9/23/08 | Claim Jumper Chicken Marsala
[ Currently Eating: Mac and Cheese ]
Hello crazies. Since everyone’s gone back to skool[sic, not out sick], I guess I should get back into the normal Cheap Eats swing of things. We’ll start by going the usual route - Frozen Dinners.
Glurgh, my artery just whimpered again.
I got the chance to try out a whole lot of these Claim Jumper Frozen Dinners. Whew - first off, if you didn’t know about the Claim Jumper restaurant chain then you probably have no idea why they’re called that. The dinners are similar to the Marie Callender’s frozen dinners, where they’re inspired by the restaurant.
I used to visit the Claim Jumper near the Puente Hills Mall in Southern California occasionally. What I remember is enormous “cowboy” sized portions, and lots and lots of butter, cream sauce and salt. Like Appleby’s - well, not THAT bad. I just remember they had this fried zucchini appetizer thing that came out and it was as big as baseball bat. Or a canoe. I think I got the lasagna entree. It was as big as the dang LADWP building.
Mutant zucchini’s aside - I was a little hesitant about eating these. The first one I’ve tried, the Chicken Marsala, lived up to the restaurant in question. Gigantic buttery and salty flavors. I wish I hadn’t started with this one because it was by far the worst of the five different varieties.
First off - I just could NOT get past the saltiness. I admit I like things less salty than most, but for food reviews I, er, take saltiness with a grain of salt. It’s like going into combat. I mentally prepare my tongue. Or something like that.
I couldn’t figure out how the % Daily Value could only be 53%, which is already quite gi-normous. Then I realized - this 14 ounce meal is meant for TWO people. Yes, right - you are going to SHARE a frozen meal with someone. Sneaky.
But, because I like to play fair - I’ll try and report on the meal as if the salt content wasn’t overpowering.
The full meal description is “Roasted white meat chicken in a Marsala Sauce over Rigatoni with Baby Bella Mushrooms.” I probably shouldn’t have tried making this particular meal in the microwave. I have had very poor luck with microwaving frozen meals that have any sort of sauce in it, especially those that say to “open and stir” halfway through the cooking time.
It is very difficult to stir a block of chicken and noodle ice. Try it sometime.
Anyhow, I sort of broke it apart and then continued the cooking. I got the result above. The meal actually had a very good smell, although I thought it was very “winey”. The sauce itself was the consistency of salisbury steak gravy but was actually delicious. It was extra buttery and creamy, much to the shagrin of the aforementioned artery.
The rigatoni noodles were surprisingly good, firm and springy. Again, I always have problems w/ some parts of the noodles that stick up out of the sauce overcooking in the microwave. I’d definitely fire up the oven next time.
Chicken was breast meat strips or slices, probably brined to ensure moistness. One side has “grill marks” - they’re not fake but I think they’re purely cosmetic. They were pretty nice decent cuts of chicken But I got some gristle from the connecting rib - I guess that proves it’s real chicken?
The “baby bella mushrooms”, which I guess are supposed to be creminis, were AWOL. Completely gone, nada, and nil. I searched, and searched and I didn’t find ONE whole slice of a mushroom. There were a few specks here and there. Same goes for the onions, but that’s OK. This ain’t a meal where you want to find big chunks of onions.
Overall, besides the great overall taste of the sauce it was kind of a disappointing frozen dinner. Now, I’m going to bring up the sodium complaint again. I wish companies would stop putting so much in their prepared food - how hard is it to just tell people to add more salt at the table if they want? The overdose of sodium was unpleasant to the point that I couldn’t finish the meal even though I was hungry enough.
Anyhow, I had some much better experiences with the other Claim Jumper meals - which hopefully will be reviewed in a bit. As for price, this isn’t the Budget Gourmet so I don’t expect it to be too cheap. Price of frozen food keeps climbing higher too, so can’t completely blame them. At MSRP $3.50 a meal, it’s right around the same level as its peers. Perhaps a tad higher than Marie Callender’s. If you’re going to get it, I’d wait until it’s on sale.
Price: Free (MSRP: $3.50)
Found At: Sent in for Review
Cheap Eats Score: 4/10
September 23rd, 2008 at 3:46 pm
That doesn’t look that good at all. I’m sorry you had to eat this meal.
September 24th, 2008 at 6:43 am
though it was Clam Jumper… and i was like chicken & clam?
then i saw, Claim Jumper, and i was like miners know how to make marsala?
doesn’t sound or look very appetising, but good for you for trying it, so we don’t have to.
September 24th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
sir jorge - hehe, yes, it was not very good. But I took some terrible pics so that didn’t really help! =)
yum - Clam Jumper, nice!! =) Yes, I’ve been trying to watch out for eating this kind of junk food lately, but I still make the “sacrifice”. BTW, I think you had emailed me earlier about your comment bouncing? I dunno why it did that, and for what it’s worth I don’t really don’t care what address you use. Anyhow, let me know if you have any more problems like that…
September 27th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
Bryan, I’m glad your painful finger is better.
I haven’t seen these Claim Jumper meals in my area, and now I will not be looking.
I bought half a pound of mushrooms for 99 cents, which is the cheapest I’ve seen them in years. I’ll thaw out some 1/2 inch thick sliced pork loin, and pound that out for scaloppine. I have searched Fresh Market, Trader Joe’s, etc. for years looking for a dry Marsala wine to no avail. I found a small bottle of “cooking Marsala” in the grocery store the other day for $3.00, and my expectations are not high. It’s probably the sweet variety.
But I’m going to make the cheap eats version of veal Marsala soon. If the wine is too sweet, I’ll use Chardonnay. Wish me luck, cheap eaters.
Welcome back to our host!
September 29th, 2008 at 1:07 am
Hey, can you get your hand on some Hydrox cookies? The company brought them back for a short time and I usually get a 14oz pack here in NYC for less than $1.89.
September 30th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
I made the poor man’s version of veal Marsala tonight, and both my husband and I thought it was slap your grandma GOOD!
The Marsala is Pompeian brand. I tasted it the night before, and while I thought it was strong and rather icky, it wasn’t too sweet so into the recipe it went. Their website lists a recipe for chicken Marsala with this product, so I felt they intended it for use in savory dishes.
I flash fried sliced mushrooms in a little Canola oil, removed them from the smokin’ hot skillet, dredged 4-4oz. pounded pork scallopine in seasoned flour, then quick fried them golden at high heat. Remove scallopine and keep warm in the oven with ’shrooms. Add 1/2 cup Marsala to pan, and scrape to get all the brown bits incorporated. I added about 1/4 cup water, because the intense heat of the pan immediately boiled the wine and sent up a cloud of steam. Add 3 T. butter, the mushrooms and stir until boiling. Add back the scallopine and any juices they may have thrown off, and serve with a little pasta. I used tagliatelle.
To taste the wine on its own, you simply would not believe it was in this gestalt of a few ingredients in the finished product. I will make this again and again.
The pork tenderloin goes on sale whole at $2.99 a pound with no waste. I slice it about 1/2 ” and freeze two slices in a sandwich bag within a freezer bag. The wine is $3.00 for 12 oz., so there are three recipe portions to the bottle. Although I got 8 oz mushrooms for 99 cents, they are usually double that. This still adds up to cheap gourmet eats to die for.
October 1st, 2008 at 8:28 am
The person who designed that packaging needs to be shot…
You look over the aisle and see this and it proclaims in large writing:
Taste
Less
October 1st, 2008 at 12:18 pm
karen - thanks, and thanks for the marsala recipe!
lee - that is HILARIOUS! I didn’t even see it at first, but now I can’t believe they did that. In their defense, most people are idiots like me and might not see it at first. Still, I’m not sure why they did that.
October 1st, 2008 at 12:19 pm
george - I’ll look into the Hydrox. I used to eat those long ago…
October 22nd, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Hi George,
I always see the Hydrox cookies at Walmart and have purchased them a few times. I don’t remember how much they were, but I know they were cheaper than Oreos but tasted about the same!
Just FYI!
October 28th, 2008 at 10:36 am
You are all nuts. It is by far one of the best frozen dinners on the market. I do not eat them that often as I am a chef for 25 years, but I did try this one night and thought it tasted excellent. To each his own I guess. But it is worth a try.
May 5th, 2009 at 12:07 am
You know I completely agree with Chicago Mike. Growing up, we had a dish called Sherried Chicken. I had a mushroom sauce that had onion powder, sweet sherry (of course), and Lord knows what else. So flavorful, everything was just married together perfectly. This dish is the closest thing I’ve found to that, and let me tell you, I’m a foodie…and darn proud it. I know good food. And this is it. I’d buy 3 more.