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.
The lemon roasted chicken thigh on United Airlines is about as “TV dinner” as you can get, but proved to be a rather satisfactory meal on a short hop to Los Angeles in first class.
Lemon Roasted Chicken On United Airlines
While United simply uses its pre-order system to apportion a specific ratio of meals already catered on longhaul flights in Polaris business class, domestic flights are catered based upon passenger input via pre-orders, with passengers enjoying a number of additional options compared to the 2-3 choices otherwise available onboard.
On a recent flight from Denver to Los Angeles, the lemon roasted chicken was an option among seven others and I opted to give it a try.
Lemon roasted chicken
Lemon roasted chicken thigh with herb potatoes, broccolini, and lemon-thyme jus
The dish was more potatoes than chicken and looked like a TV dinner (do you kids even know what I am talking about?), but the morsels of chicken were moist and the lemon and thyme seasoning actually worked quite well at 35,000 feet. The broccolini served on the side of the plate was inedible.
Compared to the glass noodle salad or tofu bowl offered onboard, this appeared to be a heartier choice and was a lot of food for any domestic flight, let alone a flight of only two hours.
A green salad with balsamic vinaigrette dressing, a ciabatta bread roll, and butter-flavored “pie in the sky” cookie were served on the side (the pie and bread were warmed).
No complaints. It certainly was not “sublime” catering (and perhaps that itself was a stretch) like on my Dubai – Newark flight, but it was a nice meal nevertheless.
CONCLUSION
United’s onboard catering in domestic first class is still behind most competitors, but it has also improved and is by no means bad. In fact, I thought my hearty lunch of chicken with salad from Denver to LA was quite acceptable.
Have you tried the lemon chicken thigh on United Airlines?
This dish seems to get the most amount of hate amongst UA travelers, which I don’t get why, its my go-to dish whenever I pre-order. Even on the 6 hour EWR-SAN this dish is always very filling and delicious.
I also thought it was satisfying but the broccoli poor tasting – and that’s from someone who likes broccoli.
A good meal for a short LAX-DEN hop. But for midcons and longer this is a decent main but they need to offer a more substantial appetizer and course it out a bit.
I agree on this. Mostly edible and filling while not being horribly unhealthy. I also like the thai meatballs going the other direction. The hamburger can be good or horrific…
We flew recently in first class on AA RT from East coast to Arizona and the food was fine for flying. My expectations are low and if I get a hot piece of chicken, potatoes and some bread I’m good. The also had sorbet on west bound flight and a caramel ice cream east bound which was good. Also some crackers (Rustic Bakery?) that were very good. Usually I avoid eating much on a flight.
Matthew, someone at UA voice their displeasure at you and you are trying to makeup with this piece and the one about the great Polaris meal from DXB?
All of the domestic dishes are pathetic and don’t compare to DL or even AA at this point.
You run on hot/cold on UA, one day you are calling to rip up UA credit cards, the next you are praising them.
Make your mind up, surprisingly you and your friend Lucky coins are silent about a potential huge devaluation to the AMEX Platinum card which Lucky hawked and hawked, making it so popular and Lucky rich in the process (he owns a 2.3 million dollar condo in Miami) that it is so popular that DL may limit the amount of entries to the SkyClub one can obtain from the Platinum Amex.
RE: Amex Platinum – I guess we’ll see, but that unconfirmed rumor was started by a random redditor with no post history of confirming/denying past leaks//scoops. I believe it has been 5 days since that account has said anything. With DL opening up a bunch of lounges, including D1 lounges, and promoting AMEX cards over elite status for lounge access, I find this rumor hard to believe. But like I said, we’ll see…
@Interested Traveler: I think my coverage of UA shows that I am not on the payroll and fairly even-handed. I’ll handle pilot error and a crazy, power-tripping light attendant while praising certain dishes that I found appetizing (or at least acceptable). That’s been the case for 13 years.
If you bring me proof of the proposed AMEX change, I’ll write about it. I had the Plat card for a decade while rarely flying Delta, so it is not a deal-breaker or me.
“he owns a 2.3 million dollar condo in Miami”
Are you his realtor?
“You run on hot/cold on UA, one day you are calling to rip up UA credit cards, the next you are praising them.”
I think there are a decent number of folks who find some good elements to UA’s flight experience and route network, yet find the UA credit cards to be an unappealing value. Thus it’s not necessarily incongruent to praise aspects of UA’s service, but recommend against maintaining the credit cards.
this thing is nasty. its all potatoes and dryish chicken. i just had the displeasure of eating for dinner last night on EWR – MIA.
horrid option, but sadly healthier (once you excavate the chicken out of the pile of potatoes) than the pasta, burger, etc.
I think nasty is a bit far…it’s acceptable.
Hubby was not impressed with this on last week’s DCA DEN flt. My cheeseburger was good
UA’s domestic F meals are now actually better now than they were pre pandemic
At least it’s light-years better than that horrid Indian food they were pushing pre-pandemic.
My rankings are currently:
1. Enchiladas
2. Manicotti
3. Meatballs
4. Hamburger
The rest are just awful and I’d rather have the fruit and cheese plate.
AA’s food is at least presented in a nicer way.
Dishes like this are odd to me. Who would ever cook this or order it in a restaurant? I could see it being served at an inexpensively catered wedding, or at lunch at a business conference. It’s intentionally bland. If an airline has a pre-order option, meals like this shouldn’t exist.
I tred the Lemon- Thyme chicken. For the money paid to fly First Class, CLE TO DEN TO ANC, this could have been a better selection, simply at least a 5oz piece of chicken, less potatoes and much better veg. The broccolini was awful dried. The rest was quite well. The taste was excellent. My return flight I did the fruit and cheese, a lighter selection. Well said. Fruit selection could have been a larger portion. Grapes were poor quality. I have been in airline catering since I was 19 yrs of age. The good old days are gone. I won’t get into that. I have spent 4300.00 dollars on 2 Rtrip First Class flights. CLE TO DEN TO ANC TO IAH TO CLE. THEN CLE TO DEN TO ANC TO ORD TO CLE. Excellent service in First Class. Food needs a little improvement. Not bad though. P.S. I took these 2 trips in a 40 day period. I got to fly the new 737-800 jet DEN to ANC in the new First Class Cabin. OUTSTANDING!!!.
Lol the cheapest part of the chicken. Chicken breast is too expensive. Their catering is run by clowns. They just replaced their nice ice cream in economy with ghastly sweat Milky cookies.
Leaving Hawaii preorder is almost never available and the choices are the same Chicken Katsu we’ve had for years (breaded, reheated, slimy chicken with mushy broccolini, white rice and a side of rice) or inedible jackfruit hockey pucks. I just bring a sandwich. I love United but they need a new chef.