The Trader Joe's Filipino-Style Food We'll Likely Never Buy Again

Shopping at Trader Joe's can be a bit of a culinary adventure, especially when you hit the frozen food section. There are over a hundred options to choose from, with a rich selection of cuisines from all over the world. If you're ready to move on from the best frozen pasta Trader Joe's has to offer, you can easily jump over to the next freezer containing Asian frozen meals. There is, however, one item there that you should definitely avoid, especially since it's such a bad representation of the cuisine that inspired it.

In Mashed's ranking of Trader Joe's frozen Asian foods, the unforgivably untasty Filipino adobo came in dead last. It offers nothing for people who are already familiar with the dish — and therefore probably already have access to much better options — and it's also a very disappointing introduction to Filipino cuisine for first-timers.

If you're in the mood for easy-to-reheat Asian food, you're better off going with the top-ranked mandarin orange chicken instead. The orange-and-ginger glaze offers bold flavor, while the interplay between the tender dark chicken meat and its crispy coating makes every bite a joy. For those who correctly point out that orange chicken is technically Chinese-American, the second-ranked Korean tteokbokki (or "tteok bok ki", as Trader Joe's labels it) will satisfy even the most stringent of purists. The rice cakes are delightfully chewy, and the sauce manages to hit an accessible spice level without losing the sweet-umami flavors that balance everything out. You'll have a much better experience with either of these than with the frozen adobo.

Based on our taste test, Trader Joe's adobo didn't have any real flavor beyond vinegary umami. That in itself is a pretty big problem. A lot of Filipino food leans toward bold, robust flavors because these dishes are eaten with rice, which mellows the palate to a point where everything just works incredibly well together. Add to that the fact that the chicken itself felt like gristle-covered cardboard instead of tender, juicy, slow-braised protein, and it's just a huge miss on all levels.

One look at the ingredients is enough to tell you that this isn't Filipino adobo. The list includes a chicken base that contains turmeric and celery seed, a mushroom base, and green onion — none of which belong in a traditional adobo. What you really want in a classic adobo is a strong, flavorful balance between just a handful of ingredients: soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, bay leaf, peppercorn, and the fattiness from slow-braised meat. Anything else distracts from that harmony and likely waters down that unique adobo flavor.

The sad part about all this is that there are many regional variations of adobo throughout the Philippines, and Trader Joe's doesn't seem to have landed on any of them. There's adobong puti ("white adobo"), which skips the soy sauce for a more acid- and spice-forward flavor profile, and some versions, like this chicken adobo recipe, add coconut milk for creaminess and depth. Adobong bisaya ("Visayan adobo") is another variant served sans broth; the protein is braised in the usual marinade, then fried separately before being served with rice and sauce on the side. Trader Joe's could have done any of these and still succeeded, but gave us this uninspired simulation of Filipino food instead.