After a long hard day at work, it’s often hard to find the motivation to cook a meal from scratch and getting a takeaway isn’t always the most practical solution.
This great conundrum can often be fixed by picking up a ready meal on the way home but the big question is: which supermarket has the best offering?
I went out this week and bought a ready meal version of the nation’s favourite curry – Chicken Korma* and rice (where possible I bought the top of the range) from my local supermarkets – Waitrose, Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s and got tasting with a couple of friends.
Each meal has been scored out of 10 on:
- Ease of cooking
- Presentation
- Taste (rice out of 5, curry out of 5)
- Value
So how did they fare…?:
Waitrose:
- Ease of cooking: 8
- Presentation: 7
- Taste (rice out of 5, curry out of 5): Rice = 4 Curry = 4
- Value: 7
- Total: 30
Comments:
I was a little disappointed with this one to be honest, I expected more from Waitrose. The curry was tasty and had plenty of flavour but there was a lot of oil on the surface and it lacked a bit of punch. The rice was the fluffiest of the lot and was nicely flavoured with cardamom but lacked the complexity of some of the others.
Tesco:
- Ease of cooking: 9
- Presentation: 9
- Taste (rice out of 5, curry out of 5): Rice = 5 Curry = 5
- Value: 8
- Total: 36
Comments:
As soon as it came out the packet this one looked the best. You could clearly see the spices in the rice and the curry and it had a strong colour. It got even better once cooked with a fantastic smell coming from the plate. The rice was delicious with a good mix of spices including curry leaves, cardamom and cumin which went with the Korma perfectly. The Korma itself was delicious, creamy with hints of coconut and plenty of spices and most importantly looked like it could have been made at home from scratch.
Asda:
- Ease of cooking: 8
- Presentation: 4
- Taste (rice out of 5, curry out of 5) rice = 1 Curry = 3
- Value: 9
- Total: 25
Comments:
This was the cheapest curry of the lot and it does show. The rice seemed to be undercooked and just seemed to taste of yellow food colouring rather than any of the spices you’d hope to be in there. The Korma itself was okay – it was creamy and wasn’t swimming in grease. The taste of coconut was slightly overpowering but overall the chicken was very good and so succulent.
Sainsbury’s:
- Ease of cooking: 7
- Presentation: 3
- Taste (rice out of 5, curry out of 5): rice = 3 Curry = 1
- Value: 3
- Total: 17
Comments:
By far the worst of the lot. The rice was average; I have nothing really to say about it that’s how dull it was. The Korma was swimming in grease and just tasted of cream, the chicken was fibrous and chewy in comparison to the others and they were stingy with the amount of meat as well. I was particularly disappointed with this one as their other ready meals are often very good.
So, in conclusion, the winner is (drum roll please….) Tesco’s Finest Chicken Korma and Rice. It was slightly more expensive (by £1) but totally worth it, the chicken was perfectly cooked, the sauce incredibly tasty and by far the best rice! I strongly recommend it if you’re after a curry in a hurry – just don’t forget the Cobra!
*Cobra research for National Curry Week 2009 showed that 22% of Brits preferred a Korma to other curries
