Gardein - Mandarin Orange Crispy Chick'n

At the rate at which Gardein is introducing new items on the market, it is unlikely that I'll ever try them all. This small company certainly has expanded its product line immensely over the past few years since it first introduced the best vegan faux meat products anyone had ever had. On this occasion, I decided to try the Mandarin Orange Crispy Chick'n.

This particular product is frozen so I just sauteed it in a frying pan over medium-high heat until browned on all sides.  I removed the Gardein from the heat, then sauteed red pepper and broccoli until cooked through. Then I cooked all of the ingredients together in the sauce.

The result was a good vegan chicken dish with broccoli and red peppers, but it wasn't really mandarin orange crispy chicken. Unfortunately, the little chicken nuggets never really got crispy. They stayed pretty soft. And the orange taste was so slight that I wouldn't even have identified it as such if the product hadn't been called "orange chicken."

So, I liked it just fine, but it wasn't what I expected. My meal never quite looked like the meal on the front of the package.