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Trader Joe’s is a lot of things, and while quick isn’t one of them, you may still find yourself popping in for lunch. There are a constant slew of seasonal, premade salads, wraps, and sandwiches chilling in the Trader Joe’s cooler. So which ones are worth the money? Which ones should you avoid?
Whether you’re going for an entrée or a side salad, here are nine of the most popular Trader Joe’s premade salads, ranked.
Prices and availability are subject to change.
$5.99
I’m not sure if this is the standard, but my Pacific Salad came with the dressing packet laying flat across the bottom of the container. Like it was put there on purpose. It took me a full minute to realize that it was even there. This is obviously a horrendous design and one that made me want to huck the whole salad out my window, but once I calmed down, I tasted it. This is probably the best iteration of chicken used in a TJ's salad. Most of the time, the chicken is an abomination. It's always dry and flavorless.
Here, however, speckled with black sesame seeds and what appears to be grill marks, there's some actual flavor going on. The simplicity is great: The whole thing is just chicken, iceberg and Romaine lettuce, crispy noodles, and “a sauce that’s divine,” according to the box. I can’t agree with divine, but she'll do just fine.
Related: I Tried 9 Types of Trader Joe's Hummus — Here's How They Ranked
$3.49
I have two very specific issues with this salad, but they’re not big enough to make me budge. For one, if this is a Greek-style salad, then it should have tomato.
Two (and this is more of a global note to all salads): enough with these enormous cucumber slices already. Dice my damn cucumber for me, would ya? Am I supposed to pop that whole entire thing in my mouth? Am I supposed to slice up my cucumber in this tiny little plastic box? Drives me nuts. The point I’m trying to make, is that I like this salad very much and I eat it once a week.
But I add tomato and I slice the cucumber up.
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$3.99
Foof, that chipotle ranch is money. There’s almost nothing I’d change about this. The dressing hits, the corn is a great touch, the cotija cheese binds it all together, and best of all, there’s not an ounce of that chicken saboteur anywhere.
$5.99
I’ll tell ya what I love about this salad, because you already know what I don’t (read: the chicken). The black beans and corn come in their own separate container, soaking in their own juices like tiny little cowboy caviar. Love the ranch dressing, love the cheese, love the tortilla crunchies. Don’t love the 540-calorie price tag.
$5.99
This really has all the pieces in place, and if you can deal with the chicken, I don’t see why this wouldn’t be your first pick. The dressing is perfect, gingery and as full of sesame oil as a classic Chinese chicken salad. The large box size is also nice, since you’ve got a lot more room to do the infamous boxed-salad-dressing-shakeup.
$3.99
This is so close to being perfect for me, but for as long as I can remember, these salads have come with three or four tiny little grape tomatoes. This thing is being marketed as a tomato salad, and while I understand that mozzarella isn’t cheap, tomatoes certainly are. Give me some more tomatoes in this thing. That aside, everything else works. The green onions and pine nuts are *chef’s kiss.*
$5.49
The chicken here is just barely acceptable, but the generous portion, paired with the couscous, is substantial enough to make this a filling lunch. The pecans are nice for texture, too.
$4.49
The vegan angle is cool, and I appreciate the pumpkin seeds. There’s nothing really that this salad’s done wrong, but I’d just reach for the others first. A green salad can be weird when it’s only got spinach, since it’s such a toothsome veggie. The crunch that lettuce brings would help to round it out.
$5.49
This is the worst that TJ’s chicken gets. The “lemon” here appears in the form of a yellow paste that looks lightly brushed onto each piece. It’s drier than dry, which is a shame because the spicy red pepper dressing is a lovely complement to the pearl couscous. You gotta figure that chicken out, Joe. You gotta.