Sometimes, life's just a little bit too hard to be able to sit down to a large, full meal. Sometimes, eating on the run is the only choice, gobbling down what few nutrients there's time for, and hoping it gives enough fuel to get to sleep without being kept awake by hunger pangs. Well, this frozen dinner, proudly displaying '1 lb.' on the corner, will definitely take care of that; there's enough sodium and fat-gram laden food to fill the belly with chicken, potatoes, corn, and grease.
The Hungry-Man line of dinners have always been a bit more than the usual fare of frozen dinners, always a bit more food, a bit more fat, a bit more calories, and a bit pricier. Their catch-phrase, proudly displayed on the top of the box, is that 'It's good to be full.' .
Fried Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, Seasoned Corn and a Brownie
The box makes no pretense about what it is, or what it offers; the chicken, corn, potatoes and brownie are prominently featured, leaving little room for the description of the food; indeed, the food and the Hungry-Man marquee take up the entire front of the box, while the cooking directions and a blurb about how good they are makes up the back. When sliding the food out of the package, it appears there's a lot to eat here, but on closer look, it's not quite as bountiful as it might seem; while there are three chicken pieces, usually one's a drumstick while the other two are wings.
The potatoes corn, and brownie are lifeless, and usually the corn's spilled into the other sections; these dinners have a particularly flimsy covering, and tend to mix into each other's section. Overall, it's a bit slipshod.
Greasy Fare Will Probably Require Antacid Relief
The chicken's extremely greasy, and there's no getting around that. The meat's not very chewy, and slides off the bone fairly easily; no tugging is required. There is a combination of dark and light meat, usually 2-1 in favor of the dark, and the whole thing is just laden in grease. The mashed potatoes are not very tasty, and the corn has no real flavor. The brownie is adequate, the equivalent of one of the lower-end boxed mixes.
The skin on the chicken isn't crispy; it's either hardened to an almost uneatable brick, or slimy, and should probably just be discarded. This meal clocks in at 1050 calories, so no weight will be lost in eating this. Also, this conconction also has 68 grams of fat - yes, that's right, 68 grams of fat, and is one of the unhealthiest items in existence that doesn't have a Mr. Yuck on it.
No Sale on the Checkbook or the Heart
The Hungry-Man Fried Chicken dinner is not cheap; it retails for about $2.50 to $3.00, and rarely goes on sale. Still, a lot of food is served for the money, and it's enough to serve as a stand-alone dinner. The main problem about the price is that it reflects just how unhealthy this kind of food is; for the amount of food included, this should be a bit more expensive, but the quality of the meat is low, being stringy and extremely greasy. Unless there's literally no time to make any sort of dinner, this meal should be avoided, not so much because of the shelf price, but for the price it takes on the system.
Preparing the Meal - Microwaved or Oven-Baked?
Microwaving this monstrosity should not be taken lightly. The tips on the back of the box do not produce a finished product; at the risk of over-cooking, The time should be at least 1 and 1/2 the times it states, as otherwise it will be just one soggy, greasy mess. This is one of those frozen dinners that truly does reward one for cooking it in the oven instead of the microwave; the slippery chicken skin becomes palatable, and some semblance of taste returns to the mashed potatoes. If there's time for the 35 to 40 minutes it recommends, this dinner should be cooked, and not simply heated up; the microwave does not really do this justice, and if this greasy, sodium-caked product is going to be consumed, it might as well taste good.
This meal is a good example of what's wrong with cooking in society today. It's pricey, hard on the system, and while there's a lot of food contained in it, the quality is low. The grease, fat, and calories within this meal amount to a normal person's daily allotted amount, and the taste just isn't worth it. The sodium content alone makes drinking copious amounts of liquid necessary to get the filmy taste out of the mouth. This meal just isn't worth what the consumer ultimately has to pay in both money, and health.
The Reed Round-Up
- Hungry-Man Chicken Dinner
- Cost: $3.00
- The Good: Very filling (and it comes with a brownie!)
- The Grim: bland and very greasy
- The Stats: 1050 calories, 68 grams of fat, about 10 years off the lifespan
- Final Score: One and a half drumsticks out of five.
Daniel Reed - null
