Costco Deli Chicken Alfredo Review
We can’t all be photogenic.
I hesitated to buy this, because pasta is generally a low-cost food, and simple to prepare. But here we are anyway. I am a sucker for convenience.
Costco’s Deli Chicken Alfredo is essentially just a pan of cooked pasta with some sauce, cheese, and some rotisserie chicken. Nothing elaborate. Almost a casserole. I wasn’t sure if the price justified the simplicity of the meal, or if I should make my own with jarred alfredo sauce and a $5 Costco rotisserie chicken instead.
Fortunately, I ended up satisfied with my decision to try this, although I’m still on the fence regarding value.
This is a fresh product available in the Costco Deli’s grab-n-go area. It comes in an aluminum pan, ready to pop into the oven and bake at home. I was hoping to bake this in my countertop toaster oven, but the pan was just a tad too large. It’s ready to eat in about an hour.
This meal tastes better than it looks! My initial impression is that it’s extraordinarily WHITE. White pasta, white sauce, white cheese, white chicken. There’s a meager sprinkling of fresh parsely fragments, but otherwise, it’s just a big mound of whiteness. There’s something about eating a plate of colorless food that feels a bit off.
I guess we can’t all be photogenic.
Happily, this is a LOT of food. My pan weighed about 4.5 pounds and provided 8-ish servings. If you’re a big eater, you’d still get at least 6 ginormous meals.
The meal is essentially layered in the pan. The cooked pasta is poured into the bottom, then the sauce, then cheese, and lastly chicken is piled on top. Because it’s layered — and not stirred together — the sauce doesn’t coat the chicken at all, unless you stir this first before baking. I did not, and this was OK. The sauce seems to migrate through the pan and cover the pasta thoroughly as it bakes.
What does it taste like?
The alfredo sauce is creamy, moist and coats the pasta nicely, but it seems to absorb into the penne noodles after refrigeration, so my leftovers were much drier and not nearly as “good.” The photo above shows the meal the same night I cooked it, and the one below is from two days later. There was “adequate” sauce the first day, and “completely inadequate” sauce the subsequent days.
“Dude, where’s my sauce?”
The penne pasta maintains a pleasing texture and adequate al dente bite, even after baking and storing leftovers. It’s not soggy at all. Pretty decent pasta, all things considered.
The chicken is basic white meat rotisserie chicken, and it’s flavorful and tender the first day, but tends to dry out when microwaving leftovers. More about that later.
There’s a conservative sprinkle of good-quality, freshly shredded parmesan cheese, and fresh green parsley on top as a garnish. It’s a nice touch, and rounds out the creamy alfredo sauce texture. The parsley dries up too much during baking, however.
I added a hefty amount of fresh pepper, which I found improved the taste substantially, and also made it less of a blank white. If I buy this again, I will try mixing in some frozen peas before baking, for a little extra color and some healthy veggies. I’m sure that’s some kind of Italian food blasphemy, but so is this pan of refrigerated layers. Deal with it.
Here’s another picture of the rather dry microwaved leftovers:
Price and Servings in Costco Deli Chicken Alfredo
There’s probably an average of 8 modest servings in this meal. This is a lower price than other Costco Deli options, at $4.49 per pound, or $18-ish for the pan. Per serving, this is about $2.25, which is excellent for a pre-made meal. If you eat very hearty meals and only get 6 servings, it will cost about $3 per serving.
This is a Kirkland Signature (store brand) product, and the item # is: 40249.
Ingredients in Costco’s Kirkland Chicken Alfredo
Here are the ingredients:
- Alfredo Sauce (cream, whole milk, water, butter [cream, natural flavors], romano & parmesan cheese [pasteurized milk, part-skim milk, cheese cultures, salt, enzymes], salt, yeast extract, corn oil, olive oil, cream powder, sugar, natural flavor, corn starch, garlic, cultured dextrose, xanthan gum, black pepper, spice, natural antimicrobial, annatto extract)
- Penne (water, enriched wheat durum semolina [semolina, vitamins B1, B2, B3, iron, folic acid])
- Chicken Breast (chicken breast meat, water, seasoning (salt, sodium phosphate, modified food starch [potato, tapioca], & potato dextrin, carrageenan, sugar, dextrose, spice extractives)
- Parmesan Cheese (pasteurized part-skim milk, cheese cultures, salt, enzymes)
- Parsley
Cooking Instructions for Costco Deli Chicken Alfredo
I followed the instructions on the label and cooked mine for 1 hour at 400 degrees. Because I covered it tightly with foil, it retained the moisture well and didn’t dry out.
If I had this to do over, I would STIR the leftovers in the pan before refrigerating and maybe add a small amount of liquid to keep it moist. Because the meal is layered in the pan, the chicken on top tends to dry out, especially when microwaving leftovers. Mine actually got quite “tough.” I think stirring everything to coat it in the sauce before refrigerating would ameliorate this.
Dramatic Conclusion
This ended up providing a lot of food value, and quick leftovers for later in the week — although the leftovers suffered as far as quality and texture. This is a meal that tastes best eaten the same day you buy/cook it. For that reason, it wasn’t an ideal product for a single person such as myself.
The End.
More Reviews You Might Like (or Hate)
Check out these other reviews of Costco Deli stuff I’ve recently written:
- Costco Gyro Meal Kit Review
- Costco Chicken Street Tacos Meal Kit Review
- Costco Enchilada Bake with Rotisserie Chicken Review
Author’s note: I wasn’t paid to write this review, and I have no affiliation with Costco.
