When it’s your turn to bring the chicken pot pie for the potluck, you don’t want to leave anything up to chance. Someone is already bringing their grandma’s award-winning green bean casserole, and someone else is bringing a tangy southwest pasta salad, so you obviously need to bring something of equal standards. We put together a ranking of 12 frozen chicken pot pie brands and determined that Marie Callender’s was the clear winner when pitted against Banquet’s offering.
Beyond the fact that this chicken pot pie was everything we were looking for, we were impressed by Marie Callender’s variety of pies, with everything from a cauliflower crust version to a chicken with mushrooms option. The crust of this pie is what truly stole the show. It was golden, flaky, and a delicious accompaniment to the hearty filling. Compared to Banquet’s chicken pot pie, which wasn’t nearly as satisfying with its fillings, Marie Callender’s pie would provide a more nourishing meal and an impressive addition to the potluck.
What makes Marie Callender’s chicken pot pie better?
Long before Marie Callender’s chicken pot pies were sold in grocery stores, the actual Marie Callender used to make them by hand at a small shop in California. Her pies became legendary, which is probably why we also ranked the chicken pot pie as the second best Marie Callender’s frozen meal. The pot pies are made with white chicken meat and a variety of vegetables such as peas, celery, and carrots. The crust of the pie is made from scratch, as is the gravy, which explains why the flavor and texture combination of this meal was such a hit. It’s available in a 10-ounce or 15-ounce container, or hungry customers can snag a 45-ounce family-size pie.
Banquet’s chicken pot pie also has a scratch-made crust, which was our favorite aspect of the pie, although we found that it burned quickly and didn’t make up for the disappointing filling. The pies are made with both chicken rolls and ground chicken, but we found that there wasn’t very much chicken present. It also contains chicken flavor and chicken stock, which gives the pie a pleasant chicken taste but doesn’t mask that there were very few actual pieces of chicken, carrots, potatoes, or peas. All in all, we’d have to say that Marie Callender’s takes the cake in this head-to-head battle. Or, perhaps we should say it takes the “pie.”
