It's not healthy, but as its £1, takes 25 minutes to cook and is really tasty I'll forgive it! (Birds Eye Cracked Pepper Chicken)

Member Name: SapphireSunflowr

Product:	Birds Eye Cracked Pepper Chicken
Date:	20/02/09 (48 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Tastes good, easy and quick to cook, does nicely, cheap.

Disadvantages: Not healthly and is clearly processed - but what else would you expect?

Doing my food shop in Tesco's this evening, I noticed packs of Bird's Eye chicken on offer at £1 each. As I'm sure pretty much everyone is at the moment I'm watching my money, and sticking to a food budget while also having very little time for planning and preparing food has led to my other half and I mainly living on a diet of either pasta with tomato sauce or beans on jacket potatoes, with only one (maybe two) nights a week where we have something a bit more interesting such as meat. We'd already chosen some gammon, but for £1 we could certainly treat ourselves to some chicken too!

We chose Cracked Black Pepper seasoned chicken, as it sounded a bit more gourmet than the spicy battered ones! The packet was very tempting, organgey-yellow with a bit picture of delicious looking coated chicken breasts on the front. There is also a proclamation telling me they are 100% chicken breast, which although I assume is, unfortunately, battery chicken's breasts, is still good to know.

On opening the packet I was hit with a delicious, spicy, fragrant smell - which is still wafting from the empty box as it is sat here with me at the computer! I took the chicken pieces out and immediately noticed the topping - it looked really thick and even over the pieces, always a good sign. I put them in the oven for the recommended time - 25 minutes - while I made my mashed potatoes.

On taking them out the oven, the topping went a much deeper colour, with some obvious flecks of red and black pepper, although not nearly as much as the box picture. When serving up, I licked some topping off my finger and immediately was hit with a very hot, spic taste and sensation in my mouth and throat. I put out some mayonnaise to eat with the chicken as I thought this would help calm the heat.

On eating properly, however, the overall effect was not that intensely spicy. The chicken and topping was very, very tasty, with a lovely flavour in which you could really pick out the black pepper, also kind of smokey, and you could just taste hints of ginger. The chicken was really tasty and so I ended up leaving the mayonnaise as it covered the taste, although the chicken did taste lovely with a bit of tomato ketchup. The only small minus was the texture - it was kind of spongey, like the chicken in cheap burgers that has been reconstituted. It's obviously very processed, however for a pound I didn't expect premium meat, and it didn't spoil my enjoyment of the meal. Also, it's not a healthy choice, with 2.7g of saturated fat and 0.8g of salt per piece. For a quick meal though, served with some potatoes and veg that's still much healthier than your average ready meal.

Summary: A good freezer/cheap meal standby when your watching your pennies - not your waist!