... No one actively disliked it, but equally I know of nobody in the history of the world who has ever thrown a hissy fit because they can't get a packet of Walkers Roast Chicken Crisps. Er, except me, forty minutes ago when I popped to the shops to get a packet to review and the first three places ... Read review
Advantages: Pleasant enough taste Disadvantages: High in fat and salt, and utterly unremarkable
...can't get a packet of Walkers Roast Chicken Crisps. Er, except me, forty minutes ago when I popped to the shops to get a packet to review and the first three places didn't have any.
== Get on with it, for the love of God! ==
Well, quite. Just as they did when I last ate them twenty years ago, Walkers Roast Chicken crisps come in a sort of orangey coloured foil packet illustrated with tempting pictures of golden potato slices ... ...within, squashed beneath an enormous Walkers logo. I think it says a lot when a brand logo is bigger than the picture of the actual product, don't you?
I opened the packet at the bottom, as a sop to my pointless non-conformity of childhood (although the justification used to be that all the surplus flavouring fell to the bottom of the bag) and pulled out a thin yellowy disc about the size and general shape of a teabag. Reader, I bit ... more
Forgive the title, please, I don't get out much.
Anyway, it is a long-held truism, perpetuated in such diverse works as Red Dwarf and The Matrix that everything tastes a little bit like chicken. Up to a point, my own experience has upheld this strange claim. Crocodile tastes a little bit like chicken, as do guinea fowl, frogs' legs and even calves' brains (don't ask)...
In fact, the one thing I've eaten in my entire life that tasted in no way like chicken was... you've guessed it. A packet of roast chicken crisps. In fact, I think the tastiest thing I've ever pulled out of a packet of roast chicken crisps was a Limited Edition Star Wars Tazo (I have the full set, make me an offer and we'll talk, er, turkey).
Roast Chicken crisps had an odd reputation when I was at school. I was educated in a part of the country remote enough and dull enough that the playground was virtually segregated by your crisp flavour preference. The hard lads went for the harsh burn of Salt and Vinegar, while the piquancy of Prawn Cocktail was definitely reserved for girls. Cheese and Onion was for the 'dirty kids' who didn't clean their teeth often enough, and Ready Salted was the potato snack of the studious over-achievers. As a creative kid, I was a Smokey Bacon afficionado, which was just one step away from eating Tomato Ketchup or Worcester Sauce or any of the other flash in the pan flavours for 'ponces'. While all of this crispy apartheid was going on, Roast Chicken was sort of Switzerland, a neutral haven from playground battlefields, because Roast Chicken crisps were what you ate when your Mum hadn't managed to get anything else in the Co-Op.
While the Salt n' Vinegar munching rough lads would still call you a spaz, it was muted, the thought running through their brow 'there but for the grace of Tesco go I'.
While I could riff wittily on the subject of schoolyard crisps for hours, the point of this drollery is that it was a universally ignored flavour. No one actively disliked it, but equally I know of nobody in the history of the world who has ever thrown a hissy fit because they can't get a packet of Walkers Roast Chicken Crisps. Er, except me, forty minutes ago when I popped to the shops to get a packet to review and the first three places didn't have any.
Get on with it, for the love of God!
Well, quite. Just as they did when I last ate them twenty years ago, Walkers Roast Chicken crisps come in a sort of orangey coloured foil packet illustrated with tempting pictures of golden potato slices that are probably supposed to approximate the crispy snacks that lie within, squashed beneath an enormous Walkers logo. I think it says a lot when a brand logo is bigger than the picture of the actual product, don't you?
I opened the packet at the bottom, as a sop to my pointless non-conformity of childhood (although the justification used to be that all the surplus flavouring fell to the bottom of the bag) and pulled out a thin yellowy disc about the size and general shape of a teabag. Reader, I bit it.
Texture
I hope you're enjoying this lesson in how to suck eggs, dear reader. The crisp was, as expected, crisp. I chewed about half of the morsel and it kept its brittle crunch for about half a dozen chews before gradually being masticated into gritty sludge. Again, in deference to my crisp-eating prime aged eight, I opened my mouth and stuck my tongue out, but sadly only my cat was around to inspect the contents of my jaws. And as I affect great disinterest in the dead mice she brings me, I can't really blame her for yawning and wandering off.Feeling slightly cheated, I swallowed, and the mouthful slipped down my throat with a slight scratchiness that reminded me it wasn't that long since I'd had a throat infection and I really probably shouldn't be eating crisps at all. That's dedication for you.
Taste They still don't taste of chicken. The problem is that Roast Chicken crisps have now been around for so long that they have a flavour all of their own. I imagine if anyone brought out some crisps that actually tasted of chicken, there would be a national outcry.
Weirdly, they smell a lot nicer than they taste - I've always thought that about this flavour. But how to describe the flavour...
So... they're salty, obviously. And the general flavour is quite light, just beating the salt and general crisp taste with notes of, I don't know, I want to say pork, to be honest. They've got a kind of pork scratchings flavour to them, if anything. Which just makes me want to go out and get some pork scratchings, but I've had one unhealthy treat today, and that's probably more than enough...
Damage OK, they're crisps, slices of spuds fried in oil and then covered in salt and flavourings and foil-packed. We all know they're not good for us, and frankly it's an insult to our intelligence when companies like Walkers try and pretend otherwise. But I've got to be honest, I was a little surprised that they weren't as bad as I was expecting. For a standard multi-pack 25g packet, the nutritional values are as follows. Percentage figures represent proportion of Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA):
So 15% of your day's fat intake in a snack you can eat in less than two minutes (if you're a pig like me). That's bad, and probably a good reason to stick with the smaller multi-pack packets where you can keep an eye on how many you're eating, rather than the big crisp bowl in the middle of the table at every dull party you've ever been to.
On the other hand, I was expecting a LOT more salt, and frankly a bit more fat than that. I'm no nutritionist, but I don't see that a packet of these each day or every other day would do you any serious damage.
I won't go into the ingredients in exhaustive detail, as to be fair the main two are potatoes and sunflower oil, but I did notice our old friend MSG being listed as a flavour enhancer. I don't quite know why everyone's so down on Monosodium Glutamate, but it's there and be warned. If you care. Using paprika extract as a colouring rather than an artificial colouring agent gets a big thumbs up from me, though. I like paprika.
Hilariously, the packet states that the product is suitable for both vegetarians and coeliacs. Well, the only coeliac I know won't touch Walkers crisps after an incident involving a toilet (I'm sure I don't need to draw you a picture), and what kind of vegetarian is going to chow down on a packet of roast chicken crisps? The whole product is a shrine to meaty goodness, transforming pure vegetables into a shambling approximation of deep-fried poultry! They'd be better off putting some chicken stock in with the sunflower oil at the frying stage and cutting out the flavour enhancers!
All in all? Walkers Roast Chicken crisps are not quite as easy to get hold of as I thought, and not really worth the effort when you do. They're a very light flavour, though, and so I'd suggest they're good for parties when everyone has different preferences, as I can't imagine anyone actually finding them unpleasant. They're pretty bland, but easy on the throat. Just go easy on them with all the fat and salt and MSG (whatever the problem with MSG actually is)...
I'd advise you to get them in multipacks where possible - you can get six 25g bags in most supermarkets for around £1.30. And given that my local shops sell 35g packets of crisps at 52p a time, you can see that you'd be making a significant saving.
Advantages: High quality crisps with delicious flavouring. Disadvantages: The use of MSG and the amount of calories and salt.
...like, things like the mighty Walkers sensations and I just love salt and vinegar Pringles but there is also a less exciting and more down to earth crisp that I love and that is the humble Roast chicken flavour Walkers.
When I was younger the chicken flavour crisps were seen as the ugly duckling of the multi-pack, they were always the ones left till last or sometimes even left to go out of date. Neither me nor my brother would touch them and my mum ... ...flavours I eat from a Walkers multi-pack is now the roast chicken, the bags are still not as attractive as the others being a somewhat dull and uninteresting murky shade of orangey yellow but the smell I once disliked as you opened a packet of chicken crisps now for some reason seems to get my mouth watering.
There are many things involved in a crisp being a good crisp, it has to have the right type of crunch, it has to have a nice tasting flavour ...
candy-pink 20.07.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Walkers Roast Chicken Crisps
Advantages: Great taste, easy to open packet, non-soggy crisps. Disadvantages: The smell when you first open them, not good for diets.
...with three empty packets of Walkers Roast Chicken crisps.
The flavour was (as I have said in the above paragraph) a mix of gravy granules and chicken, it tastes quite nice as the chicken flavour compliments the potato crisps rather like gravy on chips. I enjoyed it once I got used to the smell, it's a savoury taste and if you like roast dinner you'll probably like them but the flavour is a little artificial. Unlike other brands of crisps I've tried, ... ...the packaging for roast chicken Walkers is golden. Nutrional value is printed on the back of the packet. Information per 25g pack:
Energy: 545 kj, 131 kcal
Protein: 1.5 g
Carbohydrate: 12.8 g Fat: 8.2 g
Fibre: 1.0 g
Sodium: 0.12 g
(Not exactly good if I was on a diet.)
Roast Chicken Flavour Potato Crisps Ingredients: Potatos, Sunflower Oil (33%), Roast Chicken Seasoning.
Roast Chicken Seasoning contains: Salt, Glucose, Dried Milk Whey, Dried ...
Mistybrook 16.07.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Walkers Roast Chicken Crisps
Advantages: Realistic flavour, good price & taste great Disadvantages: Can sometimes taste a little salty
...concepts they continue to market. Walkers crisps are very much close to my heart because they were invented in Leicester, which is 10 minutes away from me, by a butcher named Henry Walker hence the Walkers crisps. He started out in the late 1880s but by 1945 meat was hard to get hold of so he began cooking and selling sliced potatoes such a simple idea that would take the world by storm! By 1954 flavoured crisps were bought in and the infamous Cheese ... ...the most recent builders breakfast. Walkers continue to amaze us and keep on trend with their new products and sell different type of crisp all the time such as Walkers lite, max and baked. All this and I am proud to say they haven’t shipped out all of the hard work to countries abroad to cash in further they have stayed faithful and are based in a village called Thurmaston.
MY FAVOURITE
Now I have told you about Walkers let me tell you all about ...
gemax2 15.07.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Walkers Roast Chicken Crisps
Advantages: Filling, Good Taste and None Overpowering Taste Disadvantages: Packet Can Get Slightly "Greasy"
...Background ------------------------- Walkers are probably the best known crisps manufacturers in the UK, having been in the business for many years and becoming experts in their field. Walkers do a wide range of "flavoured potato crisps" as the packet refers to them as, including traditional crisps in vast flavours such as; ready salted, salt and vinegar, cheese and onion, prawn cocktail and many more. They also do promotional packs in their range ... ...packet comes with the large Walkers logo predominantly on the front of the pack, so you know you are getting good quality immediately. Usually any promotions are on the front of the pack also. It always makes me giggle the most of Walkers "meaty" flavoured crisps are suitable for vegetarians, but I suppose that's a nice thing for those veggies who like a bit of smoky bacon or roast chicken every now and then! All nutritional information and best ...
chugglebunny 16.07.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Walkers Roast Chicken Crisps
Advantages: Just a nice crisp Disadvantages: Calories and fat
...45p a packet I guess Walkers crisps are reasonable value for money, although the new Grab bag and Family bags do offer slightly better value if you are into crisps, and sharing. Quality wise there are few other brands that can truly compare to Walkers, whose various varieties are of an exceptional standard. Quality aside though the quantity seems to be diminishing, or perhaps I’m just a bit more greedy than I used to be. I always seem to want more ... ...as I mentioned value can be had by purchasing the larger packs, I’m not usually greedy enough to eat a whole packet of this option.
If I think about it I can honestly say that there are perhaps three flavours which are my real favourites, Cheese and Onion, which are just adorable on a buttered roll, Slat and vinegar for the movies, and Roast Chicken for when the urge takes me, which it appears to do more often these days. Of course it could be said ...
donf18 14.07.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Walkers Roast Chicken Crisps
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--------------------------The Taste Test-----------------------------------------
So after nearly having ...
