You know it’s getting close to Thanksgiving when the pumpkin products start to fade and we get stuffing in everything! Welcome to Trader Joe’s Turkey Sausage Stuffing Fried Rice!
We all love Trader Joe’s whimsy, or we wouldn’t shop there. You never know what to expect when you go into the store. They love to mash up different cuisines and food groups and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. I am not fond of the Chocolate Hummus.
It was too weird for me. The Philly Cheesesteak Bao Buns were decent, but not great. I appreciated the effort that went into thinking that up and bringing it to market. You get the drift, Trader Joe’s loves to do this. Many of these food items don’t last very long on the shelves, but some come back year after year. This Trader Joe’s Turkey Sausage Stuffing Fried Rice could be one of those seasonal things that I could see coming back year after year.
Trader Joe’s decided to mash up a traditional Asian dish, fried rice, and mix it with a traditional American food holiday, Thanksgiving. Trader Joe’s chefs combined fried rice and vegetables and mixed them with little turkey sausage balls for a unique twist on the traditional Thanksgiving meal.
There really isn’t much different from their regular frozen chicken fried rice, except the mix of vegetables and the turkey sausage. The chicken fried rice is fairly neutral in flavor and I am always adding sauces to spice things up. This Turkey Sausage Fried Rice is pretty full of flavor.
From the minute I opened the frozen bag, I realized that it was going to be flavorful. I could smell the Thanksgiving melange of herbs drifting out of the bag. Sage and thyme dominated the aromas.
I decided not to use the microwave for this preparation and did it in the wok with a little oil. It takes a little longer but I think gives a better result as the rice gets “fried” and crispy. Again, the sage smell dominated but wasn’t too strong, but was a nice pleasant smell. If you don’t like sage, you probably won’t like this. This Trader Joe’s fried rice has more green beans and no peas compared to the other Chicken fried rice they sell.
A unique twist to this dish, it looks like you could stuff a bird with it! I’m sure if I spent enough time thinking about it, I could come up with a decent stuffing from this fried rice. Hmmm… Anyway, this bag has almost 900 calories. It’s not enough for two meals and too much for one person. I ate about 3/4 of the bag and saved some for the dogs. It’s quite filling! I really like this. For $3.99 a bag, you can’t go wrong. Frozen things like this are great for lunch or dinner when you don’t want to cook. I could see college students living off this stuff for weeks.
Final Verdict
I really liked this Trader Joe’s Turkey Sausage Stuffing Fried Rice. It has traditional American Thanksgiving flavors in a semi-Asian preparation. Very unique and the kind of food we expect from Trader Joe’s! At $4.99 for 16 ounces of food, it doesn’t get any better than this if you want some cheap good eats.
I will give this 8 Bells!
Ingredients
COOKED RICE (WATER, RICE), COOKED SEASONED TURKEY SAUSAGE (TURKEY, WATER, CONTAINS LESS THAN 2% OF SALT, RICE STARCH, SUGAR, SPICE, YEAST EXTRACT), CARROTS, GREEN BEANS, CORN, CANOLA OIL, PANKO BREAD CRUMBS (UNBLEACHED WHEAT FLOUR, SUGAR, YEAST, SALT), CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF FRIED ONIONS (ONIONS, ENRICHED FLOUR [WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMIN MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID], SUNFLOWER OIL, SALT), KELP EXTRACT (WATER, KELP EXTRACT, DEXTRIN, ALCOHOL, SALT, XANTHAN GUM), SALT, ONIONS, RENDERED CHICKEN FAT (CHICKEN FAT, MIXED TOCOPHEROLS), CHICKEN BROTH BASE (CHICKEN BROTH, AUTOLYZED YEAST EXTRACT, CHICKEN FAT, MODIFIED CORNSTARCH, SUGAR, NATURAL FLAVOR), SEASONING BLEND (DEHYDRATED ONION, DEHYDRATED GARLIC, THYME, PARSLEY, ROSEMARY, CELERY SEED, SAGE), CELERY, BUTTER (CREAM, LACTIC ACID), BLACK PEPPER, SUGAR, YEAST EXTRACT (YEAST EXTRACT, DEXTRIN), TURMERIC (FOR COLOR), ANNATTO EXTRACT (FOR COLOR).
- CONTAINS MILK, AND WHEAT.
Nutritional Information
| SERVES ABOUT 3 | AMOUNT | %DV |
|---|---|---|
| Total Fat | 11 g | 14% |
| Saturated Fat | 1.5 g | 8% |
| Trans Fat | 0 g | |
| Cholesterol | 10 mg | 3% |
| Sodium | 510 mg | 22% |
| Total Carbohydrate | 39 g | 14% |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g | 4% |
| Total Sugars | 2 g | |
| Includes | 0 g Added Sugars | 0% |
| Protein | 7 g | |
| Vitamin D | 0 mcg | 0% |
| Calcium | 20 mg | 2% |
| Iron | 0.6 mg | 4% |
| Potassium | 160 mg | 4% |
Are you crazy? Autolyzed yeast extract, and all the rest of the crap in there. No don’t eat that it’s a recipe for Alzheimer’s.
Just shows how little you know about food. Autolyzed yeast extract is simply dead yeast and is a flavoring agent.