David and I were in Aldi’s on Wednesday for Milk & Eggs because they have the cheapest in our Town. While there I had to browse the aisle of shame while David checked out the frozen food. Then I went to get Charlie’s Coffee and ended up stopping by the frozen food to see what David was looking at.
In the freezer section I found Bremar Chicken and Dumplings Skillet and it looked like one of those easy “throw it in a pan and call it “lunch” meal for Gerald and I. The package says it comes with whole meat chicken breast strips, dumplings, vegetables, and a creamy dumpling sauce, and honestly, that part sounded perfect for a busy day.
David cooked it, for dinner for me that night and he chose the stovetop instead of the microwave because I wanted everything to heat evenly and not get mushy. Right away, I noticed there just wasn’t quite enough sauce for my taste. It cooked fine, but David even mentioned halfway through that it might be better if we added a little extra creaminess to it. We talked about adding a can of Campbells Cream of Chicken Soup next time just to make it a little more “juicy” and closer to a homemade stew feel.
What really stood out was the mix inside the pan. There were a lot of vegetables—more carrots than my brother really prefers—but they still had a bit of bite to them instead of being soft and soggy. There were also peas, which I love, but I know that’s hit or miss in our house depending on who is eating. The potatoes were in nice big pieces, and the chicken wasn’t hidden or shredded into mystery bits—you could actually see and taste real chunks of meat.
The dumplings were one of the best parts. They came out soft and fluffy, and that made the whole meal feel more like comfort food than just another frozen skillet dinner. This one bag easily fed two adults and still left enough for another bowl, so I would say it really does stretch to about two or three servings like it claims. I ended up with one bowl for me, one for Junior, and still had leftovers for lunch the next day, which is always a win in my book. Price-wise, it was under $10, which makes it a solid budget meal when you’re trying to stretch groceries.
Family opinions were all over the place in the usual way. My brother said he would eat it again, which is actually a big deal in our house. David wouldn’t even try it because of the peas, and he still laughs about some movie where peas ‘are “made some girls head spin around” which makes no sense at all. My son used to love chicken and dumplings, so he likely would have eaten it if he had been home from work that day.
What surprised me most is that it came from the frozen section and still felt like something you could build on. We even talked while eating about ways to change it up next time. David suggested adding cream of chicken soup to make more sauce. I thought a Swanson chicken broth might work just as well. Then we started going down the rabbit hole of turning it into a pot pie style meal or even thickening it with gravy mix. It really feels like one of those meals you can stretch in a lot of directions.
We also compared this meal to another Aldi-style skillet we want to try next— Bremar Homestyle Beef Skillet with potatoes and vegetables. That one sounds more like a stew base, and I’m curious if it will have more sauce right out of the package.
Overall, this is one of those “simple but useful” freezer meals. Not perfect, but definitely something we would buy again and keep in the rotation for busy nights when cooking from scratch just isn’t happening. I just hope its a year-round items and not a seasonal item like a lot of items Aldi carries is.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
