Waitrose Chicken Katsu Curry

For a ready meal, this was the biggest faff to prepare.

Your first task is to peel back the film lid, and remove the chicken breast with your bare hands, shake the rice off that had clung to it, and place it on a baking tray, which you should put in a pre-heated oven for 20 minutes.

So, relax for 15 minutes, before coming back to the rice and sauce. Knife the sauce compartment, put the container on a microwavable plate, zap it for a minute or so, then take it out. Measure 1 tablespoon of water, add it to the rice, then stir both compartments. Zap it in the microwave for another minute and a half, take the chicken out of the oven, and combine it all on a plate like some master chef.

With all that effort, you’re going to expect a nice meal at the end of it. And the result is… well… fine, but something of a letdown after 20 minutes of your life.

You’ll notice during your halftime rice watering that the rice has a very unusual, and not exactly subtle lemongrass odour to it – that’s new to me! This was a nice surprise; it’s quite like a jasmine rice you’d get at a Thai restaurant. But the end result isn’t a soft, sticky, fragrant accompaniment – it’s more like a chewy slightly underdone basmati that has gone wrong.

The curry sauce is nothing special, and there’s not enough of it. Try the Wasabi Chicken Katsu Curry for a better, thicker one that has vegetables and character.

The chicken is passable, but quite dry. And it looks so lonesome on the baking tray in those portions.

I’m riding on this pretty hard because the cooking is such a task that it really ought to taste fantastic. It simply doesn’t.