Daily Rations - Part 5 - Chicken with Ham and Cheese Sauce

Whenever you're writing anything, the key is to end on a bang, save the best for last.  I really tried with our collection of ration pack reviews this week, but unfortunately something went horribly wrong.  I'll start by telling you why I thought this dish had potential.  First of all the chicken is one solid piece, it's not ground, or processed in any visible way.  Secondly, chicken is probably my favorite meat, so I figured it has a pretty good shot of doing well.  Thirdly there's cheese involved, I mean who doesn't like cheese?

After reading the description on the package things pretty much fell apart.  The smell that came out of this ration pack was not pleasant.  It was cheesy, but not a pleasant cheesy, it was instead the smell of cheese that's trying really hard to impress.  A cheese smell so strong, and so sharp, that even a stinky cheese connoisseur might gag a little.  I was happy to see that the chicken was in fact a sold piece, however I'm guessing for packaging reasons it had to be cooked very well done.  I took a knife to this chicken and had to use great effort to break it apart.  Even though it was soaking in this cheese goop for the last 2 years, none had penetrated the dry interior of this chicken.

The smell of the cheese was just a warning for the taste that came with it.  It was so strong and sharp that I had trouble getting down more than a couple of bites.  It says there's ham in this, and you might be able to smell it a bit, but it could have been much stronger allies with the chicken and maybe given up some of it's juice fat to moisten this dry chicken breast.

As always I'm sure if I was out in a jungle fighting to stay alive, this would be fine.  However on my kitchen table it was a struggle to get down.

This review wraps up my whole week of eating rations for lunch every day.  While I did poke fun at the taste of these meals this week, I don't want to forget what they're for.  War is not a pretty place, and the fact that somebody tries there hardest to keep our soldiers not only fed, but give them something tasty to eat is a great thing.  While these aren't home cooked meals, for some people it's a taste of home that can give them a moral and energy boost to get through a tough day that's much harder than any day I've ever had.

CC