Sainsbury's Chicken Curry with Rice

Having recently finished university, I have had plenty of time to experiment with all types of convinience food from a variety of different shops. However, one of the best options is Sainsbury's own brand of chicken curry.

As I am sure you have guessed, the chicken curry is own available in branches of Sainsbury's!!! (although various other supermarkets do a similar version, this one is the best in my view). The curry itself is very reasonably priced at 99p per meal, which is significantly cheaper than any of its branded competitors. Also they have an offer of 5 for £4, which you can either buy 5 curries, or a combination with any of their extensive own brand range.

The curry itself is found in the freezer section of the supermarket along with all the other frozen foods. It comes in a distinctive red box with a picture of the completed meal on the front. The back contains the ingredients and a helpline number as well as the nutritional information which is as follows per meal:-

Energy :- 528kcal

Protein :- 23.2g

Carbohydrate :- 72.0g

Fat :- 16.4g

Fibre :- 2.8g

Salt :- 2.0g

As you can see from this, the meal does provide a good balance, especially if eaten from time to time when in a rush. It can be stored in the freezer for upto 9 months, although this does depend on the star rating of your freezer unit. In addition it can also be eaten straight away or within 24 hours if refridgerated.

The cooking instructions are very simple indeed, either in a saucepan and boiled in the bag for 35-40 mins. Alternatively, and probably more popular way is in the microwave. This takes very little time and following the instructions for the particular wattage of microwave takes about 9 minutes to complete. One word of warning here, the bags once removed from the microwave can be very hot indeed, and so is the steam that can come from the bags once opened, so a degree of care here is advised.

As I mentioned, once you open up the box, you are presented with a bag with the rice and a bag with the curry sauce. Once cooking is complete you can serve these either separately or one over the other (my preference). The rice firstly is very very nice for a convinience meal. It is remarkably light and fluffy, not sticking together at all, and is as good as the homemade variety. Secondly the curry is also nice. The contents are usually 5 or 6 large sized pieces of chicken breast which are well cut with no blood and guts on, and is very succulent. The sauce is marked as medium on the box but I would say that it was quite mild really. It contains spices as well as onions and sultanas. This gives it a nice balance between flavours and spices. The product must be served hot, and as a result you get a nice aroma of the curry throughout the kitchen during preparation which just hightens your anticipation of the meal.

Finally to sum up, I would recommend this meal to anyone, from a student wanting a lazy meal, to a working person eating in a rush, right through to a convinience meal when watching a football match on television, Sainsbury's have really hit the meal on the head with this!!!