BRINED, BONE IN, HALF TURKEY BREAST (fully cooked SOUS VIDE)
“This fully cooked turkey option takes less than an hour to reheat in the oven. Marinated in a brine of salt, sugar, black pepper and garlic herb butter. “
A week out from Thanksgiving, I noticed this option at Trader Joe’s, a half breast of turkey that already fullycooked, and basically just needs re-heating. This as something that might appeal quite a few people. Those who don’t want to cook a whole bird from scratch, yet want to have turkey on the table which is almost home made. In this case they’ve done almost all the prep and cooking for us so all this needs is finishing up. This turkey breast needs about 45 minutes in the oven.
It’s a half breast of turkey which was marinated (brined) and was cooked “sous vide” – a cooking technique top chef’s love as it keeps meat juicy and tender (I am guessing they’ve hit the skin with a torch?). The quality here is top notch.
“Our Midwest supplier splits a full turkey breast, leaving the bone in, and marinating it in a brine of salt, sugar, black pepper, and garlic-herb butter. The Half Breast is then seared, and slowly cooked sous-vide. It’s not an exaggeration to say this approach produces a moist, juicy, and tender Half Turkey Breast with rich, slow-roasted flavor-and in just 40 minutes, versus the multiple hours it takes to cook a whole turkey. Find our Fully Cooked Brined Bone-In Half Turkey Breasts (about 2.5 pounds each on average) in our refrigerated deli section.”
UPDATE: We finally tried this this year, and is actually quite good! Maybe even fantastic. In fact everyone commented, multiple times, at how good this turkey was. You could not ask for a better cook on a breast of turkey (which are so often overcooked and dried out). The turkey here came out really moist and juicy with a perfect texture, and it had great flavor.
I got the smallest package I could find (which was 2.8 lbs) and it easily fed four people, along with our side dishes. How easy is it? Well basically all you are doing is re-heating this. The directions are 25 minutes at 375 covered with foil, then remove the foil and give it another 15 minutes (so 45 mins total) while basting with the pan juices. Let it rest for five minutes before slicing.
My only gripe with this was I love crispy skin and the skin didn’t get crispy even after the extra 15 minutes of baking uncovered. However nobody really cared as the turkey itself was so good. Next time I would just put it under the broiler at the end. You might try that (5 mins?)
Though not exactly cheap this was so good, so convenient, saving us so much time and effort, and getting so many multiple compliments, that we deemed it worth it.
If you are looking for a really easy way to get some delicious breast of turkey on the table, frankly you may want to consider this.
(our TJ turkey)
Most of the packages I looked at seemed to total around $32 to $40, running around 3 to 4 pounds each. Sure $10 a pound for turkey breast isn’t exactly cheap but then you are paying for the convenience as it will save a good deal of work and time.
We found the quality top notch. Plus say you like breast/white meat anyway, like we do. So there is almost no waste. All you need to do is maybe add a package or two of gravy, cranberries, and some frozen sides like mashed sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, etc.
One can come up with an almost home made Thanksgiving pretty easy sourcing it all at Trader Joe’s, though things will add up
This turkey breast seems a bit of a popular item for TJ, in fact the next time I went there I found it was Sold Out for the day.
How To Heat This: The “preferred method” is in the oven. Instructions on the package. Will take about 45 minutes total. Personally I would not pick microwave as the way to cook it.
I just saw lovely fresh organic cranberries in stock at Trader Joe’s now (November 2023)
This year the organic ones are $2.99 a bag (1 lb). The regular ones, $2.29. Both are very good prices this year! Frankly for the fairly small price difference between the regular and organic I would get the organic ones.
How easy is it to make your own cranberry sauce? It will take you maybe 1 or 2 minutes of “work”, if you call “add water and sugar” work.
I will not bore you again with my rant about never serving anyone Ocean Spray Cranberry Sauce from a can again — but really its super easy to make your own fresh cranberry sauce!
“Our Organic Cranberries are harvested in the fall and shipped to your neighborhood Trader Joe’s. There are so many uses, you’ll want to grab more than one bag to simmer into a super sauce, bake into breads and muffins, deck out your Thanksgiving tablescape, garnish glasses of chilled sparkling wine…”
EASY BASIC CRANBERRY SAUCE RECIPE : Put all the berries into a heavy pot. Add one cup water, then add one cup of sugar. (I like organic cane sugar but use any kind you have) Bring this to a boil, then lower heat to a simmer and just let it cook like that for 15-20 minutes until the cranberries start to “pop”. Once the start to pop its done.
(TIP : you can use orange juice for the liquid, or mix or 1/2 juice 1/2 water)
When the sauce cools it will thicken a lot as cranberry skin contains a great deal of pectin. I like adding some fresh lemon juice too (optional) after it’s done. You can make this days in advance. Take it out and let it come to room temperature before serving. I promise you, your guests will rave at how good your sauce is.
TIP: Fresh cranberries freeze well. You can buy an extra bag and freeze it. No one says cranberry sauce doesn’t go well with foods besides turkey. Its great with grilled chicken and other things too.
Trader Joe’s GRILLED CHICKEN STRIPS Seasoned White Chicken Meat.
Simply grilled white chicken meat. Simple and straightforward, just strips of (cooked) chicken breast and I’ve found they can be handy to have on hand in my freezer. Say I wish I had a few strips of of leftover chicken to put on something like a salad. Or perhaps I need a little chicken as an ingredient, say for a fast chicken/cheese quesadillas.
Except I don’t have any leftover chicken. No wait, I have this in the freezer. I take out a few strips, put them in a pan with a pinch of water, cover and voila. In just 6 minutes I’ve got some strips of chicken I can use however I want.
I find this has been at times quite useful to come up with a fast protein. To top a salad or greens, a bowl of rice or other grains, or for a protein bowl. To match with vegetables or a taco, or what have you. High protein, low calorie.
This seems pretty natural ingredients-wise, just chicken and a few seasonings, no chemical names. The chicken has a slightly smokey, grilled taste. It has grill marks which I guessing means they got a little time on a grill or open flame.
Gluten free. Minimal ingredients. Chicken, salt, pepper, onion, garlic… Sodium level is not bad at all. No added fats. The Nutrition Label says 100 Calories per 3 oz serving which has a whopping 20 grams of Protein!
(frozen)(cooked)
Cooking Directions: (Stovetop) Place chicken in a nonstick or cast iron pan. Add 2 tbls of water. Cover the pan and cook on low-medium for about 6 to 8 minutes, until done. TIP: Personally I add a little olive oil or butter to the pan, as I find a bit improves the flavor.) I always do the “stovetop” method but there are directions as well for microwaving them too. Just be careful and don’t overcook them lest you end up with over cooked tough white meat.
My take is cook just until the point of done-ness, or “à point” – as they say in French. Basically we’re letting it go from frozen to defrosted and then cooking just a little bit. The moist environment helps, which is the point of adding a little water, and remember to open the cover and let the steam out when its done.
Many of the strips are perfect however you will find some broken or small pieces, probably happening during shipping and stocking. C’est la vie. TJ’s Grilled Chicken Strips are $8.99 (1 lb). You’ll find them in Frozen near chicken products
“They pair well with all kinds of veggies and starches, and take particularly well to customizing with your favorite sauces and seasonings—we’re partial to tossing them with a bit of Korean Gochujang Sauce, ourselves. They’re a great topper for salads, pastas, and pizzas, phenomenal as a filling for tacos and quesadillas, lovely when layered into sandwiches and wraps, and an easy addition to casseroles and baked enchiladas.”
“Trader Joe’s Green Onion Pancakes are like what you might get at a traditional Dim Sum meal…quickly fried, these savory disks become crispy and flaky. Eat as a snack or part of a meal. Try using them in place of a naan or a tortilla to wrap meat or vegetables” (from the package)
Trader Joe’s Taiwanese Green Onion (Scallions) Pancakes are a very popular Trader Joe’s product… and for good reason. These are quite tasty, easy to make and pretty inexpensive. Made simply and eaten As-Is these can be quite tasty. But these Scallion Pancakes are also easy to “hack” and turn into something more.
Just add an addition or two and you can make them into something a bit better and more substantial. For instance, the easiest hack could be as simple as “put an egg on it”. Just add a egg, fried or scrambled on top.
(Here is what my pancake looked like after cooking. Golden brown and delicious!)
VEGAN – PRODUCT OF TAIWAN
Honestly if you’ve never tried these before, run over to Trader Joe’s right now and get some. That is if you can find them! These sometimes get SOLD OUT, because as mentioned they’re quite a popular item, and at $2.49 for a package of 5 pancakes, let’s face it, these are one of the more affordable frozen items at Trader Joe’s. Basically just fried dough with some green onions but yummy.
TJ’s Scallion Pancakes make a pretty quick, pretty easy appetizer, snack, side dish, lunch. With some tweaking, they can become the platform of a complete dish, depending on how you serve them and what you eat with them.
How easy are Trader Joe’s Scallion Pancakes to make? All you have to do is take a frozen pancake and put it in a pan with a little oil. Let it cook for a 4-5 minutes until browned. Turn it over. Cook another few minutes.
In Chinese, these pancakes are called Cong You Bing (蔥油餅) which are savory pancakes made from a wheat dough, oil (or better still lard!), green onions and salt. Often sold from street vendors. Cheap and very popular. I’ve eaten these made fresh in front of me from Chinese street vendors or stalls in Flushing, Queens.
Naturally one can’t quite compare TJ’s pancakes to one handmade in front of you. However, these are still tasty, not to mention very convenient for whenever the mood strikes.
I do have one complaint about Trader Joe’s “green onion pancakes”. These don’t have nearly enough green onions. Not by a long shot. There should be a ton and these only have a small handful.
Authentic Chinese / Taiwanese scallion pancakes are made with a ton of scallions, and these Trader Joe’s pancakes skimp on the green onions. Probably to keep them cheap. However this is easy to fix and correct. Just add some chopped scallions when you serve them.
Ideally I suggest whenever you are going to make these be sure to also get a package of scallions ($1.29) too so you can scatter a handful of chopped scallions over your pancakes, and/or put them in your sauce. Personally I love fresh cilantro with these as well as well as extra scallions.
The simple way to enjoy these is to just make them as directed and eat with some kind of a dipping sauce. I’ve put an easy recipe for a basic Asian sauce further down. But in a pinch even just mixing up a little soy sauce, garlic, ginger and Chinese black vinegar (or rice vinegar) can work. Or even easier, use some Asian Trader Joe’s sauce you like such as the: “Gyoza Sauce”, “Sweet Chili Sauce”, “Chili Crisp” and a little soy sauce.
Recently my wife and I ate these for dinner (picture above). We added a fried egg for extra protein. Along with the pancakes we ate fried rice. That combo is great. I happened to have fried rice which I had made the night before. You could use a frozen Trader Joe’s versions, for example their popular JAPANESE FRIED RICE.
HOW TO MAKE TRADER JOE’S GREEN ONION PANCAKES:
STOVE TOP METHOD – (Cook right from frozen) Pour 1 tsp of vegetable oil in a nonstick or cast iron pan, set to medium heat. After a 30 seconds of heating, swirl the oil, then add a pancake to the pan (be careful, it can spatter). Try to resist the urge to touch or move it for a good minute or so, after which you can check the bottom gently using a spatula to lift it to see the underside. You want to let it get all nice and Golden Brown. (see my first picture). You can rotate a pancake to get even browning.
The first side might take about 3-5 minutes (from frozen). Cook till it looks “*golden brown and delicious”. When your first side is done just flip it over carefully., to let the other side cook.
Don’t press hard with the spatula to keep them flaky. Keep an eye on it. The second side which will take less time to cook as its no longer frozen. When the second side is done (two minutes?) and looks golden brown, remove it and put on a paper towel to drain any excess oil.
Keep pancakes warm (cover with towel, or put in oven on Low or Warm)
If making more than one, now get the next one cooking. (TIP – Each disk is about 7 inches in diameter so if you want to make a few at a time, you might to use 2 pans or a griddle.
When you are ready to serve them, you can cut them up into eights or quarters. Enjoy asap while they are warm and crispy, along with your dipping sauce (recipe below)
AIR FRYER – I’ve seen people online say these can be cooked in one.
Microwave? No way, they need to get crispy and browned! Thats not an option with these.
Now while these are perfectly fine just naked and “As-Is”, as mentioned, you can add things. For example, as I mentioned you can top them with a fried or scrambled egg. You can fold the pancake like a taco with the egg in the middle and eat it like that (in a paper towel) which is actually a typical way one might get these served on the street in China or Taiwan. So instead of Naan or a Tortilla use these.
Pancakes topped with sautéed shitake mushrooms and seasoned ground pork
You can be as inventive with these as you like. For example, use these as a base and add toppings.
Cooked seasoned ground beef, pork , chicken, mushrooms or tofu? Maybe left over rotisserie chicken pulled into shreds? Perhaps some grilled shrimp. Or grilled tofu. Grilled portobello mushrooms. You can even put cheese on them for a cheesy Chinese pancake.
Here’s one easy HACK / combo I came up with: SILK ROAD PANCAKE WITH KEBABS. These pancakes matched well with TJ’s Middle Eastern Beef Kebabs for a “Silk Road” combination which is perfect with these. Add a cooked kebab to a pancake,, then eat folded up like a tortilla. Add your favorite sauce (garlic spread, greek yogurt, chili oil…)
Typically these pancakes are usually served with a dipping sauce. You can easily make an Asian dipping sauce (see below for a simple basic recipe). Any store bought sauce you like can work too. Say TJ’s “Soyaki” or Gyoza Sauce or Sweet Chili sauce or the like. TJ’s Chili Onion Crunch, of course too is a great too. My favorite real deal addition for these pancakes is the original chili crisp, Lao Gan Ma, to which I have a serious addiction (If you don’t have any Asian markets here’s a link to it on Amazon : Lao Gan Ma )
BASICASIANDIPPING SAUCE:
2 tbl TJ’s Low Sodium Soy Sauce
2 tsp Chinese black vinegar (if you don’t have it you can use rice vinegar or even balsamic)
1 lg clove garlic, crushed
1 tsp brown sugar or honey
Optional – Fresh grated ginger. A drizzle of Sesame Oil (if you like spicy mix in some Chili Crisp or Lao Gan Ma)
Add chopped scallions.
Checking the Nutrition label 1 pancake contains 330 calories.
Trader Joe’s GREEN ONION PANCAKES, $2.49 (five pancakes) I would buy this again.
Need some ideas to use these as a starting point for something ….? Check out these ideas…..
Those may be even better but are different. Korean PaJeon have lots of scallions and vegetables. So they cost a bit more but are terrific and may even be easier to find in stock. I think the Taiwanese scallion pancakes seem to have gotten so popular they get sold out kind of fast as some people buy 5 or more packages (you know who you are, so please leave some for the rest of us!)
UPDATE-1 (Winter 2023) – Haven’t seen them for months. Sold Out / Out of Stock at two different TJ’s I go to. Beginning to wonder if these are too popular for their own good?!
UPDATE-2 (Mar 2024) – FINALLY! Seeing these back in stores! Yeah! Hopefully you find them.
PS – Believe it or not I’ve actually made these Scallion Pancakes from scratch a few times. Sure, it’s a bit of work but frankly these are not very hard to make yourself. Of course they are even better, so think about making them. All you need is flour, scallions and oil. Check out these recipes (links) and think about giving it a try one day!
Trader Joe’s INDIAN FARE YELLOW TADKA DAL is “A savory, creamy and spicy blend of lentils and spices” (PRODUCT OF INDIA)
Trader Joe’s has quite a bit of Indian foods on offer, some in the frozen foods section as well as some non-frozen ones too, such as this line of Indian dishes which comes in pouches. Some of these I’ve tried are really good, especially this one, TADKA DAL.
We ate this TADKA DAL last night and I have to say I found it surprisingly tasty, I’m mean as in “This tastes like it came from an Indian restaurant” level good. This Tadka Dal was very flavorful and nicely spiced with a wee bit of heat going on. I put it in a pan on top of the stove (they suggest heating in hot water). If you serve this dal with a few other things, you have a nice easy dinner… We had this with another dish plus cooked Basmati rice, some Garlic Naan, Mango Chutney and a salad. (Sidenote: I saw TJ’s has a new Indian condiment, “Garlic Achar” which I want to try)
If you add at least one other dish to the Dal such as TJ’s CHANNA MASALA you can have an easy and quite tasty pretty authentic Indian dinner. These TJ’s “Indian Fare” products come in shelf stable pouches and are not a bad deal at about $2 each (for 10 oz) I find these pouches of Indian items great things to have in our pantry for whenever we’re in the mood for Indian food, or come home and don’t feel like cooking but don’t want to order out either. These plus frozen Naan make fast super easy meals. I have not tried all of these Indian Fare pouches but there are a few varieties on offer. This Tadka Dal one is quite good and worth your trying. By the way, in case you want to know what “Tadka” refers to: Tadka translates as “tempering.” It is a method widely used in Indian cuisine, in which whole or ground spices are heated in hot oil or ghee and the mixture is added to a dish.“
TADKA DAL: ingredients include yellow split peas, butter, oil, tomato, chili pepper, salt, cumin, onion, curry leaves, yest, mustard see, tumeric…. The Sodium level listed is a bit high, so compensate for that with other dishes (such as using less salt to make your rice)
When I saw these frozen TANDOORI NAAN, I had an idea… Could I use these naan for the “base” of a pizza? If so than I could make pizza in mere seconds! OK it actually took me more like 5 minutes to assemble these pizzas (see pic) and pop them in a hot oven. But the idea? It basically worked fine. Using these Naan breads makes it super fast and easy to whip up some individual sized pizzas almost instantly. Just spread some of your favorite sauce, put on some cheese, and pop them in the oven, and Bingo you got a fresh hot pizza in about 10-15 minutes with almost no work at all.
As you can see in the pictures, I simply put some marinara on. I put slices of TJ whole milk mozzarella on, then threw it in the oven on a baking sheet for about 10-12 minutes at 400 .
Yes, I spruced these up a little adding a few sliced mushrooms and a few sliced asparagus to make it a bit “veggie”. I had this stuff in the fridge. Now I turned on the broiler for the last minute or two to really get the top nice and browned (I over did this by a few seconds so be careful if you do the broiler browning part). When they came out, I put some fresh grated parmesan on for good measure, and a drizzle of EVOO.
DELICIOUS!
The Naan Pizza turned out quite good as you can probably tell from the pic. We ate one each with a salad for dinner and that made a very satisfying (and tasty!) dinner for us. Making these with the Naan requires so little time and effort. Yes the naan is not a real pizza base, it is more bread-y than a real pizza but seriously this was so fast, easy and cheap that making PIZZA NAAN is certainly worth giving a try sometime. TIP: Buy and try this with the GARLIC NAAN version TJ has as well. Obviously the Trader Joe’s Naan are great used in the traditional way too. For example accompanying some of the TJ Masala Chickpeas (frozen section) which are delicious!
A pack of 4 Naan is $1.99 (50 cents each, not bad huh). These are great to have in your freezer for pizza or Indian food or to use in many imaginative ways whenever you are in the mood.
Trader Joe’s Rants & Raves (mostly raves, a few rants) 
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