Kia’s Answers

I went above and beyond the call of duty for this Road Test - I bought a convection oven (pictured above), downloaded a Nigella recipe for chicken breasts in buttermilk & maple syrup marinated over 24 hours.  But the most pressing issue was how to rate it?  I decided if meal cooking was traditionally a wifes job then the only way to rate the cooking ability would be to win the approval of a husband…  So I had to get married.

The day had arrived and I had had my breasts marinating in the fridge overnight and like Nigella from Nigella cooks, I was making my breasts a lot saucier than they had to be.  So I bust open the box to my shiny new Convection Oven - $60 from www.catchoftheday.com.au and assembled it.  Lined the bottom with foil, placed my four breasts on the rack and murmered in a sultry fashion to the camera about how I love creamy dishes…  Wait, no, that was Nigella the cheeky minx!  She wasn’t in my kitchen though I don’t think.  Not sure where that came from…

Set the two dials to 15 minutes and 180 degrees Celcius, put on some rice to go with it.  I stared fascinated into the bowl - I could actually see the edges browning!  So FAST!  Normally a chicken breast would take a good 40 minutes to cook in a regular oven, need to be turned halfway through and end up needing a nuke in the microwave cause it wouldn’t be cooked in the middle!

15 minutes was up, I sliced through the thickest part of the chicken breast and it was done all the way through but still juicy and tender and full of moisture!  No more safety nuking my roast dishes in the microwave!

I had 4 massive chicken breasts I put three entire breasts on my new husbands plate and eagerly awaited his response.   He said, and I quote, “HOLY SHIT THIS IS FUCKING AWESOME!”  and proceeded to eat an unpreceedented 3 entire huge chicken breasts.  Voila!  Perfect roast chicken meal in 15 minutes! :)  (If you don’t include the 24 hour marinating…)

I looked at this giant heavy bowl and thought “There is no way that’s easy to clean up…” but i poured in some water, squirted in some dishwashing liquid and watched it wash itsself for 10 minutes!   Poured out the liquid, gave it a rinse & a dry, good to go a seond time already, how overwhelming!

So I sat on a bench in my clean kitchen and thought over my adventure: Happy Hubby with a belly full of chook, clean kitchen in 10 minutes and a restaurant quality meal…  Lost points for being ridiculously heavy.

I give the Convectional Oven: 4/5

Now… how to get rid of this husband…