phosphates, salt), water, light pasteurized process cheddar cheese (cultured milk, water, potassium citrate, salt, sodium citrate, whey*, sorbic acid, cream, apo carotenal & beta carotene color, enzymes, sodium phosphate, lactic acid [*ingredient not in regular pasteurized process cheddar cheese]), reduced fat mozzarella cheese (cultured milk & nonfat milk, modified cornstarch*, salt, vitamin A palmitate, enzymes [*an ingredient not in regular mozzarella cheese]), green peppers, onions, seasoning (modified food starch, cheddar cheese flavoring [cheddar cheese (cultured milk, salt, enzymes), sodium phosphate, salt], maltodextrin, nonfat milk, sweet cream [sweet cream, nonfat milk, sodium caseinate], flavor (chicken fat, chicken broth, natural flavor[, yeast extract, flavor [yeast extract, chicken powder, maltodextrin, flavoring [contains canola oil], gill flavor {contains sunflower oil}], whey powder, whey protein concentrate, salt, flavor [soybean oil, natural flavor, turmeric & annatto color], xanthan gum, natural flavor, onion & garlic, potassium chloride, flavor [maltodextrin, vegetable extract, cultured whey, natural flavor, soy oil], lactic acid, spice, flavor [maltodextrin, lypolyzed cream], extractive of paprika, grill flavor [maltodextrin, salt, defatted wheat germ, natural flavor, corn syrup solids, modified food starch], lemon juice powder [corn syrup solids, natural flavors {lemon juice solids, natural flavors}], extractive of turmeric, flavor [contains canola oil], annatto color), red peppers, pepperocini (peppers, water, vinegar, salt).
Contains: Milk, soy, wheat ingredients.
I tried to highlight what they have lighted on the box to stand out the actual physical ingredients and not just what those items are made of in this dish. This is actually a pretty simple meal, when you just look at those pieces. Too bad they have to put all of the other breakdowns in there. They even have this in Spanish on the other side of the box!
Nutritional Facts
Calories 330 Calories from Fat 70
Total Fat 8 g or 13%
Saturated Fat 3.5g or 17%
Trans Fat 0g
Polyunsaturated Fat 2g
Monounsaturated Fat 2.5
Cholesterol 25mg or 8%
Sodium 760 or 26%
Potassium 370mg or 11%
Total Carbohydrate 41g or 13%
Dietary Fiber 5g or 18%
Sugars 3g
Protein 21g
Vitamin A 6%
Vitamin C 15%
Calcium 40%
Iron 10%
Overall Impressions
I truly enjoyed the flavor and appearance of this meal. It was filling, tasty and had a decent amount of toppings included (except the cheese, but at least you could see cheese was actually in this dish). The pepper flavor and the zip that it gave me was pleasantly surprising. I counted on mild flavor, but was provided a warm, toasty mouth-feel that let me know the peppers were more than just “mild”. That leftover feeling lasted for a while after eating lunch. That tells me there was a definite kick to these little flatbread sandwiches.
If you are looking to spice up your lunchtime, this little guy will do the trick. They are reasonably priced as well, so they don’t break your pocketbook! Check them out the next time you want to heat up your lunch hour! Enjoy!
~Thanks for spending time with me today!~
Here’s some other healthier choices if you are interested in seeing others:
Beef
Sirloin Beef and Asian Style Vegetables, Salisbury Steak, Pineapple Beef Teriyaki, Swedish Meatballs, Meatloaf, Traditional Lasagna with meat sauce, Lasagna Florentine
Chicken
Chicken Fettucini, Chicken Carbonara, Creamy Rigatoni with Chicken and Broccoli, Creamy Parmesan Chicken, Teriyaki Chicken Vegetable, Chicken Oriental, Orange Sesame Chicken, Honey Mango Barbeque Chicken
Turkey
Stuffed Turkey Breast, Roast Turkey Medallions
Spicy
Pepperoni Pizza, Four Cheese Pizza, Pepperoni Pizza Smartwich™, Calzone Italiano, Three Cheese Ziti Marinara
Fish
Dragon Shrimp Lo Mein
Tuna Noodle Gratin
Recommended:
Yes
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