Better than expected

InnovAsian offers several frozen Chinese-restaurant inspired meals. I guess they figured their name was broad enough to branch out to other cuisines, so they’ve now added a few Indian entrees. They are mostly chicken-based.

They were on sale last Friday ($5 from $9 regular price), and while i was pretty apprehensive after my horrible experience with P.F. Chang’s chicken dishes, and my general disappointment with commercial Indian dishes, I gave the Crispy Butter Chicken one a try. It was better than expected.

You can either microwave or air fry the chicken in this meal, but the former is quicker and simpler so I went with it. The result was chicken that had the texture of chicken. The butter sauce it came with was frozen in a solid block, and it took about 10 minutes of soaking in warm water before it was flexible enough to add it to the chicken and finish heating them up together. Thus the whole process takes longer than you would otherwise expect. It serves one person by itself or two if you add side dishes – InnovAsian tends to skimp on the actual protein and make up the weight with lavish amounts of sauce.

The results were fine. As I mentioned, the chicken had the right texture and the sauce, while still having that element of acidity that all commercial Indian curries seem to have, was not completely unlike a butter sauce – and it was tasty. I ended up actually eating every last drop. So, as far as commercial frozen Indian entrees go, I’d recommend this one.

InnovAsian is owned by Japanese owned Nichirei Foods.