Please Recommend a Frozen Chicken Breast Brand

[Qs Laptop]

The search continues...

DW and I like fried chicken, but not actually "fried chicken", meaning chicken cooked in oil. While this tastes great, we don't need the extra calories. Instead we are looking for some lightly breaded frozen chicken breasts that we can stick in the toaster oven on the air fry setting and enjoy eating 20-25 minutes later with minimal mess and cleanup.

We are looking for a minimal breading coating without overpowering flavoring. No hot flavors, like buffalo style. In fact, minimal flavor in the coating is desired as we may want to dip in specialty sauces, but not always. Also, we make more than a meal requires because we use it in salads the next day, another reason to avoid strong coating flavors.

We want actual chicken breasts or chicken breast strips, not chicken that has been processed and formed.

We've tried the major brands like Tyson, Perdue, Just Bare, Great Value (Walmart generic brand), etc. Tyson southern style chicken breast tenderloins were OK to pretty good, but the flavor of the coating got boring.

Costco has no shortage of this sort of product but we are leery of trying anything from them because if we don't like it, we've got an 8 lb. bag of the stuff. I'm open to suggestions from Costco or anywhere.

So, any recommendations?

 

[pacergal]

I do not buy breaded chicken, but I have bought the bag of Costco skinless chicken breasts or tenderloins, lightly spray with olive oil or Pam, then cover with my own flour/spice/crumbs and baked.
Turned out OK, and I can vary flavor depending on the spices I use.

 

[Sunset]

I do not buy breaded chicken, but I have bought the bag of Costco skinless chicken breasts or tenderloins, lightly spray with olive oil or Pam, then cover with my own flour/spice/crumbs and baked.
Turned out OK, and I can vary flavor depending on the spices I use.

I often do the same idea with fresh chicken breasts from the grocery store. My version of shake and bake.

I've used yogurt slathered on the chicken breasts and then dipped in panko bread crumbs with spices mixed. Sometimes even mixed in shredded cheese.

 

[aja8888]

*subscribed*...I'm too lazy to bread chicken parts.

 

[Qs Laptop]

<SMH>

OP:
"We are looking for some lightly breaded frozen chicken breasts that we can stick in the toaster oven on the air fry setting and enjoy eating 20-25 minutes later with minimal mess and cleanup."

Responses:
"I spray skinless chicken breasts with Pam and cover with my own flour/spice/crumbs and bake."
"I often do the same idea with fresh chicken breasts from the grocery store. My version of shake and bake."

I appreciate the interest in the topic, but I'm NOT looking to mess around with fresh chicken breasts and creating my own coating.

 

[lemming]

Aldi blue bag crispy chicken strips are very good. Good chicken and good breading. IMHO the red bag chicken sandwich type is not good. Kirkwood brand.

 

[Tetto]

I do like the Just Bare brand, but generally will buy Stop and Shop organic brand as well.

 

[Jerry1]

Costco has a brand/style called Just Bare. They're nuggets. They're pretty good and my grand kids love them in the air fryer. Frankly, I don't like them because I'm very picky but of the frozen style, the family thinks they're pretty good.

 

[Sunset]

I did eat a sample of a frozen chicken nugget at Costco. It was real chicken (not minced) and had only an extremely thin spice coating on it. It was very good. But don't know which name it was.

I hate the thick coatings on chicken.

 

[Qs Laptop]

Aldi blue bag crispy chicken strips are very good. Good chicken and good breading. IMHO the red bag chicken sandwich type is not good. Kirkwood brand.

DW said she has heard from friends that Aldi brand was pretty good. Will probably give it a try.

 

[Mark1]

*subscribed* like aja, but not optimistic.

It's hard to get "food for the masses", with quality that meets my requirements (it's impossible to meet DW's requirements for meats). Our solution is to do big batches of chicken, make a big mess, and then vacuum seal/freeze them. Yes, we have a mess, but at least it is infrequent.

Just got done with a bowl of chili we pulled out of the freezer from a very large batch we made last month. It was amazing, of course it should be as it has many elements of Aja's chili recipe.

 

[aja8888]

*subscribed* like aja, but not optimistic.

It's hard to get "food for the masses", with quality that meets my requirements (it's impossible to meet DW's requirements for meats). Our solution is to do big batches of chicken, make a big mess, and then vacuum seal/freeze them. Yes, we have a mess, but at least it is infrequent.

Just got done with a bowl of chili we pulled out of the freezer from a very large batch we made last month. It was amazing, of course it should be as it has many elements of Aja's chili recipe.

 

[38Chevy454]

Costco has chicken nuggets that are real chicken bites, not the formed from pieces type. These are small bites like nuggets, with light breading, so not a whole breast. But they are quite good IMHO.

 

[Qs Laptop]

Costco has chicken nuggets that are real chicken bites, not the formed from pieces type. These are small bites like nuggets, with light breading, so not a whole breast. But they are quite good IMHO.

Brand name and product name?

 

[38Chevy454]

Brand name and product name?

It's Costco brand, Kirkland. I think it's like 4 lb bag.

I think the Costco nuggets are better than Chick-fil-A nuggets.

 

[Tadpole]

Pretty sure this is the Costco product:
Kirkland Signature Lightly Breaded Chicken Breast Chunks, 4 lbs

 

[audreyh1]

Some folks are mentioning this Just Bare product also available at Costco. https://www.costcobusinessdelivery.com/just-bare-lightly-breaded-chicken-breast-chunks,-boneless-skinless,-4-lbs.product.100383733.html

 

[Qs Laptop]

Pretty sure this is the Costco product:
Kirkland Signature Lightly Breaded Chicken Breast Chunks, 4 lbs

Some folks are mentioning this Just Bare product also available at Costco. https://www.costcobusinessdelivery.com/just-bare-lightly-breaded-chicken-breast-chunks,-boneless-skinless,-4-lbs.product.100383733.html

Looks like they are the same product. Maybe Just Bare makes them for Kirkland? Compare the ingredient lists. Just Bare listed first, Kirkland brand listed second.

 

[audreyh1]

Some people claim there is a taste difference, so who knows?

 

[wrigley]

Buy a few different ones and try them. Not that difficult.

Mike

 

[Qs Laptop]

Buy a few different ones and try them. Not that difficult.

Mike

As I said in my original post, I have tried many of these products over the past two years or so. Many of them. I am hesitant to buy a giant bag from Costco because if it's no good I've got to eat it for the next 2 months. That's why I'm asking for opinions.

 

[lemming]

I swear some people are always trying to shut down the internet with their "get off my lawn" answers.

 

[Retire2023]

I have tried both and prefer the Just Bare brand by quite a bit.

 

[SnowballCamper]

We enjoy the Costco, "Kirkland" lightly breaded chicken breast chunks. It's not uniform nuggets. The pieces are all different sizes, with a very slight peppery taste. White bag with green and black printing on it.

 

[skipro33]

We buy the SAM's brand of frozen skinless chicken breasts. To prepare, I use the BBQ grill. I found a great twist to keep the meat very moist. Here's what I do. I use spray olive or avocado oil and coat the meat with Montreal Chicken seasoning. I set the grill to high and place the breast on the grill until I get the grill marks on both sides, then reduce the heat until the internal temperature reaches 155 degrees. Remove, cover in foil, and let rest, it will raise the temperature to 165, which is safe for chicken. Sounds pretty much normal, right? Here's the secret: do not thaw out the breasts. Prepare them by removing from the freezer and not thawing them out. The thaw comes during the cooking process and keeps the moisture in the meat since I seared it at the beginning of the cook process. These turn out the most tender and moist skinless breasts I've ever had. IF you want to change up your seasoning, I'm sure it works with others rather than my choice of Montreal Chicken.
I discovered this one day when we had unexpected guests show up as I was getting ready to BBQ some of these breasts. They take slightly longer than pre-thawed breasts, but the final product is much tastier.