Chicken salad is a favorite of mine when lunch time comes around. Whether I’m eating lunch during my workday or packing a picnic with the family, there is something delicious about that combination of chicken, mayonnaise, and seasonings, along with some sliced almonds or other crunchy bits.
Trader Joe’s, which is a cousin to Aldi, sells several takes on chicken salad, including a unique curry chicken salad.
If a prepared lunch is more your thing, TJ’s also sells a ready-to-eat chicken salad wrap that caught my eye. It features tarragon, white meat chicken, celery, almonds, parsley, and romaine lettuce in a flour tortilla. It’s sold in a plastic clamshell package that is easy to drop in a lunch bag or a cooler for lunch on the go. You’ll find this wrap in the refrigerated aisle with all of the prepared sandwiches and salads at Trader Joe’s.
Trader Joe’s Tarragon Chicken Salad Wrap cost $5.49 for a 10-ounce package at the time of publication.
The package contains a single large wrap cut into two servings, and the nutrition panel states that this contains two servings, which comes out to about $2.75 per serving. Some people who are really hungry might want to eat the entire package, but I’ve found that one serving is plenty especially when paired with some fruit or chips.
The wrap I bought had a best-by date a couple of days out from the day I purchased it. Because this contains fresh ingredients such as lettuce, you’ll want to eat it soon after buying it. You’ll also want to keep it refrigerated until you’re ready to eat it.
If you’re looking out for allergens, this contains egg, soy, wheat, and almond.
The ingredients list is fairly lengthy because it accounts for everything that goes into the chicken salad as well as the the ingredients in the tortilla. While ingredients are mostly easily recognizable, the chicken salad contains a few processed ingredients such as natural flavor and xanthan gum, while the tortilla contains soy lecithin, guar gum, and natural flavor.
Nutrition information and ingredients. (Click to enlarge.)
This does have some sodium and fat, but not as much as some other ready-to-eat wraps or sandwiches I’ve seen. One serving (half of the package, or one wrap portion) has 340 calories, 20 grams of total fat (26% DV), 2 grams of saturated fat (10% DV), 30 mg of cholesterol (10% DV), 380 mg of sodium (17% DV), 30 grams of total carbohydrates (11% DV), 4 grams of dietary fiber (14% DV), 1 gram of total sugars, no added sugars, and 14 grams of protein.
I ate this on the same day I purchased it, and it made for a nice workday lunch for me when I paired it with some Trader Joe’s Spicy Tempura Seaweed Snacks (which were surprisingly good even though I don’t typically like seaweed). One half of this wrap package was plenty to fill me up for the afternoon.
The amount of actual chicken salad in this wrap feels a little on the light side compared to how much wrap and lettuce there is, and I would have preferred a little more chicken salad. The chicken salad itself is flavorful, with a subtle herby taste. I like the crunchy almonds in it. This has a lot of romaine lettuce, which sometimes overpowers the chicken salad. Having more chicken salad in the wrap would help with that.
The tortilla has a slightly gummy texture from the moisture of the chicken salad and from being in the fridge, but that tends to come with the territory with a premade wrap.
The Verdict:
The Trader Joe’s Tarragon Chicken Salad Wrap features white meat chicken, celery, almonds, parsley, tarragon, and romaine lettuce in a flour tortilla. The chicken salad is flavorful, but we wish there was a little more of it and maybe a little less romaine lettuce. It’s not a bad option if you’re looking for a quick lunch on the go, though.
