Nothing says community quite like a big ol’ Southern-style seafood boil. You’ll never feel closer to your neighbors than when you’re all hunched over a picnic table, elbow deep in clam shells and shrimp tails and absolutely going to town on some freshly boiled corn on the cob. Sometimes though, you might crave a seafood boil without the social factor. That’s where a frozen seafood boil in a bag comes in.
You can put away the gargantuan stock pot and save those old newspapers for something else, because Trader Joe’s now sells a frozen seafood boil that’s perfectly sized for two (or one if you’re very hungry). All you have to do is toss the bag in boiling water and in around 20 minutes you have a bowlful of shrimp, tilapia chunks, itty-bitty clams, corn, potatoes, and andouille sausage, all in a buttery seasoned sauce. At $9.99 for two servings, this is slightly pricier than your average Trader Joe’s frozen meal, but could it be worth it if it makes for a flavorful, convenient Cajun dining experience? We tasted it to find out.
- Trader Joe’s Seafood Boil
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I was a little skeptical at first, but then I opened the package and…well, it looks like a seafood boil. It smells like a seafood boil. Why wouldn’t it taste like a seafood boil? Will this replace my trips to the Boiling Crab? Probably not. Does it give me a way to satisfy my boiled seafood cravings without breaking the bank? Most definitely.
Pros: For a store bought frozen frozen seafood boil in a bag, this is good. The main thing that sold it for me was how perfectly cooked everything was. The tilapia was tender but not mushy, the sausage and shrimp still had their signature chew but weren’t chewy, and the corn and potatoes were nice and firm—the corn on the cob even has juice and pop. The flavors are also really satisfying. There’s a smoky and briny seasoning with a nice buildable spice that stays in the back of your throat and isn’t too weak or too strong. The butter garlic sauce everything swims in is wonderfully rich and coats your lips in the most satisfying way. I’m a seafood lover, but I have to shout out the andouille sausage as my favorite component of the boil. It’s nicely seasoned and meaty—in the buttery sauce, it’s a flavor explosion. This product deserves major props for accomplishing the big feat it set out to do. Did Trader Joe’s make a really good, really easy frozen seafood boil? They sure did!
Cons: While I loved the spicy, buttery, garlicky sauce, I still think it could have more spice and garlic (the butter levels are A-ok). Since the sauce doesn’t permeate all of the boil’s elements, it’s important that the sauce is flavorful enough to make an impression. While it really soaked into the smaller pieces of tilapia and shrimp, the potatoes and larger hunks of fish weren’t as flavorful. My colleague Jordan Myrick also found the clams were a bit gritty, and, while I was lucky enough to avoid any grit, knowing that I could’ve gotten a gritty clam made the whole thing somewhat less enticing.
