When you need quick and easy meals on busy nights, Aldi has several good options. If you want casual, there are the various take and bake pizzas in the store’s refrigerated deli section. If you’re serving just a couple of people, Aldi sells some intriguing quick-heat refrigerated entrees such as Thai coconut chicken, brisket, pulled pork, and burnt ends. For something nicer or perhaps more suitable for company, the fresh meat section offers a few choices, including some seasoned chicken breasts in different flavors, Mediterranean seasoned salmon, or these teriyaki chicken thighs I recently picked up.
Teriyaki Seasoned Chicken Thighs cost $5.99 per pound at the time of publication. I purchased a 1.85-lb. package for a total of $11.08. I purchased a package on August 24th that had a sell-by date of September 6th. The package describes this as “seasoned, uncooked, boneless, skinless chicken thighs with teriyaki seasoning.”
This appears to be a Regular Buy, which means you should be able to find it at Aldi any time of year.
If you’re looking out for allergens, this contains wheat, soy, and sesame.
This chicken is a product of the U.S. and contains seasoned boneless chicken thighs with up to a 20% solution that includes sugar, teriyaki seasoning, water, brown sugar, sea salt, vegetable oil, natural flavors, dehydrated carrot, caramel color, xanthan gum, and dry green onion.
One package has a varying number of servings, with one 4-ounce serving netting you 170 calories, 4.5 grams of total fat (6% DV), 1 gram of saturated fat (5% DV), 770 mg of sodium (33% DV), 12 grams of total carbohydrates (4% DV), 11 grams of total sugars, and 8 grams of added sugars (16% DV).
Nutrition information, ingredients, and cooking directions. (Click to enlarge.)
The package has directions for grilling, cooking the chicken in a skillet on the stovetop, or baking the chicken in a conventional oven. Keep in mind that however you cook this, chicken thigh sizes vary, and larger thighs may require longer cooking times.
To grill, pre-heat the grill to medium-high heat. Place chicken on the grill rack and cook on one side for 7 minutes. Flip and cook approximately 5-7 more minutes until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees.
To cook in a skillet, heat 1-2 tablespoons of vegetable oil over medium-high heat for 1 minute. Place chicken in the skillet and cook for approximately 4-5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium, flip over, and cook for an additional 4-5 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 165 degrees.
To bake, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Place chicken on the baking sheet and bake uncovered for 12-14 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 165 degrees.
Cooked and ready to serve.
I baked these in my oven. As the package indicates, there are a good number of different-sized chicken thigh pieces in here, so it took a little longer to fully cook some of the larger pieces. I ended up baking this chicken for 18-20 minutes to get it all up to 165 degrees internally.
I served the chicken alongside some Aldi chicken fried rice and some buttered green beans. The rice was a nice complement to the seasoned chicken. The chicken itself was tender and had that classic sweet flavor I expect with teriyaki, and it also had just a hint of kick to it, but not enough to even call it mildly spicy. I liked this chicken better than some of the seasoned chicken breast options at Aldi, and if you’re serving an Asian-inspired meal, this is a good option.
The Verdict:
Teriyaki Seasoned Chicken Thighs are easy to bake, grill, or cook in a skillet. They have good teriyaki flavor and can be enjoyed on their own or paired with rice and other Asian-inspired sides. If you’re looking for an easy ready-to-cook dinner option in the fresh meat aisle at Aldi, this might be worth a try.
