Trader Joe’s: Thai Joe’s Lemongrass Chicken Stix

Aldi’s cousin, Trader Joe’s, sells a decent selection of familiar staple food items. You can easily find breakfast cereal, fresh meat, nuts, potato chips, and frozen French fries.

And Trader Joe’s also sells more unique items, including Indian food, rainbow cauliflower, novelty gummy candy, and lemongrass chicken stix. Today, we’re trying the chicken stix.

Trader Joe’s Lemongrass Chicken Stix cost $3.49 for an 8.8-oz. box at the time of publication. These are found in the freezer section.

They are described as “crispy & crunchy spring-roll wrappers filled with lemongrass-flavored chicken.” They’re a product of the U.S.

Ingredients are as follows:

Filling: chicken meat, cabbage, sugar, cornstarch, lemongrass, green onion, soybean oil, ginger, salt, water, modified food starch, yeast extract, spices, and lemongrass flavor.

Wrapper: water, enriched flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, and folic acid), soybean oil, and salt.

Nutrition information and ingredients. (Click to enlarge.)

One box contains five servings, with two stix making one serving. A two-stix serving has 100 calories, 4.5 grams of total fat (7% DV), 1 gram of saturated fat (5% DV), 200 mg of sodium (8% DV), 10 grams of total carbohydrates (3% DV), 2 grams of sugars, and 5 grams of protein.

These should be kept frozen until ready to use. They can be prepared in a conventional oven or deep fryer. For best results, they should not be microwaved.

To heat them in the oven, set the oven rack to the top position. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Remove appetizers from packaging and arrange evenly on a baking sheet. Place the baking sheet in the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes or until heated through (with an internal temperature of 165 degrees).

To deep fry, preheat the deep fryer to 325 degrees. Cook appetizers for 3-4 minutes or until heated through (with an internal temperature of 165 degrees).

I cooked these in an air fryer at 330 degrees for about 12 minutes, until they were hot and crispy on the outside.

These taste as advertised. They’re crisp, flaky spring rolls filled with chicken and lemongrass. And the lemongrass flavor is unmistakably there. These are loaded with lemon-flavored chicken, with bits of cabbage mixed in. I like the flavors, but the lemon is so strong that if you don’t like lemon — or if you prefer your lemons to keep to lemonade and not get too experimental — then you may not care for these chicken stix.

I’m not sure if I’ll buy these again because their flavor is so different, and only half of my family liked them, but I’m glad we tried them. And if you’re a fan of lemons, they are a must try.

The Verdict:

Trader Thai’s Lemongrass Chicken Stix are crispy spring rolls filled with chicken, lemongrass, cabbage, and seasonings. The lemon flavor is very strong, so if you like lemon, these are for you.