Review: Old El Paso One Pan Rice Meal

I have not been as good at meal planning over the last few weeks, and so every now and again I’ve ended up in my local Tesco Express at lunch time wondering what to cook for dinner that night. The other day I came across this new Mexican meal kit from Old El Paso – One Pan Rice Meal.

I thought it was worth a try and so I purchased it, along with the required chicken, onion and peppers. It comes with the seasoning mix, some sauce, and some seasoned rice – and turning these things into a midweek meal was very simple.

In short, you cook the chicken and veg, add the rice, spice (as much or as little as you like), sauce and some water, and cook until the rice is soft. Simple.

I was very happy – I was able to serve up a really easy to cook and fairly healthy midweek meal; I just hoped that the smells I experienced during cooking transferred into decent flavour and not a bland boring dinner. Thankfully it lived up to expectations. LincsGeek and I both found the chilli and garlic flavour very yummy (technical phrase), and we had full tummies in no time. There was enough for lunch the next day, too, which is always a bonus.

We enjoyed this one so much I went and bought the other flavour available in my local Tesco – “Extra Mild Super Tasty” One Pan Rice Meal for Chicken. It was a completely different flavour; creamy and mild with lots of flavour. Very satisfying.

These meal kits, much like the fajita ones we all know and love, will be an excellent emergency cupboard item to keep in for those midweek lacks of inspiration. I recommend them.