Taste Testing Marie Callender’s Beef Pot Pie

I was approached by my friends over at The Motherhood and asked, with compensation, to try one of Marie Callender’s Pot Pies.

This is was an interesting project to take on as I am in no way an advocate for frozen foods, and often say that it’s not what I grew up with or am used to eating at all. But the claim that it has a Golden Flaky Crust and “Made From Scratch” is a big one, and one that I am sure many of my hardcore foodie friends are scoffing at right now.

So, I went and got two pot pies, at my local market, for a little over $2.00 each. I got a beef one and a chicken one. Full disclosure: The entire time I am convinced I will hate it. I decided to try the beef one first.

Outside of the box, the crust looks much like any frozen pie crust.

Instructions on the box call for 6 minutes on High in the microwave, then another 6 to 7 minutes with boxed turned.

Now, the smell in my apartment wasn’t a bad one, but it certainly wasn’t the smell of something homemade brewing. Once out of the microwave, the crust didn’t look soggy or doughy at all. Once I sank my fork into it there was a slight “crunch!” from the crust and I was surprise that it was indeed flaky. The crust envelopes the pie, and even the crust at the bottom was consistent (not soggy).

The broth wasn’t salty, which was what I was expecting, though the sodium levels for this product is about 33% (780mg). The carrots where not too soft, not too hard and the beef, cut in perfect cubes, was tender.

All in all, it wasn’t a bad pie. Of course, I didn’t have a homemade one to compare it to, nor did I try the chicken pot pie. Lucky for us the awesome Gregory Ng, an expert on all foods frozen, did and I invite you to check out his review on Marie Callender’s Chicken Pot Pie when compared to his own home-made version when this article rating Marie Callender’s Pot Pies to be Better than homemade came out. Gregory Ng is The King in this area, and I was happy to see we agreed on many of the details with this one.

I probably won’t start eating these pot pies on a regular basis, it’s just not how I eat, but if you’re looking for a pretty good frozen pot pie, this one is not bad at all.

Disclosure: The Motherhood compensated me for my time to shop and test out this product. No specific requirements that I share any particular point of view were given. The opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

Tags: food
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