Marie Callender’s Country Fried Pork & Gravy Review

Marie Callender's Country Fried Pork & Gravy

We’ve never tried the Marie Callender’s Country Fried Pork & Gravy before today, so we can’t say for certain if this recipe has changed at some point during the past couple years. However, people on the internet very much believe it did. While we can’t go back in time and review the previous version of this meal (if one exists), we can certainly try the current version to see how it stacks up against other Marie Callender’s meals.

And that’s exactly what we’re going to do.

Cooking this is pretty simple. Pop it into the microwave for three minutes, give the potatoes a quick stir, then pop it back in for another two to three minutes. When we pulled this out to stir it, the mashed potatoes were still mostly frozen, so we ended up going with the full six-minute cook time on this one. That’s on the long side for a frozen single-serve meal (we typically don’t like to cook our meals for more than five minutes), but it’s certainly not difficult. (If you want to read the full cooking instructions straight off the box, scroll down to the bottom of this review and check out the package scans.)

Marie Callender's Country Fried Pork & Gravy

Because the gravy is almost the same exact color as the potatoes, it’s difficult to see where one ends and the other begins. For reference, in the image above, the portion above the pork chop is potatoes, while the portion below it is the gravy.

Now, despite the fact that we ended up cooking this a bit longer than we were hoping to, the potatoes turn out halfway decent. They have a creamy consistency with a buttery flavor. However, once they start to break apart in your mouth, they end up kind of gravelly, which is definitely not ideal.

The gravy is cream-based, and we’re going to use the word creamy again, despite the fact that we used it for the mashed potatoes already. This gravy has a subtle flavor, though with a sour bite. It tastes a little bit weird on its own, but when you mix it into the potatoes or slop it on top of the pork chop, it ends up being halfway decent.

The pork chop itself is nothing to write home about. The breading ends up mushy, which probably can’t be avoided in a microwave meal that’s also filled with gravy. Still, it’s definitely a bit of a downer. As for the meat itself, it’s a little bland tasting and also rubbery enough that some pieces end up being nearly inedible. For the best experience, you’ll cut off a chunk of pork, then slosh it around in the potatoes and gravy. When everything comes together, this is pretty alright, though you might end up spitting out a few chunks of pork that were virtually unchewable.

This is a bit higher in calories than we’d like, and quite a bit higher in sodium. With 430 calories and 1,240 mg of sodium, we really don’t think we’ll be eating this often. While we could justify the calorie count, that sodium level is really high. Then again, we weren’t counting on making this a regular meal.

The Marie Callender’s Country Fried Pork & Gravy takes three mediocre components and combines them into something that’s mostly salvageable. While the final product is more than the sum of its parts, “mostly salvageable” isn’t exactly a glowing review when used as a frozen food description.

Like we said in the beginning of this review, we can’t say if this recipe changed or not. In its current form, though, we can certainly see why the reception on this is pretty mixed.

To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for this frozen meal, check out our package scans below.

Marie Callender's Country Fried Pork & Gravy
Marie Callender's Country Fried Pork & Gravy
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