A tin fit for a queen?

Back in June last year, the Queen celebrated 60 years since her coronation - an altogether more low-key affair than her Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 2012, when even food manufacturers were producing limited edition versions of their packaging - but no less worthy of some kind of commemoration.

A limited edition 'Jubilee' tin of Lyle's Golden Syrup

Taking place before the end of rationing, the celebrations for the coronation itself were, out of necessity, somewhat austere, but nevertheless the Ministry of Food granted 82 applications for communities to roast a whole ox for the occasion, and countless more street parties and gatherings were held up and down the country. The founder of Le Cordon Bleu cookery school, Rosemary Hume, was asked to prepare a dish for the coronation banquet and came up with a creation of cooked chicken in a lightly curried mayonnaise dressing, sweetened with pureed apricots. Originally called poulet reine Elizabeth, it quickly became better known as Coronation chicken. 

Despite its somewhat adventurous ingredient list for the time (curry powder?! Good grief!), the dish was an instant success and has remained popular ever since, a stalwart of the buffet table and a constant presence in sandwich shops up and down the country, slowly forming a crust in those silver oval dishes of prepared fillings in the chiller cabinet as they wait to be slathered onto your bread of choice. 

As if building on that, err, popularity, Coronation chicken is now available in tinned form, courtesy of Princes (very appropriate for a dish with a royal connection) as part of their ‘Deli Fillers’ range - “succulent strips of cooked, shredded chicken in delicious deli-inspired sauces”.

Hume’s original recipe actually gives a very lightly-coloured dish, quite a contrast to the more vibrant yellowy colour we are used to today. Princes, however, go the other way with their version - I was almost taken aback when I opened the tin to reveal a staggeringly orange mass within, like suddenly catching sight of one of the cast members of The Only Way is Essex among a sea of pasty faces in a bar. They certainly hadn't held back on the turmeric.

The next thing that struck me was the smell. It wasn’t unpleasant as such, with a very slight hint of spice to it, but if I had smelled it not knowing what it was, I think I would have said pork. I’m generally a fan of pork in all its forms, but when something smells vaguely porcine yet doesn’t actually contain even a hint of pig, I don’t think that’s a good sign.

With a curious use of exclamation mark and italicised typeface, the label suggests that the stuff is "perfect in sandwiches, on baked potatoes or mixed with fresh salad or pasta!". Not feeling particularly hungry or sufficiently bothered to cook anything, I dumped the contents out onto a plate alongside some salad, where it held the shape of the tin, the ridges making it look even less appealing than it smelled. 

Breaking it up a bit with a fork revealed that the ‘strips of chicken’ had been somewhat over-shredded - there was just about still a chicken-like texture to it, which reassured me that it wasn't some kind of compacted reformed pork product, but I had been hoping for something a little more toothsome.

Unfortunately the taste seemed to match the smell, with only a trace of very mild spice detectable behind that same strange porkiness, but there was a fruitiness to it too which was pleasant enough without being sickly. The ingredients list however revealed that this wasn't supplied the traditional apricot as in the original recipe, or sultanas as so often included these days, but instead by some probably significantly cheaper "apple concentrate", as well as a bit of coconut milk. Sugar is also included - worryingly, this comes even higher up the list than the turmeric, which suggests there might be quite a lot of it present. 

In its favour, being quite solid, the stuff is not overly mayonnaise-y, as Coronation chicken so often can be, but this is (in all but colour) a pale imitation of the original dish. "Deli-inspired" it might be, but it hasn't inspired me to try the other products in Prince's range, and I think I could say with reasonable certainty that it is not a tin that would get a royal stamp of approval.

"That sandwich is repeating on one's self."