There’s nothing quite like a steamy hot pot pie. In fact, one of our most contentious reviews of all time was about a pot pie — we upset quite a few people by saying that we love the Boomerang’s Steak & Potato Pie (we’re sorry, but we really do!)
Today we’re doing something that’s a bit different, the Marie Callender’s Chili with Beans Pot Pie. We’re not sure how we’re going to like this. The Marie Callender’s brand of frozen food hasn’t really impressed us in the past, so we’ve lowered our expectations. Plus, the font spacing on the cover is really inconsistent, which doesn’t give us a sense of confidence in the quality of this food.
This pot pie takes a really, really long time to cook. Even if you go with the microwave, you’re looking at a good eight and a half minutes. We decided to heat this in the oven, which takes an hour. (If you want to see the full cooking instructions, check out the package scans at the bottom of this article.)
When we pulled this out of the oven, the top seemed a bit soggy, so we popped it back in for about five extra minutes. The top was still a bit squishy, as you can see in the image above, but it was much better than after the initial cook time. Keep that in mind if you decide to cook one of these in the oven.
The crust tastes fine. It has a flakey, crumbly texture, which is what you’d expect from a pot pie, and it’s dry around the edges while the bottom soaks up moisture from the filling. This is pretty standard pot pie stuff.
The inside of this pot pie is a mess of chili. This thing is just loaded with the stuff. It has just a little bit of a tomatoey taste, but for the most part it tastes like a burrito filling. It’s a pinto bean-loaded affair with hardly any tomato content at all.
There are also chunks of ground beef, which tend to be rolled into little balls. They’re like mini meatballs. They taste halfway decent, though we think something a little more sausage-y might have elevated this pot pie to a whole new level.
A full chili pot pie contains 890 calories and 1,570 mg of sodium. That’s quite a lot, but the recommended serving size is slightly less than half a pie. Even if you take the package’s recommendation, you’ll still be consuming 430 calories and 740 mg of sodium. This is no diet-friendly food.
Marie Callender’s Chili with Beans Pot Pie is a decent pot pie, though it might not be exactly what you’re expecting based on its title. We’d say this is more a cross between a burrito and a pot pie than a true chili pot pie. But if a burrito-like pot pie is what you’re looking for, we’ve found just the thing for you.
To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for this Marie Callender’s pot pie, check out our package scans below.
