Cuisine Adventures Green Chile Chicken Firecrackers Review
Author’s note: I wasn’t paid or compensated in any way for this review and I have no affiliation with Cuisine Adventures nor Costco.
Soul-crushing blandness in a crispy wrapper.
I saw these Green Chili Chicken Firecrackers on the internet a while back, and I was stoked to finally find them at Costco. I’ve been delighted with every “Cuisine Adventure” brand item I’ve bought so far. What could go wrong?
Meh. I might have had unrealistic expectations. I found them remarkably bland and a tad squashy inside. I mean, they ARE called “Firecrackers.” Firecrackers explode. Come on! Chile! It says “chile” on the box! I expected an exciting taste explosion. Something spicy and bursting with flavor.
Unfortunately, there’s NO spicy taste at all, and the flavors are only slightly noticeable over the egg roll taste of the shell. They need salt. They need zing. They need heat.
I liked the corn bits, because they have crunchy texture change, but the rest of the filling is just squashy goop. I’d totally be ok with the goop if it was flavorful and spicy, but no. There ARE pieces of green chile in the goop, but they don’t taste like much of anything. Soul-crushing level of blandness. The occasional chicken fragment is an exciting find.
(Here’s another frozen appetizer with very sparse chicken. Read my slightly eccentric review of the Minh Mini Chicken Eggrolls…you know you want to.)
These firecrackers are definitely something that you want to eat with a dipping sauce. Maybe some salsa or hot sauce. I had some spicy green chili sauce in my refrigerator, so I used that, and it improved the taste dramatically.
I do appreciate the crunchy shells. They have the taste and texture of an egg roll, but it’s enjoyable. The size and shape make great finger-food. I love how the ends get crispy after baking, and the middles stay soft and a little chewy. However, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that I felt I was mainly eating the shells, and not getting much filling, percentage-wise.
(Looking for a better frozen appetizer option? I really liked these spinach and feta Spanakopita from Cuisine Adventures. Check out my review here.)
Cooking Instructions for Green Chile Chicken Firecrackers
Happily, these firecrackers are extremely convenient and easy to prepare. They cook up VERY quickly — it took about 6 minutes at 375° in my air fryer toaster oven. Some of the filling oozed out the sides, but otherwise it was an almost fool-proof prep. I lined my pans with aluminum foil, which worked well.
You can cook these in a conventional oven or an air fryer, but not in the microwave. This does not make me sad.
The firecrackers are packed in two plastic pouches. There’s an odd number of 15 firecrackers per pouch.
I do like the convenience of being able to open just one pouch at a time — this keeps the firecrackers fresher longer.
Nutrition Facts in Costco Green Chile Chicken Firecrackers
It turns out 3 “firecrackers” is a serving. Good gravy! Only three? I ate six, which is 420 calories and an impressive 16 grams protein. I guess these are intended as a little snack, rather than a meal. Whoops. Sorry-not-sorry.
Either way, these little guys pack a lot of protein for such petite little snacks. Looking carefully at the ingredients, I noticed there is “milk protein concentrate” and “whey protein concentrate” added to the mozzarella cheese, possibly to boost the protein levels in the firecrackers.
Ingredients in Cuisine Adventures Green Chile Chicken Firecrackers
The ingredients are not as terrifying as I thought they would be. The green chile pepper is rehydrated, instead of being fresh, which is a minor bummer. Another minor bummer is that the chicken broth is water and powdered chicken broth powder. I’m ok with minor bummers.
- Pastry (water, enriched wheat flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), canola oil, egg, salt dextrose)
- Filling (cooked white chicken meat, onion, corn, green chile pepper rehydrated, green bell pepper, chicken broth (water, chicken broth powder), monterey jack cheese (milk, salt, calcium chloride, bacterial culture, microbial enzyme, cellulose), low-moisture part-skim mozzarella cheese (part-skim milk, milk protein concentrate, whey protein concentrate, salt, cheese cultures, enzymes, cellulose), jalapeno pepper, garlic, canola oil, cilantro, salt, modified corn starch, lemon juice concentrate, spices, soy lecithin, modified cellulose)
The firecrackers are made in Canada, eh.
Price and Servings
There are 30 firecrackers per 1.9 pound box. The label says there are 10 servings per package. That’s assuming you only eat a measly three firecrackers per serving, which I did not. If you eat 6 firecrackers as a meal, there are actually only 5 servings per box. Value-wise, this one isn’t as cost-effective for me, not for $13.
Dramatic Conclusion
I wouldn’t buy these a second time. Although these Cuisine Adventure firecrackers were quick and easy to prepare, they were bland and not delicious. Compared to other Cuisine Adventure products, these did not wow me and were not as much of a value.
The End.
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