Saturday, January 12, 2013

Cordon Bleu Oven Cravers by Koch Foods


So the Fall semester is over and I have more free time now, so I decided to start writing here again. I also started several other blogs that you can check out by clicking on my profile link, and taking a look at the other blogs. Here for this review, I have Cordon Bleu Oven Cravers by Koch Foods. I never tried this frozen product before but I knew of its existence for over a year; I first spotted it at the PathMark store near the Barclays Center in downtown Brooklyn, but I never bothered buying it for some reason. Last week they had it on sale at $2.99 from the regular price of $3.99 at the local Associated mart, so I decided to buy one and see how it tastes. There are 3 products within the breaded lineup that I have seen around the city: Cordon Bleu (blue ribbon), Chicken Broccoli (green ribbon) and Chicken Kiev (yellow ribbon). The manufacturer [Koch Foods] according to their website also has a product line without the breading, but I never seen it within any marts that I have been to in NYC. As per box instructions, this product is not microwave oven compatible and only works in regular stove. 400 degrees for around 30 minutes is what I went with.



Back of the box.


'

Box-O'-Vision.



Individually packed cordon bleus.



Cold cordon bleus.



Baked cordon bleus.



Inside of the cordon bleus.


Inside of the cordon bleu, there is some gooey cheese, ham slices [the better/pricier kind of ham] and the whole thing is made out of chicken breast, which is coated in breading. I kinda tried to find the seams within chicken breast since I was curious about how they get the stuffing inside, but I did not find any. Cooling time is around 5 or so minutes, and it is ready to be cut and consumed. After I took the first bite out of this thing, I was pretty much hooked on it, it just tastes so good. It is very well-balanced product in terms of all ingredients coming into play with each other, the cheese in particular. The chicken meat is very tender and juicy, not dry and flavorless. The only downside to these cordon bleu Oven Cravers is the 30-minute cooking time, which sucks when you are hungry. I rate these cordon bleus at 4.7/5.0 with a value rating of 4.8/5.0 [at the sale price of $2.99 per box of 2 cordon bleus]. I definitely recommend this product and I already bought 6 more boxes of it while the sale was still on and the shelves were stocked with it. In a way when I bought the first box, I was kinda comparing this product to a box of Hot Pockets, with similar value, shape, weight and stuffing. The major difference between the Oven Cravers and Hot Pockets is that instead of a dough shell there is a chicken meat shell, so I kinda see the Oven Cravers as "better person's Hot Pockets" and the difference in taste is just on a whole different level, while the price is pretty much the same to maybe a little bit higher.