When it comes to ready meals they are not something I overly indulge in really. However some nights I'm home alone with a bottle of wine and feeling lazy so I have two options. Call in a take-away or pop a ping meal in the microwave and one week I decided on this, reason one being cos I love a chicken korma and reason two being that I was a bit skint at the time and this was on offer in Asda costing £1 and I'd bought it and popped it in the freezer prior to the evening I wanted it.

The Packaging:

The meals comes in a mainly pink and yellow box with a photogoraph of the curry on the front of it and we are told that it is Birds Eye Chicken Korma With Rice and that it contains no artificial colours or flavours and is made with 100% chicken breast and there is an at a glance nutritional chart shown. Other information on the box includes includes ingredients and allergy advice being given, there is a full nutritional chart displayed as well as cooking details being given and contact details for Birds Eye are listed. Inside the box you get a black plastic deepish tray, divided into two covered by a pull off see-through plastic covering. Nice enough, informative packaging this is.

The Meal Itself:

To heat this through you have a couple of options available to you. We are recommended to cook this always from frozen and you can either oven cook it in 30-35 minutes or pop it in the microwave for 7-9 minutes (depending on the wattage of your microwave). I cooked mine in the microwave purely cos I'm a lazy so and so.

The portion size is good and you get equal amounts of rice to the korma. The korma itself is bright yellow with lots of visible, chunky chicken breast within it and flavoured with onion, yogurt and coconut milk. The chicken and sauce has visible specks of herbs and spices in it which include garlic, aniseed, sage and coriander leaves and it is a well seasoned sauce with body and nicely seasoned too and there is a hint of a garlic smell and taste to it as well. The chicken is pre marinated before going in the sauce and is juicy, well cooked and tastes rather fresh and although I wouldn't say that this tastes as creamy, rich or as delicious as one from a resteraunt this is a pleasant 'cheapy' one and I like the natural sweetness this has to it along with the gentle taste of coconut.

The rice is well cooked, al dente and not soggy, made up from long grain rice and seasoned and coloured with tumeric this is moist without being gloopy and is a filling part of the meal.

All in all I rather enjoyed this but I won't lie and say it was the korma I have ever had cos it wasn't but the flavours were nice and it was a nice quality and easy to prepare reasonably filling meal.

Nutritional Information Per Meal

Calories: 400
Sugars: 6.3g
Fat: 8.4g
Saturates: 7.4g
Salt: 1.5g

This is available in all good supermarkets etc and if not on some sort of offer expect to pay about £1.50 a meal and other varities are available too!