Trader Joe’s Crispy Rice Salmon Bites Review – I really wanted to love these. I really like salmon and being from the Pacific Northwest, we eat it all the time. But at the end of the day, this was a mess and I hope Trader Joe’s pulls these from the freezer soon. I wouldn’t bother with them unless they can fix them somehow.
On the surface, this sounds like a great match up. Salmon rolled in a tempura batter, then rolled in crispy rice and sesame seeds served with something Trader Joe’s calls “Dynamite Sauce” which is just a spicy aioli made with Sriracha chili sauce. All of this sound great on paper and the picture on the box looks great! I was really looking forward to making this for a party we were having.
The first hint that something was off, was when I pulled it out of the box. The bag was full of “nuggets” of salmon bites that had been rolling around in the back of a car on a bumpy road. Bits and pieces of the coating had fallen off in the bag. Some of the nuggets were fused together by the batter. I tried pulling them apart and some of them came apart and some just stayed together. I threw them all on the baking sheet at the recommended temperature. You are supposed to bake them for 12-14 minute, but turning them halfway so they cook evenly.
The second snafu was that when I went to turn them, they stuck to my “non-stick” baking sheet. Not all of them, but some of them. They were getting kind of browned on the side touching the sheet. The ones that didn’t stick and rip the coating off of, looked pretty good. After another 7 minutes I pulled the bites out and let them cool off. In the meantime, I had defrosted the Dynamite Sauce and cut a little corner off the bag so I could pipe the sauce on top of the bites.
When they were cool enough, I put the Dynamite Sauce on them and started to eat. Crispy would be a stretch here. There were bits of the crust that were crunchy, but I was expecting something that was crunchy on the surface and tender in the middle. The salmon was indeed tender, but you lose all flavor with the sriracha sauce on them. My son said it tastes like the sriracha sauce that McDonald’s puts on their hamburgers sometimes. It wasn’t all that spicy but the aioli combined with a richness of the salmon was really a mouthful and was a little too rich for me. The coating turned out a little gummy in sections and also came off in sections with or without sticking to the baking sheet.
At $6.99 a box, I would skip these and gets some of the crispy shrimp right next to it in the freezer section. Much better and costs less.
INGREDIENTS:
SALMON (COLOR ADDED), DYNAMITE SAUCE (MAYONNAISE [WATER, SOYBEAN OIL, SUGAR, DISTILLED VINEGAR, SALT, MODIFIED CORNSTARCH, EGG YOLKS, XANTHAN GUM, YEAST EXTRACT, MUSTARD OIL], SRIRACHA CHILI SAUCE [RED CHILI PEPPERS. SUGAR, SALT, GARLIC, FISH EXTRACT{ANCHOVY}, ACETIC ACID, ASCORBIC ACID {TO MAINTAIN COLOR}], WATER, SESAME OIL, SESAME SEEDS, SOY SAUCE [WATER, SOYBEANS, WHEAT, SALT, ETHYL ALCOHOL]), TEMPURA BATTER MIX (UNBLEACHED ENRICHED FLOUR [WHEAT FLOUR, NICIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMINE MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID], WHEAT STARCH, BAKING POWDER [SODIUM ACID PYROPHOSPHATE, SODIUM BICARBONATE, CORNSTARCH, MONOCALCIUM PHOSPHATE]), CRISP RICE (RICE, SUGAR, SALT, BARLEY MALT EXTRACT), WATER, SESAME SEEDS, BLACK SESAME SEEDS, SEA SALT.
CONTAINS EGG, SOY, WHEAT, ANCHOVY, SALMON.
NUTRITION FACTS:
About 3 servings per container | Serving size 4 pieces with 2 tablespoons of sauce (112g) | Amount per serving: Calories 280
Total Fat 15g (19% DV), Saturated Fat 2.5g (13% DV), Trans Fat 0g, Cholesterol 35mg (12% DV), Sodium 680mg (30% DV), Total Carbohydrate 25g (9% DV), Dietary Fiber 0g (0% DV), Total Sugars 6g—Includes 4g Added Sugars (8% DV), Protein 12g, Vitamin D (20% DV), Calcium (4% DV), Iron (6% DV), Potassium (6% DV).
The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a serving of food contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
