Charlie Bigham’s Moroccan Chicken Tagine

I’ve recently moved to an area that has a Waitrose. There’s an entire fridge section dedicated to ‘Charlie Bigham’ meals. I thought he was the bloke who wrote Black Mirror. A man of many talents then…!

These are all marketed as high quality, low effort meals for two. Unlike other Charlie Bigham meals, you can’t just bung this in the oven – it needs a bit of work. Oh, and you need to provide your own rice.

The cooking part is pretty easy, although you will have a pan to wash up at the end. Just fry the chicken and nut mixture for a few minutes, then add the sauce and heat through.

If you wanted to impress a date and pretend this was your own home cooking, you could probably get away with it – there’s just enough effort involved that it looks like you could have conceivably done the marinade prep too.

The taste is absolutely gorgeous. The crispiness and caramelisation of the toasted nuts, the sweetness of the currants, and the tender chicken make for a mouthwatering meal. And it makes a pretty generous portion for each person.

But at £7, with the reasonably high effort/washing up cost, I really can’t justify giving it more than about 3*. Also the plastic is awful and will not peel away, so you need to hack at it with a knife. I’d expect better!