This past weekend, I had the chance to try again, for the first time after many many years, Banquet frozen Original Fried Chicken. I know many of you out there, like me, enjoy the fried chicken that Walmart's deli/hot foods section prepares. It's inexpensive, fast, easy, and you have virtually no clean-up afterward. Banquet's chicken has to be baked in the oven for about 55 minutes and you need to use a baking sheet of course. Here's is what I found out when comparing both:
Coating Texture: I give the advantage here to Walmart, but just slightly. Yes, the Banquet chicken came out very nice, but Walmart's coating is a bit thicker and more substantial, if you, like me, like a lot of coating on fried chicken.
Coating Flavor: Here is where I thought Banquet had a strong advantage. As much as I really enjoy Walmart's chicken's coating texture, it is VERY salty. Banquet's coating is not even half as salty as Walmart and therefore, Banquet gets the nod here. I will also say that banquet's coating has more of a paprika taste to it, while Walmart's is perhaps more black-peppery.
Chicken: This is a toss-up. Both very very similar in how moist/dry the chicken was under the coating. As usual, the breast pieces were on the dry side and the dark pieces were more moist. That's how chicken is. Dark meat has more fat, therefore it is going to be more juicy.
Variables: When you buy Walmart's fried chicken at the deli/hot foods counter, it may have been sitting for a bit under heat lamps, so by the time you get home, it can be really dry. Also, if you get the family-size box of Banquet fried chicken, you get 9 pieces, and there are NO wings. 3 pieces each of breast, thigh, and leg. So you get more meat from Banquet.
In conclusion, this is a very difficult one to choose. But, in the end, I think I have to go with Banquet. For around $8, you get 9 pieces of real chicken (I don't consider wings to be real chicken pieces. They're too much trouble for virtually one bite of meat), whereas with Walmart, for around $5, you get 8 pieces, and 2 of those are wings. Here's a great meal suggestion: get a family-sized box of the Banquet chicken, get a bag of Rhodes frozen Dinners Rolls, and microwave a bag of frozen corn, and you have yourself a delicious meal for your family.
Idk, Popeye's chicken is where its at. Have to totally disagree
ReplyDeletejacz, this post was mainly meant for those that are looking to get something for dinner that night while at the grocery store. Perhaps I should have said that in the post, and I am sorry that I didn't. We no longer have a Popeye's here in my area. We had one for a few months back about 8-9 years ago. I had their chicken once, and I think I liked it. I do know that it had a lot of spice, which I liked. Thank you for reading and posting.
ReplyDelete