I was not inclined to add any salt, believably enough, and my taste buds were not repulsed by overpowering amounts of sodium chloride. I must admit that the sodium stats mentioned earlier had me worried about the saltiness of the gravy, but I was pleasantly surprised by its flavor. I’m all for texture contrasts, but as a general rule, orange vegetables should be smooth and supple when cooked. The peas were sweet, verdant and fresh tasting, but I would like to have seen a dozen or so more in the pie. It wasn’t tough or dry like pre-cooked frozen proteins can be it was actually well-seasoned as a stand-alone ingredient. The white-meat chicken was present in large, tender chunks.

It can’t hold a candle to the homemade puff pastry I like topping my pies with, but it’s definitely the best crust that Krogers freezers can offer. Even the bottom crust, often the victim of post-cooking sogginess in pot pies, held its delicate texture. The edges were particularly flaky but still held their moisture. Its color was a deep golden hue, even and uniform. And, after five-and-a-half-minutes in my microwave, brown and crispy the crust was. More colloquially known as a crisping disc, this silver material absorbs the waves, heats to a very high temperature and emits infrared rays to brown and crisp the crust of the pot pie. The packaging features a susceptor, the savior of all things microwavable.

I was impressed from the minute I opened the box. I was anxious to see whether the pies were really as tasty as I remembered them to be, or if the scarcity with which my mom would buy them had tainted my perception of their deliciousness. The larger, 16.5-ounce pie contains over 1,000 calories and contains 100-percent of a daily allowance of fat.įully knowledgeable of the abuse to which my arteries would soon be subjected, I ventured to the grocery store in search of my favorite microwavable meal of yesteryear. The smaller, 10-ounce chicken pot pie boasts 70-percent of a daily allowance of saturated fat and 42-percent of a daily allowance of sodium (based on a 2,000 calorie diet). It served its purpose - warm and filling, ready in two minutes - but was utterly devoid of the refined savoriness offered by Marie’s famous recipe.Įvery once in a while, I was lucky enough to discover a Marie Callender’s pot pie in the door of our basement freezer, though my mother could not bring herself to routinely subject me to the astoundingly poor nutrition of the pot pies. I distinctly remember the staple frozen pie in my household being Banquet brand, a red box of cheap quality ingredients stuffed in a floury, underseasoned crust purchased for 88 cents. Challenged by the prospect of finding a frozen food that’s actually worth eating for the flavor, not just the convenience, I was motivated to revisit one of my childhood favorites: Marie Callender’s chicken pot pies, the ultimate in comfort food.

Marie callender pot pies