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Trader Joe's released its list of 2019's most favorite products

SteelerGal

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❤️❤️❤️❤️ The seasoning.
 

Glynda

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How do those of you who buy the Mandarin Orange Chicken prepare it? We had our third bag of this a couple of days ago. The first bag, I pan sautéed in some oil. Too messy. The second and third, I baked in the oven. Once in the toaster over, the second time in the main oven. I noticed that these second and third bags had a lot of very small pieces of chicken which became very hard and at the recommended 18 minutes all of the chicken was dry. I served the chicken over rice and drizzled the heated sauce over the top. We like the flavor, but just haven't gotten the timing down. Suggestions?

Another question. I bought the Everything But The Bagel seasoning but never think of using it. What do you like to put it on?
 

T_R_Oglodyte

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How do those of you who buy the Mandarin Orange Chicken prepare it? We had our third bag of this a couple of days ago. The first bag, I pan sautéed in some oil. Too messy. The second and third, I baked in the oven. Once in the toaster over, the second time in the main oven. I noticed that these second and third bags had a lot of very small pieces of chicken which became very hard and at the recommended 18 minutes all of the chicken was dry. I served the chicken over rice and drizzled the heated sauce over the top. We like the flavor, but just haven't gotten the timing down. Suggestions?

Another question. I bought the Everything But The Bagel seasoning but never think of using it. What do you like to put it on?
I bake it in the over per directions. I then transfer it to an extremely hot wok, with about one-half of the sauce, allowing the sauce to crisp and candy on the surfaces of the chicken. After that I can go several directions. An easy option is to transfer the crisped chicken pieces to a serving bowl along with the remainder of the sauce. Rice, vegetables and other food stuffs will be on the side.

Other things that are usually on the side are TJs pork buns, heated in a steamer, and TJs chicken gyozu. The gyozu are browned in oil on two sides in a covered skillet. Then I turn the heat way down, add a couple of tablespoons of water, and steam them covered. Or if I have room in the steamer, after browning I move the gyozu to the steamer.

Returning to the chicken, I often add some other vegetables to the mix in the wok after the chicken are crisped - carrots, celery, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, etc., to taste. I also add segments of one or two mandarin oranges to the pot.

With all of the extra ingredients I usually need a bit more sauce than the two packets that come with the chicken. So I improvise some added sauce. Most often, I add General Tso's stir fry sauce (another TJs item). Other times I add some sweet chili sauce.

On occasion, my added mandarin oranges come from a small can of mandarin oranges. In that case, I separate the canning syrup from the orange pieces. I add the orange pieces to the chicken, and put the separated syrup in a small saucepan on the stove and heat to near boiling. I add vinegar, sweet chili sauce, and a bit of ketchup (and ginger root or tamarind, if I have any ) to improvise a sweet and sour sauce. I thicken as needed with corn starch, then use that as additional sauce for the chicken mixture or on the side if I've kept the vegetables separate from the chicken.

I often get rave reviews.
 

Glynda

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I bake it in the over per directions. I then transfer it to an extremely hot wok, with about one-half of the sauce, allowing the sauce to crisp and candy on the surfaces of the chicken. After that I can go several directions. An easy option is to transfer the crisped chicken pieces to a serving bowl along with the remainder of the sauce. Rice, vegetables and other food stuffs will be on the side.

Other things that are usually on the side are TJs pork buns, heated in a steamer, and TJs chicken gyozu. The gyozu are browned in oil on two sides in a covered skillet. Then I turn the heat way down, add a couple of tablespoons of water, and steam them covered. Or if I have room in the steamer, after browning I move the gyozu to the steamer.

Returning to the chicken, I often add some other vegetables to the mix in the wok after the chicken are crisped - carrots, celery, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, etc., to taste. I also add segments of one or two mandarin oranges to the pot.

With all of the extra ingredients I usually need a bit more sauce than the two packets that come with the chicken. So I improvise some added sauce. Most often, I add General Tso's stir fry sauce (another TJs item). Other times I add some sweet chili sauce.

On occasion, my added mandarin oranges come from a small can of mandarin oranges. In that case, I separate the canning syrup from the orange pieces. I add the orange pieces to the chicken, and put the separated syrup in a small saucepan on the stove and heat to near boiling. I add vinegar, sweet chili sauce, and a bit of ketchup (and ginger root or tamarind, if I have any ) to improvise a sweet and sour sauce. I thicken as needed with corn starch, then use that as additional sauce for the chicken mixture or on the side if I've kept the vegetables separate from the chicken.

I often get rave reviews.

Those sound wonderful! Thanks!
 

T_R_Oglodyte

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Passepartout

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Another question. I bought the Everything But The Bagel seasoning but never think of using it. What do you like to put it on?
I sprinkle it on eggs, roasted potatoes, salad, roasts. Heck, if nobody's watching, I'll lick it right out of my hand! :)
 

geist1223

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Most of the meals we like in the frozen food section have disappeared. If Patti dies before me (it is such a pain to cook for one) I will probably exist on Costco and Trader Joe's frozen meals.
 

T_R_Oglodyte

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I got the crisping idea from Trader Joe's itself. You would think they would mention this on the package, it makes such a big difference.

Did the Mandarin Orange Chicken for dinner tonight, with some tweaks.

Drained a can of mandarin oranges. Set aside the oranges and put the juice into a saucepan and heated it to simmer on the stovetop while the chicken was cooking in the oven. After the juice simmered, I added the mandarin orange sauce packets from the package, along with a bit of sweet chili sauce. Brought the sauce back to temp and kept it near boiling while the chicken finished.

Put a wok on the stove and preheated it while the sauce was simmering and chicken was cooking. Empty wok at just below medium heat for about ten minutes.

Kept the chicken in the oven until it was nicely crisped. This was about five minutes longer and slightly higher temp than the package called. for. I was checking it for crispness about every five minutes - that was how I knew to give it some more time and higher temp.

Removed the chicken from the oven and put the sauce in the wok - it immediately started boiling and caramelizing without burning. So I knew I had the temp right. Immediately added the chicken to the wok and began stirring to coat the chicken with sauce as it was caramelizing. After the sauce was all caramelized on the chicken, I turned down the head, added the mandarin orange slices, and covered for a few minutes until the mandarin orange heated up.

Absolutely fantastic. It had the crisp and caramelized texture that you often get in Chinese restaurants and that you don't get if you just follow the package instructions to bake and add sauce. If I do it again, the only change I might make would be to add a bit of freshly grated ginger root to the sauce on the stovetop. The sauce just felt like it was missing something in that palate range, and I think ginger would nicely complement the orange.
 
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Marathoner

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Drained a can of mandarin oranges. Set aside the oranges and put the juice into a saucepan and heated it to simmer on the stovetop while the chicken was cooking in the oven. After the juice simmered, I added the mandarin orange sauce packets from the package, along with a bit of sweet chili sauce. Brought the sauce back to temp and kept it near boiling while the chicken finished.

Put a wok on the stove and preheated it while the sauce was simmering and chicken was cooking. Empty wok at just below medium heat for about ten minutes.

Kept the chicken in the oven until it was nicely crisped. This was about five minutes longer and slightly higher temp than the package called. for. I was checking it for crispness about every five minutes - that was how I knew to give it some more time and higher temp.

Removed the chicken from the oven and put the sauce in the wok - it immediately started boiling and caramelizing without burning. So I knew I had the temp right. Immediately added the chicken to the wok and began stirring to coat the chicken with sauce as it was caramelizing. After the sauce was all caramelized on the chicken, I turned down the head, added the mandarin orange slices, and covered for a few minutes until the mandarin orange heated up.

Thank you for this. I adjusted your recipe because I don't have mandarin orange cans or any sweet chili sauce. Instead I peeled two whole mandarin oranges and sectioned them. I gently muddled all the sections along with an ounce and a half of lemon juice and mixed with the sauce from their sauce packets. The lemon juice was to add some acidity to the sauce as I assumed their packaged sauce would be on the sweet side. I then caramelized the oven cooked chicken with the sauce/orange/lemon juice mix. It turned out great. Thank you for your write-up!
 

T_R_Oglodyte

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Thank you for this. I adjusted your recipe because I don't have mandarin orange cans or any sweet chili sauce. Instead I peeled two whole mandarin oranges and sectioned them. I gently muddled all the sections along with an ounce and a half of lemon juice and mixed with the sauce from their sauce packets. The lemon juice was to add some acidity to the sauce as I assumed their packaged sauce would be on the sweet side. I then caramelized the oven cooked chicken with the sauce/orange/lemon juice mix. It turned out great. Thank you for your write-up!
There's lots of ways you can make it work, provided your base will caramelize. At times I've supplemented the provided sauce with TJs General Tso's stir fry or with some sweet-and-sour. With a large can of mandarin oranges, I use the mandarin orange juice as the base for sweet-and-sour sauce, and use about 1/2 of the sauce for caramelizing. The remainder goes on the table for people to use as they wish. (E.g., as a dipping sauce with TJs excellent pork buns - but to get good pork buns you need to steam them, not put them in a microwave.)
 

pedro47

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Love that Mandarin Orange Chicken, quick and very easy to prepared.
 

T_R_Oglodyte

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There's lots of ways you can make it work, provided your base will caramelize. At times I've supplemented the provided sauce with TJs General Tso's stir fry or with some sweet-and-sour. With a large can of mandarin oranges, I use the mandarin orange juice as the base for sweet-and-sour sauce, and use about 1/2 of the sauce for caramelizing. The remainder goes on the table for people to use as they wish. (E.g., as a dipping sauce with TJs excellent pork buns - but to get good pork buns you need to steam them, not put them in a microwave.)
Had it again last night. First time in several months.

Delicious as always, but not quite up to previous efforts. The chicken wasn't quite as crispy as I wanted it. After thinking about it, I'm guessing that I didn't have the wok hot enough when I put in the sauce and added the chicken from the oven. I had the wok sitting empty on heat for close to ten minutes while I was doing other things, and I left the heat down for awhile because I didn't want the wok to overheat. I think that was my mistake.
 

T_R_Oglodyte

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Had the baccon-wrapped scallops for dinner last night (from the freezer section). A definite rebuy.
 
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