Trader Joe’s Chicken Adobo
Trader Joe’s, which is a cousin to Aldi, has some of the more interesting frozen, single-serving meals I’ve seen in any grocery store. The paneer tikka masala is a personal favorite, as is the Thai green curry and the orange chicken bowl.
I’m always looking for frozen meals I haven’t tried yet at TJ’s, and during my most recent shopping trip, I picked up some chicken Adobo. The front of the box describes this as “Filipino style” and says it consists of dark meat chicken in a “savory, sweet and tangy sauce with garlicky Jasmine rice.”
We buy products for review using our own money. I paid $4.29 for a 10.2-ounce package of Trader Joe’s Filipino Style Chicken Adobo in early 2026. That comes out to about 42 cents per ounce.
The package states:
Filipino Adobo is the unoffocial national dish of the Philippines. The main ingredients in Adobo (meaning ‘sauce’ or ‘marinade’ in the Spanish/Tagalog language) are soy sauce, vinegar and garlic. It’s often found served with meat, seafood or vegetables as the base, with the most common protein being chicken. This version is served with dark meat chicken with a side of garlic rice, another popular dish commonly found in Filipino cuisine.
If you’re looking out for allergens, this contains milk, soy, and wheat.
One box is one serving. One serving has 270 calories, 8 grams of total fat (10% DV), 1 gram of saturated fat (5% DV), 500 mg of sodium (22% DV), 35 grams of total carbohydrates (13% DV), 1 gram of dietary fiber (4% DV), 1 gram of total sugars, less than 1 gram of added sugars (2% DV), and 14 grams of protein.
The box has directions for heating this from frozen in the microwave. Remove the tray from the outer packaging and pierce the film two or three times with a fork. Heat on high for 4 minutes. Peel the film back and stir. Heat for an additional 1-2 minutes until heated through or until 165 degrees is reached. Let stand for 1 minute. Carefully remove the film and serve.
This was a cinch to heat in the microwave. The portions are not large (just 270 calories for the whole meal), so I ate this with a side salad to get a couple of servings of veggies in.
As for how this tastes, it wasn’t the most flavorful frozen meal I’ve had from Trader Joe’s. The garlic rice just tasted like rice, and the chicken and sauce were fine but didn’t seem to have much in the way of seasoning. This was okay for lunch, but it’s not one I’ll buy again.
The Verdict:
Trader Joe’s Filipino Style Chicken Adobo features dark meat chicken in sauce with rice on the side. It looked promising, but we thought it was on the bland side. Personal preferences may vary, but we think there are tastier single-serving frozen meals at TJ’s.
