Tasty and filling for a low fat microwave meal (Tesco Light Choices Chicken and Bacon Pie)

Member Name: whiteroseuk

Product:	Tesco Light Choices Chicken and Bacon Pie
Date:	03/12/08 (201 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: tastes good, light on calories

Disadvantages: small portion, should be cooked in oven

I'm always on the lookout for edible microwave meals to eat at work when I'm on shift, especially low fat ones, so I thought I would give Tesco Light Choices chicken and bacon pie a try. The name is a little bit misleading, as it is a pie in the Shepherd's pie and cottage pie tradition. The packet describes it as "tender pieces of chicken breast in creamy bacon sauce topped with fresh mashed potato and cheese crumb" to be honest I thought it was pieces of chicken and bacon in a cheese sauce topped with mashed potato, so there you go.

The pie is packaged in the normal fresh meals way, a cardboard sleeve around a dish with a film lid. To cook the pie you remove the cardboard sleeve and the film lid, and the pack says for best results oven heat, but as I said the whole purpose of me eating these ready meals is to microwave them, so my review will be based on the pie being cooked in the microwave.

The pie takes 25-30 minutes in an oven and between 11 and 9 and half minutes in the microwave if cooked from fresh, but it is suitable for freezing, so then the oven baking would take 35-40 minutes, and the microwave, 14 and a half to 13 minutes depending upon the wattage of your machine.

I prefer to slightly overcook the pie myself so that the 'cheese crumb' (what on earth is cheese crumb?) topping goes slightly brown around the edges, but thats my preference. I'm sure it would be better to cook in the oven but I don't have that luxury at work.

The aroma is very pleasing, savoury and cheesy, and the combination of flavours is lovely when you eat it. There is a reasonable amount of chicken, it does look like pieces of chicken breast and the sauce is nicely thick and creamy. The mashed potato is fluffy and light, and the cheesy topping makes it very tasty. There are tiny pieces of what could be bacon, and that may well help the flavour, but they are miniscule.

As microwave meals go, I really like this one! It tastes good, its quite filling, if not over generous, it freezes well, and cooks to an edible standard in the microwave. What more could you want?

Nutritional info (each 400g pack)
Calories 370kcal
protein 25.9g
carbohydrate 39.3g
Fat 11.7g
Salt equivalent 2.2g

If you're following the Weight watchers points plan they tell you that each pack has 7 points (as calculated by Tesco)

Allergy advice:

Contains milk wheat gluten and mustard, celeriac
Recipe no nuts
Ingredients cannot guarantee nut free
Factory no nuts

Summary: One of the better microwave ready meals