Friday’s Lunch – Tandoori Chicken

On Friday, I had Tandoori Chicken for lunch.  I love a good Indian dish so I figured I’d try this one.  It’s another World Classic so let’s see how it eats.

Tandoori Chicken

The picture on the packet and the Lite ‘n’ Easy website never really grabbed me.  I think the yellow cauliflower turned me off.  I don’t mind cauliflower but the colouring (probably turmeric) doesn’t work for me.

After cooking it in the work microwave for 9 minutes, I get this…

Tandoori Chicken

I reckon they’ve just slapped into much cauliflower.  You can see there’s plenty there.  I don’t know how cucumber freezes but that or capsicum would’ve added a little more variety to dish.  Soy beans… yeah, I can handle that and then there’s some rice.  They have, however, put in a fair amount chicken.

My gripe with this dish is there’s just not enough tandoori sauce.  I know it’s more of a dry curry, but a little more would’ve just made the meal feel more satisfying especially as the tandoori chicken is really just chicken in a a bit of tandoori.  I’ve made something similar before, but I needed to either grill or BBQ the marinade onto the chicken which isn’t the case here.

I’ll give this a 3 out of 5 thumbs.  I’d rather head down to the local Indian restaurant.

 

 

Tuesday 5th of February’s Dinner – Sweet & Sour Chicken

Again, I apologise for the delays in bringing you these taste tests.  However, the other week I had the Sweet & Sour Chicken.  I remember originally I did really want to try this but for the exercise, I ended up ordering this item from Lite ‘n’ Easy’s World Classics range.

Sweet & Sour Chicken

I think the picture on the packet looks quite appetising but after cooking for the recommended 8 minutes, I got this…

Sweet & Sour Chicken

What Lite ‘n’ Easy have got here is a generous portion of what is fried rice on the right.  You can see in the middle is some chicken but there’s also a little more under than sauce.  Overall, it doesn’t too bad.  But I have to pull up the sauce on this review.  It just didn’t taste like sweet ‘n’ sour sauce.  I can’t really describe the flavour but if you’re looking for that rich tang of the sour and the sweet, delicious pineapple flavour, you won’t find it here.  The sauce tastes like savoury-type sauce.  It’s nothing like what you’d find at the local Chinese restaurant.

I feel that maybe I just got a dodgy batch and the cook just forgot to throw in some “tang” or he/she just had a crappy day cooking this batch.  To be fair, what I might do is order this again either this week or next and try again.  Would I get this again otherwise?  Probably not, especially with butter chicken coming out.  I will get the butter chicken this week and check it out.

For the meantime, I’ll give the Sweet & Sour Chicken a 3 out of 5 thumbs.

 

 

Australia Day Dinner – Chicken & Satay Sauce

Australia Day was Saturday the 26th.  Unfortunately, my dietary intake on this day was not really my most healthiest.  I headed down to the Kiama Show and got stuck into a sausage sandwich for breakfast.  Morning tea consisted of a Dagwood Dog and a beer.  Lunch consisted of the same.  After lunch, I made my way to the bowlo to meet up with a mate so there were plenty of beers and also half a pizza consumed that afternoon.

I don’t remember what time I got home but I decided to crack open a Chicken & Satay Sauce meal.

Chicken & Satay Sauce

I can tell you, this looks pretty tasty and really healthy after a day of eating and drinking crap.  After 8 minutes in the microwave, I peeled back the lid and got this…

Chicken & Satay Sauce

Hmm.  There ain’t much sauce there but I reckon to keep the kilojoules down, they’ve had to crack down on the sauce.  Still, the sauce did have a mild peanut flavour and had the consistency you’d expect.  There’s plenty of stir-fry vegetables included and the chicken was cooked through perfectly.

Overall, I was pleased with this dish but it didn’t knock my socks off.  I reckon this would be better suited to a lunch meal.

3 out 5 thumbs.  I probably would get it again but with so many other dishes to choose from, this sits a little lower on my list of favourites.

 

Thursday’s Lunch – Salt & Pepper Chicken

Thursday at work, I cracked open the Salt & Pepper Chicken.

Salt & Pepper Chicken

I think I did leave this in the work microwave for 9 minutes.  This is what came out…

Salt & Pepper Chicken

The rice was cooked to perfection so I’ll gloss over that.  The stir-fry veggies were varied and seemed fairly fresh.  There’s water chestnut in there which remained crispy, however, there’s only a couple of pieces.

As I look at the photo, I now realise there’s celery in there.  As I’ve said before, I believe celery should be classified as a noxious weed and eradicated.  However, in this instance, it didn’t particularly faze me.

I would’ve loved more chicken pieces – it was cooked well.  It was soft but not mushy.

Now the sauce is a little strange.  I didn’t pick up on the salt flavour.  The pepper flavour came through and to cut that down was a sweeter, ginger flavour.  It had a spicy heat from chilli to it but it wasn’t too powerful.

I might get this again, but it won’t be in the top ten.

3 out of 5 thumbs.

 

Tuesday’s Lunch – Braised Chicken & Almonds

I’ll keep this short.  Place this meal on your next order.  It’s that simple.

Braised Chicken & Almonds

When I looked at the packaging, I thought “oh no, it’s got celery in it”.  I hate celery.  I mean, it is crap.  It should be classified a weed.

Anyway, I had to place this in the work microwave for 10 minutes neat.

Here’s what I got.

Braised Chicken & Almonds

The rice was perfectly cooked and came with a few peas and some scrambled-egg pieces.  Nice.

Then there’s the meat.  There’s plenty of chicken pieces which are perfectly cooked through also.  As the pack indicates, the chicken is braised so it too has the soft texture like the steak from the other day.  But the sauce that accompanies the chicken is what makes this dish come alive.  It is sticky, it’s sweet but has the nutty flavour of the almonds and there’s baby corn in there as well and what celery?  I may have eaten it but I certainly didn’t notice.  The rich sauce masked all the evils of celery in this dish.  There are other bits and pieces in there that really make this a top dish like carrot, bamboo strips, and almonds.  This has to be one on the best balanced dishes I’ve tried from Lite ‘n’ Easy.  When you mush the rice through the sauce, I guarantee you’ll love this.  It’s not bland and not over-the-top.  The closest I could describe this dish as is like the local Chinese cashew chicken (but without the cashew).  You’ll recognise the sauce from those Chinese take-away days.

4.5 out of 5 thumbs.  End of interview.

 

Last Night’s Dinner – Roast Chicken

As a traditional favourite, I’m sure I will enjoy this meal.  Sunday night’s dinner was roast pigeon… I mean chicken.

Roast Chicken – a Traditional Favourite

I’ve got to admit, the picture looks quite appetising.  After 8 minutes in the mickey wave, let’s see how this one turns out…

Roast Chicken

Hmm, this doesn’t look too bad but what’s that chunk in the bottom left?  I think it’s supposed to be some sort of stuffing.  The thing is, it’s a little dry but it’s edible.  There’s plenty of potato and a piece of pumpkin. Along with that, the standard issue of peas is included.

The gravy hides a piece of chicken.  The gravy is pretty meaty and thick enough to stick to the toughest of peas.

I’m not sure what part of the chicken it is as it’s about the size of a small wallet.  It doesn’t contain any bones but it does taste like chicken.  Thinking about the fact that it tastes like chicken means it could be anything; everything tastes like chicken!  However, the pack does say chicken (15%).

The dish overall is pretty good and will be on my a future order.

3.5 out of 5 thumbs.

 

Saturday Dinner – Chicken Enchilada

First off, this is one tasty dish.  If you’re about to place an order with Lite ‘n’ Easy, seriously consider putting this on it.

Chicken Enchilada

This requires 8 minutes of cooking time.  This is what comes out…

Chicken Enchilada – seriously a “World Classic”

It doesn’t really look like the picture on the package.  Oh well.  I was little hesitant at first with this dish seeing as it uses flat bread.  I didn’t think that sort of thing would freeze and cook well.

However, after tucking in, this is a bloody tasty dish.  Firstly, there’s heaps of melted cheese and sauce. The sauce has a little bit of heat but is really quite mild.  There are two enchiladas containing a generous amount of chicken pieces.  However, the bread itself was crispy at the ends and soft through the rest.

The enchiladas also have heaps of capsicum pieces – both red and green which I love.  There are a few olives on top.  This is best eaten with knife and fork and maybe even on a plate.

This meal reminds of a pizza with the cheese, olives and capsicum.  This is bloody nice.

4 out 5 thumbs.

 

Wednesday’s Dinner – Chicken Schnitzel

I decided on the chicken schnitzel for tonight’s dinner and I wasn’t really sold on this one.  It’s average.  Let’s take a look…

24 Chicken Schnitzel

7 minutes later…

24 Chicken Schnitzel after cooking.

This dish had plenty of carrot and corn and potato pieces, however, the potato was soft.  It wasn’t mushy, just not crispy which would be expected from a microwave dish.  The sauce didn’t taste as though it was sweetened so that’s good.  It was rich though.  The chicken schnitzel itself was a mixed-bag.  The crumbs, especially on the bottom of the chicken, were soggy.  In this case, I don’t think oven cooking will help this as there’s the sauce that also makes the crumbs soggy.  Overall, this was a take-it-or-leave-it kind o’ dish.  I would get it again but only after Lite ‘n’ Easy ran out of all my favourites.

2.5 out of 5 thumbs.

 

Tuesday’s Dinner – Chicken Dijon

Last night I chowed down on the Chicken Dijon.  Again, I got lazy and wasn’t too fussed to post until today.

Chicken Dijon package.

I’ve never been to Dijon but I have been to Besanςon which is nearby, so I was interested to see how this came out after 8 minutes and I was pleasantly surprised.

 

Chicken Dijon

The rice has been cooked perfectly and it contains specks of black rice I think it is.  Heaps of broccoli pieces and other vegetables can be seen in the middle.  There are plenty of chicken pieces covered buy a rich, Dijon-mustardy sauce.   How, I found the sauce a little powdery in places as though it had been made from a powered substance.  It was not really noticeable but it was something I found that detracted from the dish.

Overall, I love this dish and I certainly would get it again but I think it’s a little high in the kilojoule count – almost 2000kj.  Still, that’s worth it.

4/5 thumbs

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday’s Dinner – Baked Chicken & Mushroom Sauce

Last night I cooked up another Traditional Favourite – the Baked Chicken & Mushroom Sauce dish.  Due to sheer laziness on my part, I didn’t get around to posting last night.

 

Baked Chicken & Mushroom Sauce

8 minutes cooking time is required for dish and that’s about right for my microwave.

Baked Chicken & Mushroom Sauce after cooking.

After cooking, the meal looks like this.  The potato wedges did not crisp up which is to be expected but were generous in this meal.  Again, there are the beans, peas and corn.  All standard there.  The chicken was a fillet piece and it was cooked thoroughly.  The mushroom sauce, I found, was a little runny.  It did contain lots of mushroom slices and the sauce did taste good.  It was rich tasty.

I would get this meal again but I might try the oven cooking method next time.

3.5 out of 5 thumbs.