Trader Joe's Frozen Mandarin Chicken

The Trader Joe's mandarin orange chicken is a frozen meal that costs $5 and feeds 2 people. My roommate and I eat it at least once a week because the sauce caramelizes in the oven , and it makes it taste like takeout rather than a microwave dinner. Chicken pieces are pre-breaded and frozen separately from the sauce packets, and you bake them first until they are crispy and then toss them with the heated sauce. Is a 2-step process that takes about 25 minutes but produces a result that is noticeably better than dumping everything into a pan together. Trader Joe's has built a following around products like this that deliver good food at low prices with minimal branding and no pretension. Mandarin chicken is probably their best example of that formula. The line at Trader Joe's is always long, but I keep going back.