This Trader Joe's Frozen Food Aisle Item Punches Well Above Its Price Point

Trader Joe's offers cult-favorite products in every category, but its frozen Asian foods are particularly popular with shoppers. With items like pork and ginger soup dumplings dominating the grocer's annual Customer Choice Awards and Mandarin orange chicken in the Trader Joe's Hall of Fame, it's clear that fans can't get enough. Like editor-approved Japanese favorites, including the elusive okonomiyaki vegetable pancake and limited-time soufflé cheesecakes, we argue that the Japanese-style fried rice is a delicious steal for the price.

It's been a longtime favorite of TJ's regulars and employees alike since at least 2017. According to the brand, it's modeled after takikomi gohan, a Japanese rice preparation made with soy sauce and mirin, a fermented sweet rice wine. Better yet, the rice is dappled with shelled edamame, deep-fried tofu, and hijiki seaweed, a wild brown variety found on the Japanese coast. Best of all, a bag of the vegan, gluten-free dish (which comfortably feeds two) costs $3.99.

Mashed contributor Nicole Melchionda included this TJ's pick in a roundup of 15 frozen foods that don't taste cheap. "Speaking from personal experience, I always have Japanese-Style Fried Rice from Trader Joe's in my freezer," she wrote. "It may not sound like much, but this combo gets your appetite going enough to tempt you into ripping open another bag to cook. The rice stays moist, and it has a nice balance of flavors due to the soy sauce and tangy mirin combo."

Preparing Trader Joe's Japanese-style fried rice is easy. It's precooked, so it simply needs to be heated in a pan, wok, or microwave. To cook it on the stove, add oil to a nonstick skillet, add the rice, and cook for about five minutes until warmed through. For the microwave, you can steam it to perfection in the freezer bag in four minutes.

Compared to other frozen fried rice brands, it's pretty affordable. It's about half the price of most fried rice containing meat. That said, it still contains 9 grams of protein, thanks to tofu and edamame, and you can always add meat to make it more filling. Versus other vegetarian competitors, like P.F. Chang's, InnovAsian, and Whole Foods, this TJ's product is on par or cheaper than the average.

Fans say it's worth the buy. "I'm not sure what they put in this, but I could eat the whole bag myself," one Reddit user declares. "I use this to make hibachi bowls! I season the rice with ... Japanese BBQ sauce, do the same to shrimp and veggies ... then pair it with yum yum sauce," another suggests. "This is our lazy family go-to! I throw in an egg ... and serve it with shrimp and chicken," shares a third. "This is a huge hit in our house ... there will be rioting if they ever discontinue it," jokes a fourth.