Jambalaya is something I enjoy making at home occasionally, but it takes a fair amount of effort! When I saw this Kirkland Signature Creole-Style Jambalaya at Costco, I immediately wondered how it would compare to my homemade stuff. It definitely looks appetizing with a bunch of nice-looking shrimp sitting on top of a colorful mix of vegetables. Can I stop making my own jambalaya and just buy this from now on?
Location in Store
The jambalya is located in the pre-made deli section at Costco, near the other meals like the Kirkland Signature Chicken Pot Pie and the Kirkland Signature Chicken Chow Mein.
Taste
I didn’t love this jambalaya. I make my own from scratch at home about once a year using the recipe from Serious Eats and this doesn’t compare in taste but it’s way more convenient!
This is a rice-based dish with sausage, chicken and shrimp. My favorite part about the dish is the shrimp. They’re flavorful, tender, nice and firm and definitely not mushy! I wish there was more chicken, the chicken that’s in the jambalaya is moist and not at all gristly or gross but there’s not enough of it.
The heat is coming from the sausage, it’s extremely spicy, too hot for my sensitive taste buds but jambalaya is known to have some heat. To be honest, after trying it I just kind of avoided the sausage.
The rice has tomato sauce on it and a few bits of veggies mixed in like bell pepper, onion and celery. The rice isn’t my favorite, I find it has a strange aftertaste. The dish is very tomatoey so if you’re like my husband and get heartburn from tomato-based dishes then you might want to avoid this one. Overall it’s okay, not awesome. I picked out the shrimp and chicken and didn’t eat a lot of the rest.
Cost
The jambalaya costs $15.99 per kilogram and my container cost $25.23. It’s not cheap considering it’s mainly rice and chicken but also not super expensive. It’s definitely cheaper than feeding a family of four from a fast food restaurant.
Convenience
I’m finding a lot of the Costco pre-made meal instructions don’t have enough cook time listed. For example, I cooked the jambalaya for 30 minutes and it wasn’t anywhere hot enough.
The jambalaya needs to be kept refrigerated and the best-before date is four days from when we purchased it. I recommend serving this with a nice green garden salad or a baguette! It’s a full, balanced meal so you also don’t really need sides.
Nutrition
Calories
1/6th of the tray contains 290 calories, 10 grams of fat, 29 grams of carbohydrates, three grams of fibre, seven grams of sugar, 22 grams of protein and 1230 milligrams of sodium.
That’s a lot of sodium considering a lot of people will likely eat more than 1/6th of the tray. The calories, fat, carbohydrates and sugar aren’t bad though.
Ingredients
The ingredients list is pretty long but none of the ingredients are that unhealthy or super processed. One thing that’s kind of nice is that the jambalaya is gluten and dairy-free! It contains shrimp and sulfites and may contain milk, egg, fish, molluscs, other crustaceans, tree nuts, peanut, soy, sesame, wheat and mustard. This is likely because it’s produced on equipment that also produces food that contains those ingredients.
Scoring
Taste: 6/10
Cost: 6/10
Convenience: 9/10
Nutrition: 6/10
Overall
Give it a try!
Jambalaya takes a lot of time and energy to make from scratch, but this Costco version doesn’t compare to homemade at all.
Have you tried this Costco Kirkland Signature Jambalaya? What did you think of it? Drop a comment below!
Please note that this review was not paid for or sponsored by any third party. This product was purchased by Costcuisine for the purpose of producing this review. The opinions in this review are strictly those of Costcuisine. Costcuisine is not affiliated with Costco or any of its suppliers. In the event that Costcuisine receives compensation for a post from the manufacturer of a product or some other third party, the arrangement will be clearly disclosed (including where the manufacturer of a product provides Costcuisine with a free sample of the product).
Is this a precooked dish or is the meat raw in it?
Pre cooked!
Is it OK to freeze the Costco Jambalaya?
You could but the texture might change.
I agree the shrimp is the best part. The rest was middling. It was fun to try once, but it’s a once-and-done for me. The tomato-ish sauce somehow just didn’t work, and the sausages (if that’s what they were) seemed like filler for something that should have been there instead.
Where did you get the nutritional info
Hi Steven, from Costco directly.
I think I liked this more than you did, although cooking Jambalaya myself is my favourite when I’m up to it. I like spicy more than you do, and tomatoey more than your husband! For me, it’s a good level of spice, I didn’t get the aftertaste with the rice you noted, and I liked the balance of meats. I split the package into four portions.
I really appreciate that you include nutrition information in your reviews — I’ve visited your site twice now because a review came up when I searched for carbs or nutrition. (Once for this and once for your Costco Kirkland Quinoa Salad Review.) The packaging where I’m from doesn’t include nutrition info for their pre-made meals. The information you provide allows me to calculate my insulin needs!