I’m sure I’m not the only person going round with that really irritating tune from the latest fried chicken advert repeating in their head. It’s the one where the mother is getting dinner ready, and husband and two kids are sitting round a kitchen table waiting.
The mother sings (actually she whines) “I can feed the family for £9.99”. The husband sings “Great she hasn’t cooked”.
On the tray is a container of 8 pieces of fried chicken, 4 portions of French fries, 2 half corn cobs, a tub of baked beans and a 1.5 litre bottle of Pepsi.
So I thought I’d investigate a bit further, and sure enough you can get 8 pieces of fried chicken, 4 portions of French fries, 2 large sides (baked beans and/or coleslaw, but no corn cobs evident) and a 1.5 litre bottle of Pepsi all for £9.99.
Now my point is, if that mother thinks that she’s ‘feeding’ her family with a meal like that then she’s deluded. That’s not food, it’s a take out heart attack and nutrition nightmare all rolled into one easy meal.
The meal represents a tray full of saturated fat, trans fats (the really really bad ones) and zero goodness (it’s all been deep fried out).
I wondered if I could reproduce the same meal, but with a much healthier bias, and for the same price. This is what I came up with:
- 8 pieces of fresh chicken (4 thighs, 4 drumsticks)(oven cook) £3.00
- Cajun spice mix to coat chicken £0.75
- 4 large portions American string fries (907g bag)(oven cook) £0.79
- 415g tin Heinz baked beans £0.44
- 2 full size corn cobs (halved) £1.08
- 2 litres pure orange juice £1.46
- Total (excluding cost of cooking) £7.52
So if we ignore the cost of the power used for cooking, which is realistically going to be quite small (you could offset it against the cost of petrol to get the take out version), and it’ll only take 30 minutes to do the entire meal, on top of that I can also spend £2.47 on dessert and still be within £9.99.
There’s no deep fat frying involved, the chicken is going to be reasonably good quality, the fat levels are hugely reduced, fresh pure orange juice provides vitamin C, and everyone gets a piece of corn cob, not just the lucky two.
So does that advert look finger lickin' good value now?
