My Meal of the Week feature examines an airline meal from my travels over the years. This may be a meal from earlier in the week or it may be a meal served over a decade ago.
Domestic meal service on United Airlines these days has been reduced to only three premium transcontinental routes (LAX/SFO-EWR plus SFO-BOS) as well as longhaul Hawaiian routes (DEN/EWR/IAD/IAH/ORD – Hawaii). The meal itself has been scaled back. Yet even in the midst of the pandemic I had a surprisingly delicious, never-before-seen chicken dinner during a recent United flight.
Chicken Dinner On United Airlines
I was traveling from Newark to San Francisco and dinner orders were taken after takeoff. Choices were either mushroom ravioli or “spicy” chicken. Now “spicy” comes in many varieties…what kind of spices were we talking about? Having consumed very little protein that day (I’ll sheepishly admit I had lunch in Manhattan…at Taco Bell), I ordered the chicken.
The tray is certainly a reminder of the era we are in. Instead of warmed mixed nuts, salad, and fresh bread, there’s a packaged roll, pretzels, packaged fruit, and nuts in a plastic container. Hopefully we will see a return to “regular” meal service sooner rather than later.
But the chicken entree, served hot, was surprisingly tasty. In fact, delicious.
This is a case where a dish tastes so much better than it looks. The sauce was like a red tomatillo salsa with sliced veggies and a side of mashed polenta. It had a strong kick to it.
It was the best chicken dish I’ve had on United since the tamale-filled chicken breast (which I sadly haven’t seen in the menu rotation for years).
By the way, here is what the mushroom ravioli looked like:
CONCLUSION
Domestic airline meals may not be something to generally get excited about, but this chicken dish was very tasty…it is something I would make at home. I hope to see it on more flights going forward.
Have you tried United’s new spicy chicken dish?
I clicked on this fully expecting it to be disaster based on the photo. I was sadly (un)disappointed.
I miss that tamale chicken!
OMG….I do too!!
That chicken is Buffalo Chicken with Riced Cauliflower. It’s been on the rotation for medium haul domestic first in the last year. It doesn’t reheat well (gets soggy, probably the cauliflower) in the oven.
So that’s what it is. Ok. FAs had no description beyond “spicy chicken”. A very good dish.
I’m glad you enjoyed! It has a lot of vinegar, which comes through inflight.
The caterer is supposed to leave paperwork called “Chef’s Tip” in the front business galley. However, with so many last minute changes and substitutions recently, it’s often not accurate. Flights in/out of EU will have a detailed ingredients listing potential allergens.
Correct. The cauliflower would rehydrate into a slop by taking on the liquid from the sauce. If preparing any dish with cauliflower rice ( popular as an alternative to ‘real’ rice), either fresh or frozen, it’s best to prepare it at the last minute.
This would make a nice vegetarian option: much more interesting than the pictured , nutritionally inadequate , ravioli.
Taco Bell? Ew.
Taco Bell is awesome.
Did you fly on Economy or Business Class?
Lol. That bad? It’s business class.
I am not sure how meals are served during pandemic time and in the future, but before cocid-19, no Asian carrier would serve a plate in business/first class like this. The plate looks messy (main photo of the article, and photos #3, 4). Flight attendants of Cathay, Asiana, EVA… would use a clean towel wipe off messy things around the plate before serving. One would argue this is during pandemic time and UA attendants avoided touching the plate; trust me, it has always been served like this. Beef, chicken, or fish, that is the way UA serves Polaris passengers. Presentation is very important. After all, we pay lot of money for the service, not the cost of this piece of chicken.
So I, too, have a soft spot for The Bell, and I’ll sheepishly admit it’s a road trip to-to around our house. But c’mon, man. You were in NYC. Save some self dignity and go get yourself a few of those dollar slices of cheese pizza if you need a junk food fix…
If I can explain, my wife forbids it at home.
Too bad. Taco Bell is great!
LOL, this is exactly me. I eat it way more than I should, but if we would just have it at home once in a while, I wouldn’t feel the need to get some every time I travel alone.
And of course she’s correct ( isn’t she always?). It’s crap: calorie dense, far too much fat, sodium mega load, nutrient poor.
And most of it covered in repulsive, radioactive-looking orange cheese
dollar slices make taco bell appear to be fine dining