I don't know about you but the chicken balls always used to be one of my firm favourites at the Chinese. Since you don't really find any Chinese takeaways who cater to gluten free in this way, they have been missing from my life ever since and it has meant having a Chinese has never quite been the same!

Tesco have been releasing a lot of new products recently and one of these is the frozen chicken balls with sweet and sour sauce. Being an avid battered coated chicken fan and missing typical chicken balls so much, I knew I had to try these! Retailing at £3.75, I felt these were not too badly priced as the bag was a good size. We ate these as a dinner with Tilda egg fried rice and stir fried veggies. The balls took about half an hour in the oven to get a good crisp to their coating and the sauce only took a couple of minutes in the pan to melt and warm through. The great thing is that if you are eating these alone, there are two sauce sachets so you don't have to try and split the bag for two servings. We ate the whole bag between two and had 6 balls each, which was plenty for dinner.

In terms of the chicken, it was succulent and had a lovely flavour. I was also impressed that it wasn't processed. One of my pet peeves with free from food is when you pay the earth for a product and they cannot put a breast fillet in the coating. As they aren't processed, I feel these chicken balls will appeal to more people because who really wants to eat a chicken that has been pushed and pressed and moulded into the shape of a nugget or dinosaur!

The batter went crispy and had a good flavour too. You would be hard pushed to tell whether they were gluten free or not! It was a good light coating that covered enough to be crisp but not stodgy. I think the sauce was the stand out element of this whole meal though. From the sweet and sour I remember from my takeaway (which they told me isn't gluten free) it tasted the same! I cooked both sachets and not a morsel was left! It had a slightly thinner consistency than what you would usually expect but nevertheless the flavour was on point!

Although it only says gluten and wheat free on the label, there is no sign of dairy or eggs as far as I could see on the packaging. I also couldn't see a warning. Of course I would strongly advise you to check this as recipes can and do change, but as far as I am aware it would be great for a wide array of allergies.

We both really enjoyed this meal and I will certainly be stocking up on these again. I think they would be great if your are having some friends around for a Chinese fakeaway. I'm not sure if they would even be able to tell the difference! As they are frozen, they will also keep for some time so are great for a quick fix dinner!

Hannah x