The third in my ‘mini-series’ on Asda’s Fresh range: previously, I’ve reviewed the Chicken, Chilli, Cheese and Tomato (yes, that’s all one item), and the Chicken En Croûte. This time it’s another dish with an amazingly inspired title (not): Chicken, Red Wine ... Read review
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A review by Calypte on Asda Fresh Chicken, Red Wine & Mushrooms February 21st, 2002
Author's product rating:
Value for Money
Product Quality
Product package
Taste
How loyal are you to this brand?
Advantages:
Low calorie, doesn't taste awful
Disadvantages:
Doesn't taste great, and there's almost no wine in it !
Recommend to potential buyers:
no
Full review
The third in my ‘mini-series’ on Asda’s Fresh range: previously, I’ve reviewed the Chicken, Chilli, Cheese and Tomato (yes, that’s all one item), and the Chicken En Croûte. This time it’s another dish with an amazingly inspired title (not): Chicken, Red Wine and Mushrooms with baby onions, button mushrooms and bacon.
This is promoted as a healthy meal, with “less than 5% fat”.¤ • ¤ APPEARANCE ¤ • ¤
As with the rest of the range, this comes in a heavy foil tray with a clear film lid. Once again, I’ll mention that I like this packaging: for one, you can see what you’re buying instead of relying on the packet’s picture, and the chicken can be cooked in the tray which saves on the washing up – hurrah!
Other than the fact that the chicken is raw when you buy it, this does look almost exactly like the picture – a deep red sauce with the onion, bacon and mushroom chunks as promised, and a few herbs. The sauce does, however, seem a little runny.¤ • ¤ STORAGE ¤ • ¤
There were six days between the date of purchase and the best before date in this case. Either keep in the fridge and use within this time, or freeze – as soon as possible once you’ve bought it – for up to one month.
¤ • ¤ COOKING ¤ • ¤
No microwaves wanted here! This is an oven only dish, I’m afraid. More convenience points are lost from the fact that – once the perspex lid has been removed, obviously – the foil tray has to be covered with tin foil. Not a huge point, but not something I’d thought to check before I wanted to cook this. Fortunately I had some, but it could have been annoying.
There is also a recommendation to place the foil tray on a baking sheet, and I want to point out that this is important – it makes removing the hot meal much easier and safer.
Cooking times are given from both fresh and frozen, and it’s essential that you use the right one – a difference of ten minutes could determine whether your chicken is ‘crispy’ or if you’re spending the evening being sick with food poisoning. On the down side, no details are given for fan assisted ovens – once again, I found that dropping the temperature by 10ºC (to 180ºC) and using just less than the lower of the range of cooking times gave good results.¤ • ¤ TASTE ¤ • ¤
My previous explorations with the Asda Fresh range have both been a little on the bland side, and this is no exception. To be honest, I didn’t like this much. It wasn’t unpleasant, just not to my taste.
*CHICKEN* The chicken breasts were a little fatty – not much, but I like my chicken absolutely lean (that sentence was changed from an altogether more dodgy first attempt!). Apart from that, though, it was quite a nice piece of poultry, fairly tender when cooked.
*SAUCE* My first impression was that the sauce was a little watery, but actually it was fine. However, I found the ham flavour a little too smoky and overpowering in the whole dish. The red wine flavour really wasn’t too apparent, which wasn’t too surprising when I looked at the ingredients – there isn’t a lot of red wine in there at all! On the plus side, there was a reasonable amount of each of the mushrooms, baby onions and bits of bacon.
Note: a bit of herb (dried thyme, I think) got stuck between my teeth while I was eating this, only to be discovered a while later. Thankfully, I was just at home, but it could be embarrassing if you’re with someone you’re trying to impress!¤ • ¤ SUGGESTED SERVING ¤ • ¤
The packet suggests jacket potatoes and broccoli florets: this combination with the sauce really wouldn’t be to my tastes at all. I served this with rice – it’s healthy, and I find it goes well with a sauce like this.
There is also a wine recommendation for a “peppery red such as Asda Agrentine Sangiovese”. I’m not a great wine connoisseur, and I drink very little red wine, but I’m sure someone will leave a better suggestion in the comments! Really, though, the red wine flavour was so weak in the dish that I think any accompaniment is going to overpower it completely.¤ • ¤ COST ¤ • ¤
For £2.98 you get two small to medium sized chicken breasts – enough for two people as long as neither has a huge appetite – and plenty of sauce.
There seems to be a fairly permanent offer on the Fresh range in general to buy two for £5. This means £1.25 per person for the main part of your meal, which I feel is fairly reasonable; as always, accompaniment has still to be provided.¤ • ¤ INGREDIENTS ¤ • ¤
Per half-pack serving (pack is 380g): 174 kcal (92 kcal per 100g) 3.6g fat (1.3g of which is saturates) 1.3g salt
As I’ve mentioned, this is part of the healthier end of the range.
¤ • ¤ VERDICT ¤ • ¤
I was really quite disappointed with this. Really, the flavour wasn’t bad, just not to my liking. I should point out that my co-eater quite enjoyed this, and will be buying it again.
However, for something with red wine in the product description, I would like a dish to have a higher wine content than this – I’m not surprised that the flavour was so weak when there was so little in it!
I’ve tasted much nicer coq au vin / chicken chasseur type meals, both home made and from boxes (and it was a low-fat frozen meal, too!), that were similar in concept to this. That being the case, I won’t recommend this in a personal opinion, although it’s something you might like to try for yourself.
As for my rating, I’ve dithered between 2 and 3 stars, and unfortunately there are no half-stars available! However, I don’t really think it lives up to the description of being a ‘rich red wine sauce’, and so I’m not going to be generous.
