Marie Callender’s Meatless Chick’n Pot Pie (Made with Gardein Plant-Based Chick’n) Review

It’s been a while since we’ve reviewed anything from the Marie Callender’s brand of frozen food. How long exactly? Well, it looks like our last MC review was the Savory Swedish Meatballs Bowl, which we reviewed back in August of 2021. So it’s been more than a year.

We’re getting back in the saddle today with the Marie Callender’s Meatless Chick’n Pot Pie (Made with Gardein Plant-Based Chick’n). The Marie Callender’s fans are going wild right now. (Yes, they do exist!) And since this is a team-up with Gardein, we suppose the Gardein fans are going wild as well.

Now, we’ve got to warn you that cooking this thing is going to take some time. Even in the microwave, this will take eight to nine minutes. The instructions recommend that you cook it inside the box, but there’s a portion of the box that needs to be ripped off first. We decided to put the microwave instructions to the test for this particular review. (If you want to read the full cooking instructions straight off the box, check out the package scans at the bottom of this review.)

Admittedly, our pot pie was a little banged-up by the time we got it into the microwave, as you can see in the image above. It also leaked a bunch of gravy into the box, and it came out smelling a little burnt.

Now, the crust does come out kind of dry and flakey, which is how pot pie crust should come out, but it also has a little bit of a weird aftertaste that we’re not fans of. We’re not sure if this is a result of improperly packaging (there’s no inner seal inside the package to protect the pot pie), but we think this could have been a lot better.

Despite the fact that our gravy made a mess, we do think it’s the best part of this meal. This is a super tasty batch of gravy, with a delicious savory flavor and a slightly sweet aftertaste. We’d love to try this stuff on a steamy batch of mashed potatoes!

Now, let’s talk about the Gardein chicken. While we’ve definitely enjoyed Gardein’s chicken in the past, we’re just not feeling it here. Yes, the portion size is surprisingly robust, but that actually works against it, as it’s kind of mushy with a super-fake grainy flavor.

As a nice little bonus, you’ve got some peas and carrots in the mix, and while the carrots are kind of forgettable, we actually really enjoy the peas here. They’re maybe a little mushy, but they still have that satisfying “pop” when you bite into them.

This pot pie is no joke when it comes to calories. The full shebang contains 940 calories and 1,650 mg of sodium, though the package recommends that you eat about half of a pot pie in a sitting. And we have to admit, this is a pretty sizeable pot pie, so we definitely think you won’t be eating the whole thing at once. Our reviewer ended up chomping about 2/3 of the contents of the box before packaging up the rest for later.

The Marie Callender’s Meatless Chick’n Pot Pie (Made with Gardein Plant-Based Chick’n) has potential, but it doesn’t live up to it. The gravy is fantastic, and we liked the peas more than we thought we would, but we noticed a funny aftertaste in the crust and we just weren’t fond of the use of Gardein’s faux chicken here. On the other hand, this is a pretty substantial meal, and we were pretty full about halfway through.

Oh, and if you end up saving some leftovers for later (like we did), make sure you toss out the tray — it’s designed to only be heated a single time.

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