One of my go-to items for an inexpensive and easy dinner is Trader Joe’s Organic Polenta, which I’ve mentioned before. Still it’s worth mentioning again as this is one of their inexpensive items, even one of the few products that is the same price as it has been in the past for years (shh.. I’m afraid if TJ’s see this they may raise the price)
A package of the Organic Polenta ($1.99) can make a meal for two, say with some sauce plus maybe some salad and bread. It’s easy to prepare too. You just slice up the polenta and then bake, broil or sauté it until it’s a little crispy and browned (do NOT microwave it thought they say that’s one way).
When it’s nice and crispy, just top it with your favorite sauce and grate a little cheese on top. If you want a change from a tomato sauce, a good thing to match the polenta with would be TJ’s frozen Mushroom Medley ($4) or sauté some mushrooms ($2.29).
Trader Joe’s Organic Polenta is shelf stable and can safely stay for a couple of months in your pantry, just like pasta. I always have a package of the polenta on hand and suggest you do too!
Want to spend less than $1.99? Well fortunately you can still buy some bags of pasta at Trader Joe’s for just 99 cents! Plus they have some sauces for $1.99.
The most popular post on this site is usually my original review of TJ’s CHICKEN SHAWARMA THIGHS so I thought I would revisit this topic again but specifically about “How To Cook” the chicken.
Let’s start with your Shopping List which might include the following items:
TJ’s Shawarma Chicken Thighs
Naan (frozen or fresh, or pita or flour tortillas)
Tzatziki Sauce – cucumber garlic yogurt sauce goes great with this
Onions, garlic, peppers, tomatoes, parsley or cilantro (optional)
Zhoug Sauce (or your favorite hot sauce, optional)
other things as you see fit, for example Hummus if you want to do a Shawarma Hummus bowl.
Now there are a number of ways you can cook the chicken. Grilled in a pan, baked in the oven and I’ve even read some people cook these in an Air Fryer. Please don’t even consider cooking this in a Microwave. The chicken needs to be browned to taste good). My simple preferred and I think easiest method is the first: grilling on the stove top. I like to use a cast iron pan but if you don’t have one of those babies any fairly heavy pan will do. Naturally cooking it on an outdoor grill would be great if you can do that. If you want to bake the thighs, you can put them on a sheet pan (use parchment or foil for easy cleanup) and bake them for about 20-25 minutes at 450.
COOKING : Remove the chicken from the package carefully as the marinade can stain; it has both turmeric (yellow) and anatto (red) which in addition to being spices are both excellent natural dyes! If your cutting board gets a bit stained, just use diluted bleach to clean up later.
To even out the cooking in the thighs which have a thick and thin part, I put a few shallow slashes in the thickest parts. This will open let them cook more evenly. You can pat off some marinade with a paper towel if you like. Next what I do is I actually sprinkle on more seasonings just before I put them in the pan to help them brown. No really. Dry spices will help the chicken brown even better, but this is completely optional. I give them a dusting of spices such as Ajika seasoning blend or Smoked Paprika and ground cumin. I may do a bit of all three. If you are cooking the chicken with veggies – which I recommend – prep and slice them. I recommend at least adding a few cloves of fresh garlic sliced up. Onions (and maybe peppers) will be great cooked with the chicken. I add my veggies to the pan 1/2 way during the cooking when I flip the chicken, so I use a large pan.
Get your pan heated on medium; add olive oil or oil/butter mix, say a good tablespoon of oil plus a tbl of butter. When it’s sizzling, carefully put the chicken into the pan. Now DO NOT TOUCH IT. At all. Let it cook at least about 5 minutes and resist all urges to touch it to get a really good sear on the first side (see picture below). It may take about 8 minutes to cook the first side.
When the first side is nice and golden brown, flip the chicken over. This is when I add my sliced onions, garlic (maybe green, red or yellow peppers…) which I place around the chicken – if there is room in the pan (if no room you can cook them in in the same pan when you take out the chicken but they may take about 8 minutes too).
When the thighs are done on the second side, which may take about another 8 minutes, you can remove them to a cutting board or plate. Let the chicken rest a few minutes before slicing. Slice as thicky or thinly as you wish. Put the sliced chicken back into the warm pan (heat is off) scraping in any juices from your cutting board. If you made veggies, you can mix the chicken with them or keep them separated as you see fit. Below is chicken, onions, and some fresh arugula mixed into the warm chicken.
ASSEMBLY: If using Naan, warm up your bread (Naan, pita or tortillas…). For a Shawarma Wrap, put a little sauce down the middle of your Naan, etc. Next add your sliced chicken in the center. Top with grilled onions or peppers if you made these. A little more Tzaziki on top. If you want it spicy then maybe some Zhug mixed in. Optional, a few chopped tomatoes, cukes, parsley, or cilantro. Fold up gently to eat kind like a taco with your hands, or eat it with a knife and fork if you are stuffy!
Chicken Shawarma as Wraps using TJ’s whole wheat home style tortillas
Other ideas how to serve them? Besides doing eating the chicken with Naan or bread you could just put the shawarma chicken on top of a bed of rice. Or salad greens. Or eat with hummus, served with side dishes like Basmati rice, or maybe Harvest Grain Blend. Or you could make a Shawarma Hummus Bowl. Put hummus in a bowl and top it with slices of the chicken with pita bread on the side. This style is very popular at Middle Eastern places.
Hope this gave you some ideas and that you really enjoy some great Shawarma soon.
“Delicate flakes of Kosher salt perfect for finishing steaks, seafood, and veggies”
You may wonder as I did, why is Trader Joe’s selling huge boxes of Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt? Well if you’ve watched The Bear or seen any chef cooking on TV or Youtube you may have noticed almost every one seems to use – and specify – Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt in their cooking. Its the “Go To” salt for most professional cooks and has even gotten trendy now. It may be on THE BEAR but my Grandma (and probably yours too) used it for 70+ years.
If a recipe specifies “1 tsp Kosher Salt” please know you that is you put that amount of regular table salt, it will be too salty. The bigger coarser grains take up more room than a fine salt if you are measuring it. Now I haven’t bought Diamond Crystal for a few years and when I saw this at Trader Joe’s the other day I got sticker shock seeing how much Kosher Salt seems to be now! $8.99 for a 3 lb. box?! ($3 bucks per pound!) Wow, I am pretty sure the last time I bought a box a few years back I paid about $5 so it’s really gone up, probably thanks in part to becoming Trendy via social media.
By contrast Trader Joe’s sells their regular Sea Salt (fine) for about $2 for over 1 1/2 lbs. However I am seeing “kids” (to me that is) buying the Diamond Crystal at Trader Joe’s recently. I was able to find a 1 pound box of kosher salt for about $2 on Amazon. (But it’s Morton’s brand not Diamond Crystal and you can’t just use the same amount, use less)
I really liked this blueberry preserve Trader Joe’s has come out with, which uses wild organic blueberries from “the Canadian Boreal Forest“. It has an intense and delicious flavor of wild blueberries which are much smaller than cultivated ones. It’s very tasty though I found it a bit on the sweet side, borderline overly sweet, so what I like to do with jams I find too sweet is tame down the sweetness with some lemon juice. I added the juice of about a 1/4 of a fresh lemon into the jar and mixed it in. That did the trick for me, cutting down the sweetness with some more acid and adding a very nice subtle lemon undertone. It made it even better and really improved the whole thing. So my recommendation is buy a lemon with this jam (if you didn’t have one already in the fridge).
TIP: after adding the lemon juice I add a little piece of the lemon rind and throw that it in to the jam for even more flavor from the rind’s oil. Just push it to the bottom.
The Organic Wild Blueberry Preserve is $4.49 for a 17.5 oz jar. Not cheap but then it is Certified Organic and taste-wise I would say this stuff is certainly a Gourmet Level jam. Probably elsewhere (say Whole Paycheck?) a similar one would probably go for more like six or seven dollars. Try this on just about anything but I really think it would be heavenly on a slice of TJ’s Sliced Brioche bread, toasted with butter, spread with the blueberry preserves. Ditto on an English Muffin, toasted Crumpet or on your pancakes….
Trader Joe’s says: “Our supplier takes wild, organic blueberries, harvested from the Canadian Boreal Forest, and simmers them with organic cane sugar to complement their pleasantly tart and rich blueberry flavor.”
This is a new nice pasta shape at Trader Joe’s. It super!
I really liked this pasta which is kind of a ruffled edged, ribbony flat wide noodle. Think of a mini lasagna noodle. Those ruffled edges holds sauces well. Malfada Corta pasta is a nice hardy noodle and will be great with almost any sauce you can think of. Its Organic and bronze die cut semolina pasta.
I’ve made this with a number of different sauces. One dish was this pasta with a homemade ragu bolognese-style sauce. Yummy. We both really liked the combo. On another occasion I made a tuna pasta with a bechamel sauce mixed with tuna and peas. That combo was was Excellent as well. Really, this pasta is super.
TIP: It has a recommended cooking time of 8-9 minutes. I was making my pasta Italian style, meaning under-cooking it a bit then fishing it out of the water and putting it in a pan to cook with some sauce till its done (al dente). So I fished out the pasta before it was al dente, a minute or two under than so maybe at about the 6 minute mark (2 minutes under the recommended 8). The noodles went into a pan with a 1/2 ladle of the pasta cooking water (great “secret” ingredient in restaurants) and I then added about 1 ladle of my sauce. I cooked that mixing it all the time for maybe 90 seconds, and adding another ladle of sauce. Turned off, then the pasta got plated. I put some additional sauce on top as well as some fresh grated Parmesan. This “Italian pasta cooking method” imbues the pasta with the sauce so it’s way better than just ladling a sauce on top of dry pasta which is unfortunately how many people in the U.S. make pasta. Doing this horrifies Italians!
I would gladly buy this again. I think the Malfada would be a great match for TJ’s frozen MUSHROOM MEDLEY. Try that combo.
You may have heard of this super popular “recipe” if you can call it that, which is all over the internet. It makes a healthy snack or dessert. Basically there are actually two ingredients: chia seeds and almond milk (or whatever “milk” you want). Here ya go.
RECIPE: CHIA SEED PUDDING
In a glass or small jar, put about 2 tablespoon of TJ’s chia seeds. Next add about 1/2 cup of any kind of milk beverage (like almond milk). Give it a little stir. There are no rules that you must use almond milk, just use whatever you like best. Me, I alternate all the time between OAT, ALMOND or SOY MILK depending on my mood. Option: Add a bit of honey or any of your preferred sweetener (agave, maple syrup) and stir that in. While optional it does add some flavor and if you have kids you must use something like that. All you do now is wait for it to thicken so put it in the fridge and let the mixture sit in the fridge for at least about 30-60 minutes but it sets up best if you let it sit for 8-12 hours or overnight. When ready to serve put some fruit on top, or even something crunchy like Granola.
Chia seed pudding is super easy to make and of course very healthy. Now there is no rule that you can’t have use more ingredients and include a few other things. I usually mix in some yogurt or kefir too with the oat milk and sometimes add a few dried fruits like dried cranberries in. Basically figure about 1/2 cup of liquid to about 2 tablespoon of the chia seeds. If that is too thick (or not thick enough) adjust with more or less chia seeds until you get the consistency you, or your kids, prefer. This is a great snack.
I had read somewhere on the ‘Net that this Ugandan coffee was one of the best coffees Trader Joe’s has offered.
So I had to check it out. I saw it on the shelf of NEW ITEMS but I was leaving and already had too much to carry, so just made a mental note to buy a bag the next day. Of course the next day when I went back, there wasn’t any more of it!
Sold out. Of course by their very nature “small lot” means these coffees come in a limited batch from small producers. Think Limited Editions. What a bummer. But fortunately it just so happened that my upstairs neighbor happened to have a bag of this coffee. She generously offered me some of the coffee, so that I could review it. Bless her. I ground some beans up. The aroma was just fantastic. I mean it smelled AMAZINGLY good.
Then I brewed it up. Wow. Was I impressed. I was almost shocked at just how good this coffee tasted. Not to mention this may be the first time I’d even tried a coffee from Uganda come to think of it. I am sold. A fan. I definitely agreed with all those who gave this high marks. This must be one of the best coffees I’ve tried from Trader Joe’s, period.
The Mountains of the Moon UGANDA RWENZORI coffee is just a fantastic tasting coffee, which I found wonderfully balanced. To my taste buds its just perfect, hitting all right notes. Bold and robust but not over powering, it was both a little sweet and a little bitter, both smooth and robust, tasting surely like an “African” coffee a little ascertic and winy and yes even had those “notes of chocolate” describe on the bag. This is just terrific. Also TJ’s got it right that this is actually a “medium roast” as described (sometimes TJ’s roast descriptions are off). I loved this coffee and want more. I’m crossing my fingers we see it again (might be next harvest?) If by any chance you see it, do yourself a favor and grab a bag if you can. I have a feeling anyone who considers themselves a coffee lover is going to love this. If/when I see it again, I will be sure to stock up on a few bags. ($8.99 12 oz bag, whole bean)
Trader Giotto’s CHICKEN PICCATA – Seasoned, breaded boneless chicken breasts with a lemon and caper sauce
“Our Chicken Picatta is made for us using a special family recipe. Boneless, skinless chicken breasts are seasoned and breaded then baked in the oven until crispy. We then add a buttery, lemon and caper sauce to complete the dish. A timeless Italian American classic that tastes like you made it from scratch” (-On the package)
This is actually pretty good. So if you want a tasty dinner that all you have to do is Heat & Eat, Trader Joe’s CHICKEN PICATTA with Lemon Caper Sauce dish could do the trick. Especially say on a hot day when you don’t want to cook? Or make that any day you don’t want to cook.
My upstairs neighbor actually wanted to check out this Heat and Eat dish to see if it was worth it. She invited my wife and myself to dinner for a review and tasting.
So how was it? Well I was at bit surprised at how good the dish actually tasted. In fact, all three of us who tried it all said it was quite tasty, though we all thought there were a few things that could be improved. Needs way more capers to start with.
My neighbor who loves capers almost as much as I do, wanted more capers. Since we had them in the fridge, we tossed in a tablespoon of capers in the sauce, and that did make it better. Capers are the whole point for me; This needs capers added. So get a jar if you don’t have any. We also thought some fresh lemon would improve it so we added a squeeze of lemon juice. Those simple things really improved the whole dish and made it taste almost homemade.
If you don’t have a jar of capers in the fridge (I do) then at least give this a squeeze of a quarter of a lemon, as that will really improve the sauce to make it taste almost homemade. If you add a tablespoon of butter that would not be amiss either!
To cook the dish, we followed Trader Joe’s “recommended method” instructions to bake it in the oven. I really recommend baking this over nuking it. It will be best baked in the oven, as in the oven the chicken will crisp up a bit. PLUS when you add the sauce at the very end, it will reduce a little and get a little browned and bubbly, both of which adds flavor. So baking is best and worth any little extra effort.
The chicken breasts were actually tender and juicy, and of course the sauce helps a lot with this as you bake it with sauce so they were moist. The included lemon caper sauce was tasty, however they don’t give us enough capers IMO. If you add capers, lemon juice and a pat of butter it will really make this dish taste almost like you made it yourself.
RECOMMENDED HEATING INSTRUCTIONS (OVEN): Preheat oven to 375. Set sauce packet aside. Remove packaging and place chicken pieces on a rimmed baking sheet or pan. Place in oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until hot. Remove from oven and pour sauce over chicken. Return to oven for about 3 minutes or until sauce looks bubbly and slightly browned. Optional: add a few tablespoons of capers, a tablespoon of butter and squeeze a quarter of a lemon over your dish. To serve restaurant style you can plate with thin slices of lemon on top.
SERVING: Plate the chicken with sauce. If you add some slices of lemon on top it will look like it came from a restaurant.
PORTION SIZE: The box states “Serves 3”. Ha! Who are they kidding. Maybe they mean serves 3 kids? No way this “serves three” adults. They do include a generous amount of sauce but there is not that much chicken. In the package we got, there were 2 large pieces of chicken plus 2 small pieces. Realistically I say this “serves 2“.
I did manage to stretch this to serve three adults. I made sides to go with this.
I made a little quick easy pasta with zucchini & garlic for a side to have enough food to feed three for dinner. PS pasta goes perfectly with this, especially orzo I would suggest for that sauce.
So realistically this package will make 2 portions for dinner. Figure 3 portions which you could stretch by adding sides. Serve this with some rice or orzo, potatoes or a pasta and maybe a salad and/or a veg. Some nice crusty bread for mopping up that lemon caper sauce?
So in short we thought that Trader Joe’s Chicken Piccata with Lemon Caper sauce was good, and improved if you add some more capers to it. Find this in the refrigerated section with other prepared dishes. It’s $8.99 (16 oz).
I would buy this again.
Addendum: Many months later. I wanted to try my hand at making this dish myself so I did it. Here’s a shot of my own home made CHICKEN PICCATTA from scratch. Fantastic and not terribly hard to make. Recipe I used as a guide line follows (I did not use heavy cream as per the recipe, I made a roux with some home made chicken stock) And added a TON of capers!
You will find this stuff mentioned all over Instagram, TikTok and Reddit. Its quite good, maybe one of Trader Joe’s best New Items.
They took TJ’s incredibly popular Unexpected Cheddar cheese and made it into a spread like a pub cheese by adding things like butter and whey to make that hard cheese now spreadable. What a great idea, no?
Trader Joe’s says: “Our supplier combines our crumbly Unexpected Cheddar with salted butter and whey to create a superbly savory, creamy Cheese Spread that’s ready to enhance sandwiches and glorify grazing boards with the simple flick of a knife. Spread this pub-style cheese on a Raisin Rosemary Crisp, and you’ve got one classy snack on your hands. You might also add it to an appetizer of puff pastry topped with chopped figs to bring out its subtle fruity notes. No matter how you use it, it’s guaranteed to be a real crowd-cheeser.” (ok a groan for the bad pun)
Search around you you’ll find pictures using this spread to make the trendy fancy “cheese boards” which are all the rage on Instagram. Here’s TJ’s idea to make one with this spread, nuts and honey
Remove cheese spread from refrigerator 30 minutes prior to assembly to help soften.
To a medium-sized cutting board, use a butter knife or spoon to spread the unexpected cheddar over the entire board, leaving a small outer rim exposed. Use your utensil to make swooping motions as you spread to help create nooks and crannies.
Top with chopped pecans, thyme leaves, and a drizzle of honey.
This flavor is the one I’m now seeing of TJ’s yummy “bread cheese“. This “pizza seasoned bread cheese” is quite good, perhaps dangerously good!
Just grilling it with some halved cherry tomatoes basically I came up with kind of a “deconstructed pizza” when I served the soft warm cheese with grilled cherry tomatoes and toasted bread. A drizzle of EVOO and a sprig of fresh basil completed the picture. What’s not to like? All the flavor and fun of pizza in five minutes. Eat it while it’s still gooey and melt-y. I would say a package made roughly two portions. I’d go with “sauté” and not microwave as grilling it will brown it more and so be better that way. This Pizza Bread cheese version is now $1.99 (!) Used to be over $4.
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