Bibigo Korean Sweet & Spicy Crunchy Chicken Review
The crunch is strong with this one.
As you already know, I am a complete sucker for anything fried or crunchy. And this Bibigo frozen dinner is BOTH. Double-yay!
They aren’t lying when they call this “Crunchy Chicken.” These nuggets are heckin’ cronchy. The cronchiest. Even after coating in liquid sauce, the breading stays crunchy. Even after refrigerating and microwaving leftovers — um, still sorta crunchy? Kinda amazing. The breading is thick, but somehow light — like it’s fluffy, but stiff. Argh. You know what I mean.
Unfortunately, mine had a strange burnt or bitter aftertaste. More about that later.
The chicken meat is “not bad.” It’s mostly tender white meat, but I did get a few oddly chewy and/or gummy pieces. It tastes a teeny bit more processed than I would prefer. Nothing terrible. The nuggets are all different sizes and shapes, but few are more than two or three bites.
The sauce is syrupy and very sweet. It’s as thick as honey. It has a lightly spicy flavor, and a little salty-savory soy sauce influence, but not much past that. There’s no citrus or fruit taste involved. No heavy garlic taste. A wee tanginess. Mostly sugar. Because the heat is mild, even spice-adverse folks can safely eat this. I think.
There’s just chicken and sauce in this kit, so you’ll need your own rice and any “extras” you want to add. I definitely think I could have added some veggies to the sauce, like some perky snow peas or even tender sugar snap peas. Or just peas. Peas! It might also be nice sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds before serving.
I bought this at Costco. Inside the box are two “family kits” in separate bags. Each bag has the frozen chicken chunks, plus two little pouches of sauce. You can cook just half a bag at a time, since the sauce is divided.
How to Cook Bibigo Korean Crunchy Chicken
The box offered three different ways to cook this meal. Conveniently, this is printed on each bag inside the box:
- Conventional Oven
- Air Fryer
- Toaster Oven
I chose the Conventional Oven method. I lined a baking sheet with parchment paper (the instructions said “foil” — see how rebellious I am?) and guesstimated half a bag of the chicken. The chicken cooks at 450 for 20 minutes, but you have to flip it over half-way through.
Conveniently, it also takes 20 minutes for me to cook rice, so my dinner was done in about 25 minutes total. I cooked a half-cup of rice to go with 1/2 bag of crunchy chicken. This was perfect.
After the chicken is cooked, it sits for a minute, and then you toss it with the sauce. Since I cooked half a bag of chicken, I used one sauce packet. I took a picture so you could see how much sauce is leftover after all the chicken is coated. Plenty of extra sauce to coat peas! Just sayin.’
I got two meals out of a half-bag. I refrigerated my leftovers and microwaved them the next day. This was about as expected — the chicken wasn’t as crunchy, but it was still pretty decent.
Ingredients in Sweet & Spicy Crunchy Chicken
Here are the ingredients, from the label:
- Crunchy Chicken (White Chicken Meat, Dark Chicken Meat, Water, Wheat Flour, Corn Starch, Less than 2% of Modified Tapioca Starch, Corn Meal, Salt, Sugar, Soybean Oil, Soy Protein Concentrate [Soy Protein Concentrate, Lecithin], Seasoning [Baker’s Yeast Extract, Salt, Canola Oil], Seasoning [Sake {Water, Rice, Koji [Aspergillis Oryzae]}, Sugar, Water, Salt, Yeast Extract], Soy Sauce [Water, Soybeans, Wheat, Salt], White Wine Vinegar, Sodium Bicarbonate, Garlic Powder, Black Pepper, Egg, Onion Powder, Ginger Powder, Rosemary Powder, Fried in Vegetable Oil)
- Sauce (Sugar, Water, Hot Pepper Paste [Wheat Flour, Rice Syrup, Water, Red Pepper Powder, Salt, Wheat, Defatted Soybean Powder, Koji], Soy Sauce [Water, Soybeans, Wheat, Salt], Corn Syrup, Canola Oil, Less than 2% of Garlic, Rice Vinegar, Corn Starch, Sesame Oil, Salt, Xanthan Gum).
According to the box, the chicken is raised without antibiotics. I love that there is no artificial color or flavor, and no high fructose corn syrup. The seasoning includes sake, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, rosemary, and more.
Oddly, although the chicken is “fried in vegetable oil,” the type of frying oil isn’t specifically listed. Hmmm!
Because my chicken had an odd, faintly burnt aftertaste, I am wondering if it could have been from the frying oil? It wasn’t strong enough to keep me from eating it, but it wasn’t entirely pleasant. Long ago, I worked at Kentucky Fried Chicken, and sometimes our food tasted bad if the oil in the fryers needed to be changed/replaced. I don’t have another theory for why mine tasted this way. Hopefully, this was just a fluke and won’t happen to everyone.
Nutrition Facts in Costco Korean Crunchy Chicken
There’s a decent amount of protein, with 18 grams per serving, but an alarming quantity of sugar, with 16 grams of added sugar. There’s also 16 grams of fat per serving. Even before adding rice, there are 360 calories per serving. This is assuming you eat 1/10th the box as a meal, instead of 1/8th the box, like I did.
The Salt Police would like you to know that there is 43% of your daily value of sodium per serving.
Shelf-life
My box expires about 8 months after purchase, which is much quicker than most frozen meals I’ve bought. I do really like how the sauce is divided into four separate pouches, which keeps each serving as fresh as possible.
Price and Servings
I’d hazard there are four modest meals per bag. That means 8 meals per 3.5 pound box. The label says there are 10 servings, but you’d have to eat VERY small meals for that to work. I might manage if I added a bunch of vegetables to my sauce. Ahem, peas. Otherwise, not a chance.
The regular price at Costco is $14.49, but I got mine on sale for $9.99. If you get 8 meals per box (like I did), each serving will cost $1.81 at the non-sale price. If you actually get 10 meals, like the label says, each serving would cost $1.45. On sale, it would be about $1 per meal, which is fantastic. Pictured below is 1/8th a box:
The End.
More Reviews You Might Like (or Hate)
Check out these other reviews I’ve written:
- Costco Gyro Meal Kit Review
- Costco Chicken Street Tacos Meal Kit Review
- Cuisine Adventures Green Chile Chicken Firecrackers Review
- Costco Deli Enchilada Bake Review
- Del Real Chicken & Cheese Tamales Review
Author’s note: I wasn’t paid or compensated in any way for this review and I have no affiliation with Bibigo nor Costco.
