Price: $4.59
Serving: 10 oz.
Calories: 260
Fat: 10%, 6g
Cholesterol: 15%, 45mg
Sodium: 28%, 680mg
Protein: 19g
Carbohydrates: 11%, 32g
Fiber: 11%, 3g
Sugar: 4g
Weight Watchers Points: 5 Points

Ethnic Gourmet says: Seasoned white meat chicken pieces in a robust, creamy sauce, with seasoned, long-grain brown rice. All natural, no artificial ingredients, flavors, colors or preservatives. Minimally processed.

Sarah says: It’s been quite a long while since I wrote anything for HeatEatReview, and I’m glad that I’m able to come back on a high note. Now, a very important thing for me to explain before I start discussing the tasty logistics of this meal is that I am now centrally located in the midwestern United States. As such, you might start to see a difference in some of the items I purchase and the items that are available in your local supermarket. Unless, of course, you are made of awesome and you also live in the Hawkeye State.

That said, the grocery chain here (called HyVee) has, in recent years, developed a “health foods” section which is actually quite impressive. (Back when I was a youngin’, it was just ten rows of corn, corn and more corn!) It’s several small aisles filled with organic, vegan, gluten-free, and otherwise new-age hippie foods. I ended up in this section this week, on a mission to stock up my house with healthier, lower calorie foods as I attempt to burn off the December pounds. And I’m glad I did, because that is where I found this meal.

I was skeptical at first. The price was a little high, and we don’t really do Indian food here in Farm Country. As someone who has lived on both coasts, the lack of diverse cuisine is probably my biggest complaint about the midwest. But I’ve been craving a little curry in my life, and so I threw the box into my cart.

I decided to eat it after a trip to the gym - a good call, as I’m always (counter-intuitively) less hungry after a trip to the gym. It smelled delicious, and I was extremely pleased to find that despite the misleading look that my photograph might give you, there was plenty of fantastic chicken meat buried beneath the sauce. And I mean PLENTY - I actually ran out of rice before the chicken was gone! The sauce itself was tasty, though true lovers of Indian cuisine will probably wish that it was a bit spicier. I can’t really fault them for this though, as the box clearly notes that the meal is “Mildly Spiced.” It still had enough oomph that I needed a glass of water to accompany it, so all in all, not so bad!

Probably the only complaint I had about this meal was the rice. There was plenty of it, and I felt good about myself eating something so healthy, but as a rule, brown rice is harder to cook as well as white rice. It comes out a little dry, and I think that this might partially be because I had to cook the meal for an extra minute in my microwave in order to completely heat the chicken. But I still ate all of the rice, and it was very filling.

Veggie lovers might be sort of disappointed with the meal, so I guess it’s a good thing that I’m not a veggie lover. There are some peas in the rice, but I can only assume that they’re there to add color. I mean, why do I need peas in my rice? Ugh. I hate peas. But since I doused each forkful of pea!rice in my chicken and sauce, I barely even noticed that they were there. Thank goodness.

All in all, at only 260 calories this meal did one hell of a job. I felt full after eating it, and it left me craving a trip to the one Indian restaurant in town. I’ll definitely buy it again.

Note: I just realized that over a year ago, my darling Jess reviewed the same meal and was not impressed. Maybe they’ve since improved it? Or maybe I’m just easier to please. Who knows?

Price: $4.00 (full price)
Serving: 1 package, 10 oz.
Calories: 200
Fat: 9%, 6g
Sodium: 28%, 680mg
Protein: 17g
Carbs: 6%, 19g
Fiber: 7%, 2g

Ethnic Gourmet says: Seasoned white meat chicken pieces in a robust, creamy sauce, with seasoned, long-grain brown rice.

Jess says: I have been eating a lot of Indian food lately (both of the “cloth napkin” and “pierced plastic film” variety) so my palate is especially in tune with the bountiful spices of India. I went to an Indian buffet last Friday and scooped fat-ass amounts of Chicken Tikka Masala on to my wrist-injuring serving plate. While the plate is another story, damn! I love that creamy yogurt spiciness! This microwave meal, however, was nowhere near my Friday feast.

Look at the picture of Ethnic Gourmet’s Chicken Tikka offering. Ask yourself, ‘Where is the chicken?’ The answer is ‘Not in Jess’s bowl’. There was literally one strip of chicken and then a bunch of shredded chicken bits that required spooning as the bits were too tiny for fork prongs. The rice, as happens often with brown rice, had no vah vah voom. Thank Ganesh that the sauce saved the meal.

I dumped all the bland rice in with the not-as-good-as-take-out sauce and went to town with my ricey chicken bits. Based on previous reviews of Ethnic Gourmet items, I think they need to go back to the drawing board on their name. Thesaurus.com suggested “Ethnic Amateur” or how about “Ethnic Passables”.

Price: $3.49 (sale)
Serving: 1 package, 10 oz.
Calories: 170
Fat: 7%, 4.5g
Sodium: 35%, 840mg
Protein: 14g
Carbs: 6%, 19g

Ethnic Gourmet says: Seasoned white meat chicken tossed with slow-cooked spinach. Served with seasoned long-grain brown rice.

Abi says: The first ingredient in this meal is spinach, thus this item should be renamed as follows: Ethnic Gourmet Creamed Spinach with a few bits of chicken and some brown rice that is colored yellow but doesn’t taste like anything but brown rice.

I can’t figure out why Ethnic Gourmet hasn’t crashed and burned. Their products are pretty expensive ($4.00) and can’t compare to the flavorful meals produced by Deep Foods. Come on market forces, do some work!

I wish that I was reviewing a Deep Foods item right now. I’d love to eat a Curry Classics Pad Thai Chicken or a Green Guru Paneer Tikka Masala, but instead I am battling gastro-intestinal agony from the ‘Ethnic Gourmet’ line. Actually, I’m not battling it, I’m fine now. But during the IT presentation of our new Helpdesk system, I was making the most ridiculous burbling noises. This stuff is basically pre-processed food and it is going to pass through your body in ten minutes. Ok, that may be too much information for some people, but it is very important to know.

How did the meal taste? Well, the chicken was ok and the meal was mildly spiced. I would call it excellently mediocre. I got a few skimpy nibs of chicken and an overly-watery, mildly flavored spinach sauce. I hadn’t tried an Ethnic Gourmet offering in months, and now I know why I stayed away. They’re overcharging for an inferior product, a product that is available from other sources (Deep Foods, for example) at comparable or better prices. Hey Safeway and Giant, stop stocking Ethnic Gourmet and make some room in your freezers for Curry Classics and Green Guru!

Price: $3.49 at Whole Foods
Size: 11 oz.
Calories: 410
Fat: 12 grams
Sodium: Don’t know

Tagline: Boneless chicken breast coated with Peanut Satay Sauce. Served with Fried Rice.

Abi says: Ethnic Gourmet does deliver a mildly spiced, slightly chewy, moderate amount of chicken. The chicken pieces were small and each had a tiny piece of attached fat. Ick. When I purchase a frozen meal, I don’t want to think about that meal having come from any sort of animal. That’s why I like my chicken doused in peanut sauce. Peanut sauce = Did not come from an animal.

But even after the fat-in-every-bite-experience, what really killed me about Ethnic Gourmet was not the chicken, but the rice.

There’s a place called China Town on Mt. Pleasant St. in DC. China Town makes a superb fried rice. A fried rice that you know was fried. A fried rice fragrant with unidentifiable meats, bits of egg, scallions, and orange things that I think are carrots. A fried rice that could qualify as “otherworldly”. Now, I used to live in Texas. This means that when a food is labelled as “Fried” it better darn well have spent some set of minutes simmering on a skillet, if not a half-hour in a vat of oil.

Ethnic Gourmet doesn’t seem to understand the word ‘fried’. This rice was limp, mushy, and flavorless. This rice was perhaps related to the opposum in the way that it rolled over and played dead. Even after a dousing in the peanut sauce, I just couldn’t force this stuff down. When a person gags while eating your product there may be a problem. Also, the little corn things came in the chicken section of the meal. Those are vegetables and should have been on the rice side of the container.

Improvements: Supply eaters with the chicken in peanut sauce (bland/mild) and a heap of fluffy jasmine or basmati. Mmmm, basmati.