Trader Joe's Chicken Chile Verde Burritos

More Mexican food! How can you go wrong with comida Mexicana? We've seen our share of tasty Mexican dishes...as well as a good number of epic fails. This is a new-ish frozen product, so we had to pick it up and give it the classic WG@TJ's taste test.

Conventional oven, air fryer, and microwave instructions are given on the packaging. If you've been following us for any amount of time, you can probably guess which route we went. Air fryer, ftw! 

And our burritos came out great. The tortilla was nice and crispy and the filling was piping hot after 18 minutes or so at 400°F. I can't imagine the microwave working quite as well.

The chicken was finely shredded but there was still enough to sink your teeth into. It was fairly mushy, but it wasn't just a mush. Though I'd have preferred all white meat chicken, the overall quality was very good. 

The chile verde and seasoning blend made for a tasty flavor—not very spicy, but potent enough to keep us coming back for more. There was onion, tomatillo, garlic, jalapeño, and black pepper in the mix. While salsa or hot sauce wouldn't be out of the question, the flavor was adequate without it.

$3.99 for two good-sized burritos, found in the frozen section. Would buy again. Product of Mexico. Eight out of ten stars from Sonia. Eight and a half out of ten stars from me.

Bottom line: 8.25 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Soft Pretzel Twists

Everybody in the US is familiar with soft pretzels, but those of us who grew up in Pennsylvania know them just a bit better than the rest. With a high percentage of German-Americans and a huge Pennsylvania Dutch community, PA produces 80% of the nation's pretzels. I even went to college with a guy whose aunt...is actually Auntie Anne, founder of the famous pretzel chain.

All that to say, my standards are pretty high. So how do Trader Joe's Soft Pretzel Twists hold up? Considering they're pre-packaged and shelf stable for a few days at least, they're not terrible. If you're just snacking on them straight out of the bag, you might not be blown away. But if you take great care to moisten them, heat them per the instructions, and apply the big, coarse granules of salt with precision, they're certainly passable.

Once again, we used our air fryer to heat the pretzels instead of the conventional oven. I just can't justify preheating the real oven just to stick a couple of pretzels in it for three minutes. At any rate, it worked. I was fine snacking on the pretzel by itself with maybe a dab or two of mustard. Sonia wasn't into the plain twists by themselves very much. She made pretzel dogs and quite enjoyed them that way, though. I did, too. If we'd had some pub cheddar on hand, they'd have been great dunked in it.

$3.49 for six soft pretzels. Kosher. Put this on the might​ repurchase list. Seven and a half out of ten stars from Sonia, who wishes the pretzels were bigger and came with regular salt rather than the oversized granules. Eight out of ten stars from me for Trader Joe's Soft Pretzel Twists.

Bottom line: 7.75 out of 10.