Every trip to Trader Joe’s feels like a fresh adventure. The company is constantly putting out new and seasonal items, so their stock is perpetually rotating, which keeps our freezer meal frenzy fresh. Even so, we do like to wander outside the freezer aisle occasionally to see what other things the company is up to. That’s how we discovered the Trader Joe’s Fully Baked Chicken Pot Pie, which we’re reviewing today.
In case we haven’t made this explicitly clear yet, this is not a frozen food. You’ll find this pot pie in the refrigerated section, usually pretty close to the Super Burritos. This is also not shaped like a typical pot pie; it’s a rectangular affair rather than a round one. (We should also point out that Trader Joe’s does make a chicken pot pie that is both frozen and round, but the one we’re reviewing today is neither of those things.)
The cooking instructions recommend the oven, but you can also heat this in the microwave if you’d like. For the sake of this review, we used the oven, which we’re pretty sure will create a flakier, drier crust, which is preferable for a pot pie. (To see the full cooking instructions, check out the package scans at the bottom of this review.)
First off, we need to point out right away that the crust here is amazing. This is a tasty, flaky crust that reminds us a bit of a croissant. The only crust-related complaint we have is that there isn’t enough of it; the crust covers the top of the pot pie, but there is no crust on the sides or bottom. So the crust you see on the top of the pie is all the crust you’ll get.
Unfortunately, the problems only start to get worse from here. There are giant, crunchy slices of potato at the bottom of the pot pie, which sort of act consistency-wise like a crust of sorts, but they don’t really have much flavor. We were actually kind of astonished at how not-potatoey these potatoes are.
There are carrots and peas, which are both reasonable, and then some chunks of white-meat chicken. The chicken is nothing special here; in fact, it’s a little bland and chalky. It also has a strange, undercooked appearance, despite the fact that this was supposedly pre-baked.
There’s a brothy sauce in the midst of all of this, but like the potatoes and chicken, it just doesn’t have much flavor. It’s also runny and watery, even after you let it sit out to thicken up for a bit. That means the crust really does almost all of the flavor work for this pot pie.
One third of the package’s contents is considered a serving, and you can see what that looks like in the picture a few paragraphs above. It’s a decent sized portion, though we think you could easily up this to half a dish instead of a third. Keep in mind that 1/3 of the package has 440 calories (220 from fat) and 630 mg of sodium.
The Trader Joe’s Fully Baked Chicken Pot Pie is high in calories and low on flavor. While the crust here is great, everything beneath it is pretty mediocre. If you’re looking for a decent chicken pot pie from Trader Joe’s, we recommend their frozen option over this one.
To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for this Trader Joe’s pot pie, check out our package scans below.
I just tried it, and it’s the worst chicken pot pie I have ever had, i couldn’t even finish it. I don’t know if I just got a bad one or something, but mine had this weird vinegar flavor that totally overpowered everything. All I could taste was vinegar, which is weird because vinegar isn’t listed in the ingredients.