Boston Market Swedish Meatballs Review

blah, blah, blah

Swedish Meatballs was the second Boston Market frozen entree I bought when these were on sale last week. I remember having them during past cooking strikes years ago, and I remember them being not too bad. Unfortunately this time they’re a definite thumbs down.

The problem was not the meatballs, which were actually pretty tasty on their own. They had a nice texture and the ingredients are not too bad. They’re made with beef and pork, vegetable and soy protein and herbs and spices. If the dish was just the meatballs, I might buy it again.

But it wasn’t, it came with mediocre noodles (I mean, that’s all you can expect) and a completely insipid sauce. It’s really amazing how you can make a sauce and have it have absolutely no flavor. I really don’t understand it. Maybe the dish is directed to people who have COVID and never regained their taste buds, but it’s the definition of insipid. If you’re going to consume 520 calories and 22 grams of fat, you should at least get some flavor out of it.

And this has been my last experiment with Boston Market. If they couldn’t get either dish I tried right, I’m done with them.

We are divorcing

As you might have noticed, I’ve been both in a cooking strike and grocery review writing frenzy. I go through cooking strikes frequently, particularly after periods of intense cooking. Still, I’ve promised myself that as soon as we eat out everything in the fridge, I’m back to cooking.

Meanwhile, I got a couple of Boston Market frozen entrees at the supermarket because they were just $3 on sale. As it turned out, that’s really all they are worth, even nowadays. But I’d remembered Boston Market as some of the better frozen meals and I thought I’d give them a chance again.

I hadn’t had this “Market Marry Me Chicken Pasta” before and it was quite disappointing. It consists of cavatappi in a tomato sauce with pieces of what I’d call a chicken product. The pasta is pasta, cooked al dente. The sauce lacks flavor, though it has a kick. The frozen spinach adds bitterness but nothing else. It was in all, even less appetizing than your run of the mill frozen pasta. It was much improved by adding my own shredded cheese and parmesan, but if I’m going to start modifying it I might as well cook the whole thing myself.

The biggest problem, though, was the chicken. I’ve never knowingly had canned chicken, but I’m guessing this is what it’s like. The texture was just all wrong, spongy but somewhat hard, like it had retained water. I wouldn’t say it was chewy per se, but each bite was unpleasant. The flavor wasn’t bad, but that texture is just horrible.

The lesson here is to not be lazy and boil some damn pasta myself.

Boston Market frozen meals are owned by Bellisio Foods which in turn is owned by Charoen Pokphand, a Thai private conglomerate.

Tag: Boston Market