A $17.90 Woolworths roast chicken marketed as “delicious, succulent and tender” turned out to be anything but for a South Island woman looking forward to a hot lunch.
“Seriously Woolworths, who got drunk and cooked this chicken?”, the woman said, after sending the Herald a photo of the parched poultry delivered as part of her online grocery order yesterday.
“I hope someone did a prayer for it before cremating.”
The large Hot Roast Sage and Onion Chicken’s scorched and wrinkled outside covered a dry and partly crunchy inside, said the woman, who lives in Richmond, near Nelson.
A Woolworths NZ spokesperson told the Herald the chicken didn’t meet its standards and it was investigating how it came to be sold.
The woman immediately complained to Milkrun, the Woolworths-owned food delivery company she ordered her groceries through, she said.
“I got my money back, plus a [$18] voucher. Milkrun are really good, they are really quick to refund.”
But the mum of three said she had been given no explanation on how a burnt chicken made it anywhere near a supermarket shelf, let alone into her order.
“Who cooked this and thought it was okay to put it out for sale? And who picked this for my shopping order? So many people would’ve seen this.
“I now know why another paper bag was put over the top of the bag … I’m assuming to stay sunsmart and avoid further burns from the shop to my house.”
Her initial plans for a hot lunch and cold leftovers for dinner scuppered, the woman switched to crackers and cheese for her midday meal before giving the charred chook a go.
“I tried some,” she said, describing the bird as “deeply infused with a smoky flavour”.
“Some parts of the chicken were crunchy like chips.”
And the moneywise mum – while unhappy with her purchase – still tried to make the best of it.
With time to spare on a day off work, she extracted as much salvageable meat as she could – with the rest going to the cat – and threw it in the frypan with a bunch of herbs and spices, cans of tomatoes and kidney beans and leftover salsa.
The result looked “sloppy”, but hidden in a wrap with veges it tasted “really yummy”.
“The amount of chicken I got off it isn’t anywhere near the amount I bought. I don’t like to waste stuff, so even though it’s a dry, horribly overcooked chicken I’m gonna do something with it.
“I probably could’ve kept the skin [as well], actually. I could’ve turned it into shoes or something.”
A Woolworths spokesperson said the company’s standard operating procedure for hot roast chickens was published in its stores, and included photos and step-by-step instructions to ensure they were cooked to a consistent standard and a “golden brown colour”.
“Our ovens are also pre-programmed to the correct time and temperature.”
The photo supplied by the woman showed a chicken that was “clearly unacceptable” and shouldn’t have been delivered.
“We immediately refunded them and we are investigating how this got past our quality controls.”
Cherie Howie is an Auckland-based reporter who joined the Herald in 2011. She has been a journalist for more than 20 years and specialises in general news and features.