Lean Cuisine Herb Roasted Chicken: Labelgrade B- (72/100)

The short answer

Lean Cuisine Herb Roasted Chicken delivers 18g of protein and 181 calories per 1 package (226g) (USDA FDC 2758632). Per 100g that’s 8g of protein; per oz, 2.3g. The Labelgrade is B- (72 / 100): Additive-heavy formulation (phosphate additives and maltodextrin or corn syrup), very low saturated fat, and low sugar load.

Why this Labelgrade

How it compares

The number that makes this tray worth buying

The headline here is protein-per-calorie, and it’s the best in this comparison. 18g of protein for 181 calories works out to about 10 calories per gram of protein — for context, a plain chicken breast is roughly 5, and most “diet” frozen meals land closer to 13–15. That efficiency is the whole reason to choose this tray: if you’re trying to hit a protein target while keeping calories down, very few grab-and-go options do it this cleanly.

It earns that number with an honest formula — a herb-glazed chicken breast patty, red-skin potatoes, broccoli, and red bell peppers in a skim-milk-based sauce, rather than a fat- or cream-heavy build. The catch you accept is a long ingredient list (59 items, with phosphates and seasoning blends) and a sodium load that rides high precisely because the fat is so low. As a lunch you eat a few times a week, that’s a reasonable bargain. As an everyday staple, the sodium is the thing to watch.

A quiet upside: the potassium nearly matches the sodium

Most reviews stop at “581mg of sodium, that’s a lot” — and it is. But there’s a detail worth surfacing: this tray also carries 911mg of potassium, one of the higher numbers you’ll see in a frozen meal, thanks to the real potatoes, broccoli, and bell peppers (plus potassium chloride and potassium phosphates in the formula). That matters because sodium and potassium work against each other — potassium helps the body manage blood pressure, and a meal that delivers more potassium than sodium is in a much better place than the sodium figure alone suggests.

It doesn’t cancel the salt, and anyone on a sodium-restricted plan should still be cautious. But it reframes the picture: this isn’t an empty-salt tray, it’s a vegetable-forward meal whose sodium comes alongside a genuinely useful dose of potassium. That’s a meaningfully healthier profile than a comfort-food meal like Banquet Classic Salisbury Steak, where the sodium is even higher and the potassium support isn’t there.

Scope

This page covers Lean Cuisine Herb Roasted Chicken (8 ONZ), UPC 00013800166081, as represented in USDA Branded Foods FDC 2758632. Lean Cuisine sells multiple variants in this product line — other sizes, flavors, or fat levels may have different macros and Labelgrade scores. Manufacturers periodically reformulate; always cross-reference the actual package label, especially if you have allergies or dietary restrictions.

Ingredients (from the USDA Branded Foods entry)

VEGETABLES: RED SKIN POTATOES, BROCCOLI, RED BELL PEPPERS. SAUCE: SKIM MILK, WATER, MUSHROOMS, ONIONS, MODIFIED FOOD STARCH, SOYBEAN OIL, GARLIC, SALT, SPICES, BUTTER (CREAM, SALT), SUGAR, SEASONING (MALTODEXTRIN, SALT, NATURAL FLAVOR, CHICKEN FAT, AUTOLYZED YEAST EXTRACT, DRIED CHICKEN BROTH, GUM ACACIA, SESAME OIL, 2% OR LESS OF CITRIC ACID, LACTIC ACID, L-CYSTEINE, SODIUM PHOSPHATE, DIPOTASSIUM HYDROGEN PHOSPHATE), DRIED CREAM EXTRACT, POTASSIUM SALT, AUTOLYZED YEAST EXTRACT, XANTHAN GUM, DRIED GARLIC, DRIED ONIONS, CARRAGEENAN, DEXTROSE. COOKED HERB GLAZED CHICKEN BREAST PATTIES WITH RIB MEAT, CARAMEL COLOR ADDED (CHICKEN BREAST WITH RIB MEAT, WATER, ISOLATED SOY PROTEIN, CITRUS FLOUR, SEASONING [DRIED CHICKEN BROTH, CHICKEN POWDER, FLAVOR, DISODIUM PHOSPHATE], POTASSIUM CHLORIDE, SUGAR, POTASSIUM AND SODIUM PHOSPHATES, SALT. GLAZE: WATER, SEASONING [MODIFIED CORNSTARCH, SUGAR, DRIED TOMATO, SPICES, DRIED GARLIC, DRIED ONION, MALTODEXTRIN, SALT, DRIED MUSHROOMS, XANTHAN GUM], MODIFIED CORNSTARCH, CARAMEL COLOR)

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Scope: This page applies specifically to Herb Roasted Chicken (8 ONZ) · UPC 00013800166081. Other sizes, flavors, or formulations may differ.