#ewew cooks Roasted Honey Soy Chicken by Urban Stove

With an acceptable Meal 1 and the disastrous Meal 2 already done and dusted, I've come to my last and final Meal 3 of my second dinner box by Urban Stove.

I've become somewhat weary of what awaits me in Meal 3 which is the Roasted Honey Soy Chicken with Pumpkin Salad & Jasmine Rice.

The Ingredients:

Marinated chicken, bean curd  skin, pumpkin, Japanese cucumber, crushed peanuts, sesame seeds, salad dressing and jasmine rice.

The Recipe:

Simply follow the instructions on the recipe card.

 The Prep Needed:

 

Julienne the pumpkin (you need some mad chopping skills for this as the pumpkin is really hard) and cucumber into thin strips and cut the bean curd into cubes.

The Cooking:

 

 

Place the marinated chicken on a tray and roast in a preheated oven for 30 minutes (the recipe didn't say what temperature to roast the chicken at but, based on my cooking experience, I know it should be between 180 - 200C).

Fry the bean curd squares in some hot oil until they crisp up and place them into a bowl with the julienned pumpkin and cucumber.

Dress the salad with the pre-prepared salad dressing and add the crushed peanuts into the mix.

Remove the cooked chicken from the oven and finish it with a sprinkle of sesame seeds.

Place the salad onto a serving plate and top with the roasted chicken pieces.  [#Note: Although the recipe called for jasmine rice to be made, I omitted it coz I felt that the dish of roasted chicken (without any sauce) and a western-style salad just don't go with rice.]

So, here's my plated Roasted Honey Soy Chicken with Pumpkin Salad (minus the jasmine rice).  This is supposedly a portion for one with just two miserable pieces of chicken (from the chicken drumstick, it wasn't even one whole chicken leg)...I think they could have given a bit more.

And because I left out the carb (the jasmine rice) for this dish, the portion for one wouldn't be quite enough and I ended up eating both portions of chicken with the salad as my main meal...which obviously made this dish rather pricey at RM38 (or RM28 in my case).

Conclusion:

The Positives:
There's nothing to fault as far as taste is concerned as the roasted chicken, with its honey soy coating, was tasty and the crispy bean curd squares and salad provided the crunch (although the raw pumpkin strips were too hard to eat, maybe it could have been julienned more finely, I suppose).

The Negatives:
1)  Pairing the dish with jasmine rice wasn't the best combination
2)  Portion of chicken could be more than just two pieces per person
3)  Raw pumpkin is a bit hard for a salad
4)  Pricey for a dish that ended up good enough for one only

Final Comments:
Overall, this second dinner box turned out to be a disappointment compared to the first one.  However, I still think the concept is a good one but they just need to come up with the right (ie. failproof) recipes, the right (ie. better) portion sizes and the right (ie. lower) price.  I personally feel that the way they pack their meals is costing them too much and eating into the cost/price of the meal and they need to find a way to reduce the packaging costs in order to improve on the portion sizes.  On that note, you'd be glad to know that the price for 3 meals for 2 has been revised downwards to RM98 instead of RM115 (making the price per meal at RM16 instead of RM19)...which is a move in the right direction, in my opinion.  Now, they just need to get the right recipes and the recipes right! ;)