Chicken Mole Bowl by Herdez - Deal of the Day

Deeply flavorful mole sauce is what it's about for my latest Deal of the Day find. The sauce is studded with chunks of tender real chicken, and a side of tender Cilantro Rice fills out the meal. It is an impressive steal at 99.99 cents for this frozen entree from Herdez called Chicken Mole Bowl.

While not as refined as what a Oaxacan restaurant would serve, this mole a rich version. It tastes a little bit bitter and a little bit sweet; it's mild, but seasoned with chiles, spices, and nuts.

A typical mole is made of more than 20 ingredients, including: ancho and pasilla peppers, cocoa, peanuts, cinnamon, sesame seeds, cumin, cloves, garlic and more -- all ground into a pungent paste. The paste is added to liquid to form a gravy, that's then added to chicken or any favorite meat, to make a stew.

I could not detect any spicy heat, so this Deal of the Day is for everyone.

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The chicken in this Deal of the Day is white and dark meat. Cheap frozen dinners usually just spare few meager tiny pieces of chicken that are most often than not cubed from a processed meat loaf. That is not the problem here; there are plenty of nice sized pieces from tender fillets. It's real chicken with real flaky texture. 

You get a lot of mole sauce to sop up the Cilantro Rice. The rice is not mushy like most frozen fare and while there are specks of the green herb cilantro, it is subtle - I would have made the cilantro flavor more pronounced. It's a minor quibble though. There is also a small amount of tomato sauce flavor. Overall, I liked the way the rice was prepared and flavored.

So on the 99 Cent Chef's Cheap$kate Dining Scale of 1 to 9, 9 being best, I give Chicken Mole Bowl by Herdez a perfect 9! I don't know if this Deal of the Day will be back at my local 99c only Store, but in the meantime, I would actually pay full price for this frozen entree from any regular grocery store I find it in.