Tayto ChicKatees ChicKen (Republic of Ireland)

I know I have discussed this chicken flavour maize puff snack with Cliffs of Moher Taste Tester because I was so stunned to discover a maize puff that didn’t taste of cheese. I distinctly remember standing beside her desk one lunchtime at work and saying, “Chicken? Who on earth thought of that?

Well, apparently Irish crisp giants Tayto thought of chicken flavour, so here we are with a bright blue packet covered in slightly hysterical cartoon chickens. Obviously.

Feelin’ peckish? asks the packet, inside this bag are Mr Tayto’s delicious ChicKatees prime for a kickin’. What are you waiting for? Don’t just sit there reading the back of this packet, dive on in there and show those chickens who’s boss! Why a capital K in the middle of the word I don’t know.

Well, yes. Hmm. It’s a typical maize based snack. Or is it? The traditional Cheesy Wotsits style snack is cheesy. The Danish crispy snack Kims Ostepops which the reluctant taste testers learned to love after a single bite is cheesy. The ever fabulous M&S Cheese Tasters which, obviously is a cheesy snack.

Or, yes OK, the rather different Tesco Sausage Roll flavour... but that was a Christmas special so you could argue it doesn’t really count. Oh, er, and Cheetos Spirals Cheese & Tomato Ketchup from Poland. Oh alright then. I have argued myself out of my own argument. But do admit that chicken flavour is a little out of the ordinary for a maize puff snack.

Slightly unfortunate: it’s not a very chickeny taste. After a bit of practice you can convince yourself it’s a chicken flavour, but it isn’t very strong. I thought the most chickeny bit was the left over flavour dust at the bottom of the packet. Do not neglect the flavour dust.

It’s quite tasty as snacks go though, and the Chef and I had no trouble snacking down this little packet in double quick time.

Ten Acre Hand Cooked Crisps How Chicken Soup Saved the Day

So the tall taste tester was in the Market Place the other day and dropped by the local bakery to see what he could see. And what he could see was not the other side of the mountain (sadly we don't have any mountains because this is North London and we only have hills), but a whole range of crisps he had never heard of before and neither had I. I rushed round the next day and stocked up. And here's one.

Parev (suitable for people who keep kosher), HFA approved (suitable for moslems) and vegan (so suitable for both vegans and vegetarians). Gluten free and MSG free. My goodness, what more could you ask? Except this is a chicken soup flavour so sadly no chicken.

Ten Acre Crisps are hand cooked with love, and packed with crunch says the packaging. I must say that they do look hand cooked.

Made in Manchester by Yumsh Snacks Ltd. And with a rather fabulous and slightly crazy website; it's worth checking this out even if you never looked at any other crispy website (some of them are more fun than you might suppose).

Fine cut crisps, a light golden colour and a light crunch, lots of flavour dust. And the taste? Well, to be honest, not terribly chickeny. It reminds me a little of some instant chicken noodles I used to buy (vastly superior to those that come in a pot but still pretty instant) and enjoy some years ago.

Well, I guess the flavour is chicken soup and not chicken. And I do find them quite tasty. Just not quite what I was expecting.

Bret's Les Aromatisées Poulet Braisé

I remember years ago there used to be rather a good roast chicken flavour crisp I was very fond of. Only I can't remember who made it (this could have been 30 years ago so perhaps that's not so surprising). But then recently I tried two different roast chicken versions from UK crisp juggernaut Walkers and I wasn't impressed with either and I haven't yet found another UK chicken flavour crisp to try.

So, thinking of the Walkers versions,  it was with a certain amount of trepidation that I tried this French crisp.

Produced by Bret's of Brittany, found as usual at a French motorway service station, and tried by the reluctant taste testers at work and the Chef at home. And we thought these were rather good.

The initial aroma was not terribly tempting but, after all, most people don't sniff their crisps as though they were a glass of swanky wine (just me), so this is not too much of a hurdle especially as the taste is so good.

Crinkle crisps, obviously, a good not too thick, not too thinness of crisp with a good crunch, and a nice degree of very roast chickeny taste. In fact, we thought what we had here was a packet of crisps that taste of spit-roasted chicken. There is a definite hint of properly crunchy spit-roasted chicken skin. Which I don't eat because I don't like skin, but it does make the chicken taste good.

Although, "braisé" does not, of course, mean roast. It means braised. As in, fry lightly and then stew slowly in a closed container. Still tasty though.

Not suitable for vegetarians because these crisps do contain chicken meat powder. It's obvious really that crisps get their flavour from power. Because otherwise you'd have a small potato crisp with a lump of chicken (or cheese or whatever) gummed to it which would be silly. Or perhaps you'd coat your crisp in a chickeny gloop as chocolate digestive biscuits are coated in chocolate... But it is unfortunate that "chicken meat powder" sounds so nasty. And I really don't want to know how that powder is produced.

However, this is a very tasty crisp and if you have been disappointed by your local version of roast (or braised) chicken crisps, and you happen to be on your way to France, I recommend you try these.

Bret's are very keen on their local environment (good for them) and work with local Breton farmers not only to produce locally grown products but to reduce their impact on the environment. Perhaps because of this policy (food miles I imagine) you cannot buy their crisps in the UK. Or not anywhere I have looked (I've not been shopping in Cornwall recently....). Which is a mighty shame because loads of people here eat lots of crisps and you have to suppose it would be a good market for them.

Walkers Chip Shop Chicken Curry

I have probably led a very sheltered and dull life, but I've never been to a chip shop for curry. In fact, I don't think I've been to a chip shop (except for at Bondi Beach which is a whole nother story involving fabulous potato scallops) since about 1980.

So here's me, a bit surprised. I thought you went to the chip shop for fish and chips or sausage and chips. So the idea that you go to the chip shop for a curry is a new idea. And actually I'm not mad for curry either so the idea of picking up a curry from the local chippie doesn't really tempt.

However, Walkers have created quite an impressive curry flavour crisp here. The usual Walkers quality crisp with just the right amount of crunch, these are rather more golden than usual; I expect it is the curry powder. Great curry aroma and very good curry taste.

And, really quite unusually, these chicken curry crisps actually have real chicken (Devonshire chicken powder) in the recipe. I've tried so many "meat flavour" crisps which are suitable for vegetarians that I was quite surprised to discover these actually have (a vestige of) meat in them. Obviously I can't say how much but there is chicken in the list of ingredients along with onion, cumin, apple, garlic, red pepper and chilli. Not that I'm sure I could detect chicken in the flavour. Maybe a hint, I'm really not sure.

I tried these on the reluctant taste testers at work and they were, for the most part, pretty impressed. Put it like this: the bowl I set out in the kitchen was emptied in no time at all. One of the taste testers went so far as to say this was a superb crisp and where could he buy them? And I took the last few crisps home for the Chef to try and he finished them no trouble at all. I got about two.

Not half bad. I hope Emma G likes them. Here's a link to Walkers website so you can vote for your favourite flavour if you fancy. Voting closes on 17 October 2014.

My only real gripe is that your fingers stink of curry after you've been eating them. But hey. That washes off.

And here's the little guy throwing his rubbish away responsibly. I think the whole Do Us a Flavour range has the same design.

Walkers Roasted Chicken v Roast Chicken

I bought a huge packet of Walkers Sensations Roasted Chicken & Thyme crisps because it looked so good and because it was on special - about £1 less than normal - so I thought it would be a good opportunity to try them out. I do love a roast chicken crisp. Or I thought I did.

Walkers Sensations Roasted Chicken & Thyme

These crisps are quite finely cut, although not as fine as Zweifel, with a nice crunch and plenty of tasty flavour dust. You can even see the herby goodness scattered over the crisps. So there's lots of roast chicken flavour, thyme and parsley too, and quite a bit of lemon. If this was a real roast chicken instead of a bag of crisps it would be very good indeed.

However, the crisps are a bit oily and I'm not sure I like that very much. I certainly wouldn't want a real chicken to be oily: Waitrose spit roasted garlic chicken isn't oily and that's good enough for me.

So then I thought maybe I should compare Sensations with Walkers Simply Roast Chicken with free range chicken from Devon (why Devon particularly I wonder?). Luckily the local newsagent run by the amazingly cheerful man obliged with a small packet.

Walkers Rubbish Man from the Simply Packet

Walkers Simply Roast Chicken

Mnn..well....erm.. I'm not sure about these either. Good crunch, correct thickness, good golden colour. But the taste is a bit mushroomy. Mushroomy? I know. How weird is that? You can just taste roast chicken but it's not ideal. And what is causing the strange mushroominess? I'm sure I don't know. The packet is in prefect condition so the crisps cannot have gone off. It's a bit odd.

Also, and this is me being a bit dim, the packet shows a potato with a union jack stamped into the cut face. I had fondly imagined that every Simply crisp would feature a union jack lovingly stamped on to it by some fancy new crisp-stamping device. Sadly this is not the case. Surprise! If I had looked hard enough I would have seen that the crisps featured on the packet don't have a union jack on them; only the potato. Of course they don't. What a silly idea. But it is disappointing and I feel stupidly cheated.

Of course the faux union jack stamped potato is just to show how all round British Walkers crisps and all the ingredients are. And don't you forget it.

So, let's see. The Sensations crisps have a great flavour but feel really quite oily. And the Simply crisps feel right but taste a little bit odd.

Neither of these crisps is nasty. I'm just looking at them pickily for the purpose of this blog. This morning I was reading a review of a restaurant that serves (amongst other dishes) salad of finely chopped octopus with beans, and a burger made with squid and tuna. To a non fish eater both sound utterly disgusting and definitely worthy of the word "nasty". The crisps don't qualify for the Nasty List but I feel they are a little disappointing. Really, Walkers - who do make good crisps - ought to be able to produce a better roast chicken flavour.

I'm sure there used to be a tremendously tasty roast chicken crisp. I wonder if I can ever find it again?