Thanks to mighty Facebook, yet again, I came across a relatively new poultry brand on the market: Label Vert. Two things immediately caught my eye: the free roaming, full 80 days growth and vacuum packaging. It was also marketed as delivery-only. Now, I have not had the best experience in delivery of chicken. The last time I bought from another outlet, I was less than impressed with the quality of it all. But I am a huge chicken fan. I think it’s among the best source of lean protein and it’s just so versatile and satisfying. So, I decided to give it a go. From the information available on the Facebook page, things looked positive.
Over the years, I developed the tendency to keep my expectations in check. This helps in mitigating any bitter disappointment I might encounter in my culinary explorations. And there have been quite a few. A random one that just popped in my mind was the restaurant where I was served naans stuffed with spoiled meat, that was supposed to “taste like this”. Back to the chicken though. I cannot say I was disappointed with what I received. Quite the contrary, I was pleasantly surprised.
At the time of writing this blog, free delivery was (and hopefully still will be) offered as from 500 MUR of purchase, which is more than reasonable, just as the price of the chicken. The packaging was undoubtedly one of the highlights. The marketing strategy also rightly stresses on this. The ‘escalopes’ were not only beautifully vacuum packed, but were distributed in a very convenient way. The first time I ordered, the four pieces had enough space between them such that they could be frozen as they were, and each piece could be easily cut out without even touching another. Vacuum packing also meant that the chicken was compact enough, which meant less hassle to store. Very convenient indeed. Subsequently, though, the packaging was more compact, which is not a bad thing as such. It was just less convenient as all the pieces were basically stuck together, which meant that they had to be separated, unless all of them are to be used at one go.
I was also pleasantly surprised by the cleanliness of the chicken. Flawless, fresh chicken with zero smell. Only the mild chickeniness of fresh and clean chicken. It is safe to say that this was the cleanest chicken I had ever bought and that inlcudes pre-packaged supermarket ones. Naturally, this meant that the quality of the meat was also good. And it was. The free-roaming, full growth statements in the ad were not just for marketing. The meat very little fat and was firm enough to indicate that the birds had a decent, active life before ending up in a vacuum bag. But how about the cooking and taste?
Indeed. How about them? Well, I am happy to report that the cooking and eating were as much of a pleasant experience as the rest. I made quite a number of preparations: roast chicken, ladob, curry, homemade nuggets, sautéed in fried rice, fried etc. They all turned out great. The chicken has a perfect balance of texture and taste, and a beautiful capacity to retain moisture, which means that it is not dry. The high protein content combined with the low fat makes for a very satisfying experience.
The price to satisfaction ratio of Label Vert chicken is pretty high. Oh and delivery is done within very reasonable timeframes, which is a plus point service-wise. Will I buy again? Oh yes! Resoundingly so!
P.S Sorry for the lack of decent pictures of the chicken as purchased. I tried to contact the admins for permission to use some pictures but unfortunately, my message appeared undelivered.
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