Last night’s chicken dinner was awesome. In fact, my 15 year old son said to me, “no offense Ima, but this tastes better than anything you ever made”. Ouch. But that was after he said “Mmmm, this chicken tastes………DEAD” so you can’t necessarily trust his opinion.
I did technically cook the chicken – but it came from Empire Kosher. And I cooked it in the microwave. It’s great – it’s a whole 3 lb chicken, pre-seasoned (garlic and hhhhherb*), you take it out of the packaging, pierce two small holes in the special microwave wrap that’s around the chicken, put it on a plate, in the microwave, press 20 minutes and DONE. No muss, no fuss. Easy Shmeasy. The way I like it! For busy parents, this is an easy dinner on a school night – just throw together some sides, and you have a great nutritious meal in TWENTY MINUTES.
Very soon after I put the chicken in the microwave, the delicious aroma of the cooking chicken wafted through the house, bringing boys running from all quarters. By the time that chicken came out of the oven the boys were salivating.
It really does look like that. Except no grapes and greenery!
I carved up the chicken – juices were leaking everywhere, which is a good thing! I served dinner – the chicken along with starch and a veggie, and we dug in.
The chicken was moist (“Wet” as one as the kids said…oy) and tender, flavorful and just plain perfect. Seriously. The only problem was that there wasn’t enough of it. It’s a 3 lb chicken. I have a husband, THREE teenage boys with hollow legs, and a nine year old. Plus myself – and we all know I love to eat. Luckily the oldest teen wasn’t here, or there would not have been enough.
The verdict was unanimous. Delicious and please can we have it again tomorrow.
So here’s what I have to say to the folks at EMPIRE. Awesome product – thanks for sending it to me. My kids had a blast telling their friends that we received a chicken in the mail. I am so thrilled to hear you have a BBQ version coming out soon – we plan to try that one as well. I hate carving chickens and turkeys and ducks – could you perhaps use the same awesome microwave technology and sell these fine fowl in pieces? Also – for those bigger families – can you sell bigger chickens – like 5 lb-ers – so that there is enough to go around?
Folks – this “microwaveable” chicken retails at around $10.99 in my area – which is good value seeing as it is pre-cleaned, pre-seasoned, pre-prepared and all you have to do is press a button or two on the microwave.
So from us here at the Hearts / Diamonds Palace – five thumbs up! (or should that be ten?)
*there is an H at the start of HERB – it needs to be pronounced.
Note: I was given this product free of charge. My review expresses my honest opinion and I was not paid in anyway for it.
AWESOMENESS – was just informed that this fall / winter season there will be microwaveable cutlets available – cook for 2 minutes 15 seconds each. Those will be perfect for my son that eats lunch and supper in school!!
In the Pink 
I hope it makes it here to the midwest – sounds amazing!
if your kosher grocery store already stocks EMPIRE product, just ask them to stock this particular product too!
Will we ever see anything remotely similar in Montreal? Talk to those Empire people on our behalf….
Donna – if your local merchant stocks any Empire products, you can ask them to bring this in too.
sounds great, I’ve seen this in the store but thought it couldn’t be that good in the microwave. Just one question, no feathers?
NONE!!
Growing up HERB with the H pronounced was what they called geeks, jerks, stupidheads or anyone you didn’t like. 🙂
I saw something like this at the store but it was much pricier. Now I definitely want to try it!
I hope you try it and you like it. never heard that about Herb before.
Hadasa, I am just being honest here when I tell you I much prefer your real-life posts. I understand why you posted this and appreciate that you told us that you were given the chicken for review (plenty of bloggers don’t). I love your blog and wanted to express how I felt….
Thanks Baila – back to my regular real life posts asap…
Ok, seriously, you need to get this chicken to Sydney, Australia and I need to try it just to make sure that the taste is not particular to the Northern Hemisphere!!!
I shall pass your message on!
Is it available in Israel?
I am sure there is something comparable available.
How much did it cost and how much does a raw whole kosher chicken cost?
It retails for $10.99.
Raw chicken is in the range of $2.29 – $3.50 per pound depending on where you are….
Isn’t chicken supposed to be dead?
indeed, but it was all in the way he said it…
Just found your blog today and am so glad I did. This chicken does look wonderful, and I love how your kids described it (wet!). Thanks for the review. I’ll have to seek some out.
Uh, I hate to say this, but roasting a chicken isn’t really all that much work. You just have to be careful not to overcook, and an instant-read meat thermometer will take care of that. A 3 -lb chicken will cook up in less than an hour. You’re done when the temperature in the thigh is about 170 F. Take it out, and the insides will coast up to the recommended 180 F. (Or maybe you don’t need it that high, if you take Julia Child’s advice about the doneness of poultry — she claims the French like the joints to be pink — but them we’re Ashkenazic Jews of Eastern European heritage, and to us, food need to be overcooked. 🙂 ) Another benefit of oven baking is that the skin crisps up nicely, which is something you can’t get in the microwave, which I use entirely for reheating stuff. Plus, you can’t have roast chicken without having roast potatoes, and that just can’t be done in a microwave.
And I’ be concerned that a pre-seasoned processed product has too much salt added. (In addition to the fact that it’s a pre-salted kosher chicken to begin with.)