When it comes to ready meals, of late I have consumed rather alot of them. With moving and not feeling very well at all on and off I haven't wanted to be stood in a kitchen preparing meals at all. This range of Sharwoods ready meals (at the time of writing this review) are on offer in Asda at a pound a box with many different meals available. I picked up three actually and ate one every day!

The Packaging:

The meal itself comes in a black plastic tray with a clear see-through lid/cover over it. On the front of the box there is a photograph of the meal and I am told that it is Sharwoods 'Ready To Heat' Taste of China, Spicy Szechuan Chicken With Rice 'Tender pieces of chicken breast in a spicy Szechuan sauce, with red peppers, water chestnuts and onion. Served with rice' and there is an at a glance nutritional nutritional chart on there, I'm told it microwaves in 9 minutes and serves 1 person, is medium spicy and 375g in weight. Other information listed on the box includes being told how to cook it, ingredients and allergy advice is given as is a full nutritional chart, storage details are given, the best before date is clearly stamped on and contact details for Kerry Foods Ltd are given (the manufacturer of the product). Nice informative box this is, easy to open and follow the heating instructions given.

The Meal Itself:

You are given two ways of cooking this. In the microwave it will take about 9 minutes and a conventional oven in around about 45 minutes. To me this is meant to be fast food so I always pop this type of meal in the microwave.

Once cooked you get a meal that pretty much looks like the photograph on the box. It all comes in one tray so you have to separate it well, but thats easy enough to do so.

What you get is lots of thick and juicy chicken chunks that is well seasoned and tastes and looks good quality (this is breast by the way) and the reddish, sweet sauce contains flecks of red peppers and some chopped up water chestnuts and bamboo shoots and there is a flavouring of sweet tomatoes, garlic and ginger to it. The sauce is thick and plentiful though the ingredients used are more well coated than swimming in sauce and its really, really tasty and smells wonderful and looks appetising.

The white rice is perfect and al dente. Not at all seasoned (use your own if desired of course), this is not too moist but not one bit dry and simply well cooked through and good quality.

The whole of the meal is tasty though there isn't a huge amount of food and I felt it wasn't very big for a main meal but what there was, was tasty and very tasty indeed and I wouldn't hesitate in purchasing this time and time again in the future!

Nutritional Information Per 375g Serving:

Calories: 550
Sugars: 33.1g
Fat: 10.1g
Saturates: 1.1g
Salt: 2.32g

Available in all good supermarkets etc and if not on offer at about £1.50 a box.