Food Basic, just your everyday basic rotisserie chicken

Let’s be honest, there’s so many grocery stores out there that I didn’t know where to begin my taste test journey. Where should I grab a chicken from?  While running errands, I spotted a sign sitting out front of Food Basics advertising for their roast chicken, complete with a picture perfect photo and pricing; $8.49 or 2/ $16.

 I must admit, I do not shop at Food Basics and typically with ad matching these days, you really can get away with only going to one grocery store for all your needs. I was intrigued but this ad because I wasn’t aware that they did chicken. Well, I immediately went in to grab one as well as a few sale items.

Unlike other grocery stores, there is no ready-made food counter at the Food Basic location I went to but instead a hot plate cart sitting at the back of the store. This means I did not get the usual whiff of fresh cooked chicken as you walk in.

All they had was BBQ flavor to select from which is fine. My tasting will only include the standard BBQ for comparison. Usually, the stores mark the containers noting freshness, but I couldn’t figure out which one was fresher. 

It’s always a task trying to find the perfect looking bird. You want to make sure it’s got that cooked right look; not too light and not too dark. From what I could tell looking through the clear plastic cover, it appeared cooked. I didn’t see anything special about the appearance, but the real test will be when I get it home.

 First things first, the chicken smell was definitely there. In fact, the ride home, I had to contain myself from ripping right into that bird. After I got home, I did a more intense smell test. Carefully lifting the lid, noting it had a pleasant roast chicken aroma. Nothing punchy though. It appears like someone was very liberal with the seasoning. I tasted the seasoning on its own and found it seemed familiar in flavour.  The appearance of the skin was slightly shrivelled, but to the touch, it was slimy and fatty.  As with most people who enjoy the skin, it definitely needs to be more cooked so you get a bit of a chew or crunch.Some general inspection of this bird showed that the amount of fat left was reasonable, it may have been trimmed up. The container contained a fair bit of juice in it, probably a combination of grease and steam vapour.

 

 The cut test; I found the knife fairly easy to cut through all parts. The meat is very tender, falling off the drumstick and separating from the main carcass. It does appear cooked, although I did not take an internal temperature. I cut through the breast and into the bone; there wasn’t any pink on the bony parts, the meat shreds off.

On to the tasting; I started with the dark meat first, peeling some off the leg. Still very warm, it melted in my mouth. It felt good texture wise. As for the white meat, I flicked a piece off the breast. In a sense it is tender yes, but also soggy. I thought it should be more firm. So while the chicken tastes like chicken, it was nothing special. What I mean to say that it was bland. It was almost the same flavour you’d get if you boiled the chicken. I didn’t taste the seasoning through the meat though.

Overall the chicken at Food Basics was ok. A bit disappointing. Would I get this one again? No. I suppose in a pinch the chicken would be alright for a quick meal.

Has anyone had a chance to taste the chicken at Food Basic? What did you think?

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