Man I love chicken wings. I can eat a ton of them! Unfortunately the are not the healthiest thing out there for you. But, I have been called a human garbage disposal because I’ll eat almost anything once! I idolize Anthony Bourdain (RIP Tony) and his ability to eat the weirdest crap out there. I can’t eat the way I used to when I was a kid. My family thought I had a hollow leg because they didn’t know where I could put all that food in such a skinny body. Not the case anymore, but I still have bouts of gorging myself with little apparent affect to my weight. Sorry, I just have one of those metabolisms that let me eat almost anything I want!
Back to the wings! I’m no expert on wings. I didn’t grow up in Buffalo, NY or anything like that. I just know good wings when I have them. The are usually deep fried without batter and then tossed in a hot sauce that is made out of butter. Pretty simple! And oh so good!
These are clearly in the camp of the Mandarin Chicken end of the spectrum. These are deep fried in a batter and then all you do is bake them for a while in the oven until they get crispy. Trader Joe’s mentions that they flash fried them twice to get the perfect texture on them. I agree, they’ve done a great job to make sure that they are pretty darn good version of deep fried chicken wings. The kicker is that after you heat them in the oven, you pour this soy, garlic sauce over them to spice things up!
I thought they tasted like someone dumped Soyaki and deep fried chicken wings.(In fact, you could probably get some wings at KFC and soyaki and experiment!) A little too much breading on them for me. Sauce was garlicy and spicy which I liked. Says 5 servings per bag, but really it’s 1 or 2 (I ate all the wings in the bag!). Lots of fat and carbs. Wings tasted great with the sauce on them. They do turn out nice and crispy!
I see on the Trader Joe’s website that they may be on their last legs, but the website is dated October 2011 and I bought mine in February 2012 so either it’s the end of the stock on hand or they are still around. I can see why they might be so popular so I can see why they might be back from a hiatus.
You know, I might be tempted to buy these again. My kids like wings and I like them too. I could bake up a batch without sauce and one with and we can all eat them together!
I’m going to give these Trader Joe’s Crispy Spicy Chicken Wings 7 Bells
Love your blog! I am always looking for reviews of TJ products before I buy them, or discover new products I've never noticed before. Your reviews are spot on. Wish I had read your blog before I bought Green Fin Red Wine – it's terrible – I threw it in frig hoping to use it in a recipe because it's undrinkable.