Nice But Salty (Heinz Weight Watchers Chicken Hotpot)

Member Name: flodombey

Product:	Heinz Weight Watchers Chicken Hotpot
Date:	28/08/09 (24 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Tasty, convenient, fairly cheap, good portion control and well balanced in terms of points

Disadvantages: Salt content is quite high and can be tasted in the dish

I bought 3 of the frozen meals from this range on offer in Asda this week as I knew that over the next few weeks I am going to have a coulple of nights where I only need cook for myself due to the other half being otherwise engaged. The offer was 3 meals for £4, making each meal work out at £1.33, individually they retail at £1.46 so while this isnt an exceptional saving it does mean a saving of around 40p off the three meals in total.

I do generally like these meals and have yet to find one that I do not really like, the fact that they are already points calculated and can go straight from freezer to microwave is an added bonus and makes for a speedy and convenient meal.

This meal is calculated to be 4.5 points which is fairly low for a main meal and means that I was able to enjoy a small bread roll with some low fat spread alongside it. In nutritional terms this product contains 274 calories and 3.3g of saturated fat. It is, I noticed, a little on the high side in terms of salt however (which I went back and looked at after thinking it tasted quite salty) containing 0.8g of sodium which equates to 2g of salt or a third of the recommended daily intake. As the portion size is not huge this does seem high to me.

The hotpot takes 8 minutes in the microwave or a rather long 45 minutes in the oven (which it does say is the best method of cooking it, but I am not that patient!). On tipping onto a plate it looks very appetizing, siceable chunks of chicken breast in a tasty looking sauce with pieces of parsnip and carrots, peas and patmentier potatoes.

On tasting this I really enjoyed the first few mouthfulls before I started to notice the salty aspect and went to check the packet. This did not overwhelm the dish but I think because I generally do not add salt where I can help it and minimise it in my diet, it was just quite noticable to my palate.

The portion size looks pretty small on the plate but is actually a nice amount which does fill you up and probably highlights the fact that we all overestimate what a proper portion size should be!

I thought that the potatoes in this dish were particularly nice, seeming to taste sauteed and being crisp on the outside and light and fluffy in the middle, I did wish that there were more potatoes in the dish but again I think this is my sub-conscious complaining about the portion size overall!

For a ready meal this is tasty, convenient and well balanced although personally I would prefer it to contain less salt and for that reason I am not sure I would pick up this particular product again.

Summary: A good option for weight watchers but be aware of the salt content