My version of Nandos during cash flow crisis January! (Birds Eye Peri Peri Chicken Chargrills)

Member Name: gemzeh

Product:	Birds Eye Peri Peri Chicken Chargrills
Date:	26/01/09 (295 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quick to cook, convenient, really delicious and full of flavour, 100% chicken breast

Disadvantages: Slightly random orange tinge to the chicken, not quite as good as Nando's (but pretty close)

Having an addiction to eating out at Nandos during the credit crunch has been pretty tough - although Nandos is fairly cheap for a restaurant, I've been eating in throughout the whole of January as I just can't afford to go out. I therefore looked to see if I could get my peri peri chicken taste in a different way at home! Whilst out shopping at Tesco, I spotted Birds Eye's frozen peri peri chicken grills, and decided to pick it up and give it a try.

Are these easy to find?

As I said, I got these in Tesco and found them without knowing they existed! I think these are really easy to find - just go to the frozen section in your local Tesco or Sainsbury (I haven't seen these in any other supermarkets) and look for a yellow-orange box with the Birds Eye logo emblazoned on the top. These can sometimes be found in the 'on offer frozen' sections of supermarkets, but mainly they are with the other oven ready food.

Are they any good?

Although I try to eat fresh food, and cook from scratch as often as possible, the reality is that I work long hours in my job and sometimes don't get home until 8 or 9 in the evening. I therefore just want to stick something in the oven that cooks whilst I go about my evening routine, and frozen food helps me as it means I don't have to worry about monitoring use by dates and wasting food (I am trying to really reduce the amount of food I waste - which I am sadly guilty of). I therefore rely on frozen food more than I probably ought to, but it is convenient and suits me. Birdseye's peri peri grills are no different in this respect, as you simply pre-heat the oven, whack the chicken on a baking tray and stick it in, and then in 20 minutes you've got yourself a meal. It's pretty simple stuff. I found these really easy and convenient to store and cook.

The grills taste delicious. I didn't really expect this product to hit the Nandos spot left deprived of late, but it really did. The grills were tender, like freshly cooked chicken, and I have rarely sampled frozen chicken that tasted so succulent. The coating of the chicken, though a slightly alarming shade or orange, was surprisingly crisp and slightly crunchy, which made for an interesting contrast with the soft chicken underneath - delicious! The chicken contains a medium level of spice (say, around the same level as a chicken tikka masala), and is incredibly flavoursome. They have a bit of a kick to them, but these shouldn't be too spicy for most people to eat.

The nutritional information of these grills also makes me more likely to eat them in future - each chicken piece contains 160 calories and 2 grams of saturated fat (the bad stuff), and, in case you are on Weight Watchers, each is calculated as 3 Weight Watchers points.

Each chicken grill contains 100% chicken breast meat, which is reassuring as I often worry exactly what it is I am putting in my mouth, and frozen meat products often contain other more dubious parts of the animal.

Is this product good value for money?

When I bought these grills, they were on a 'buy one get one free' offer, but these are ordinarily priced at around £1.65 for a box of two grills. Each grill is a decent size (about the size of 1 and ½ packs of cards).

As these are so delicious, I would definitely recommend them, and think they are extremely good value for money as £1.65 provides me with the key part of two main meals, and they are worth the price for the level of convenience they provide.

So what's the verdict?

Birds Eye's chicken grills are delicious, as they are packed full of flavour, and manage to be both tender and crisp. They are convenient to store, very easy and quick to cook, and good value for money. I definitely recommend you try these, particularly if you too are missing your peri peri fix! They aren't quite as nice as Nando's chicken, but at £1.65 for two pieces, I'm really not complaining!

Summary: I'm staying home for dinner!