When James was growing up, he remembers hearty meals to power him through the long winter nights. One of those was always a chicken pie and often, as is the case when you live in a busy household with a couple of kids, that pie was provided by Birds Eye!
We weren't sure if it was the nostalgia (or Tesco's special Clubcard price) but we ended up with a pack of these in our trolley and it was rude not to give them a whirl.
So, when it comes to cooking and packaging, it's the standard frozen pie affair - lovely bright green cardboard packaging with your pies housed in their little foil tins. There was a pleasant surprise with these; you don't need to wait an abhorrent amount of time for them to cook! James' memory of frozen pies is that they say they take 40-50 minutes and then they really take over an hour (because who preheats an oven anyway?!). For these, it's 30 - 35 minutes and they're true to their word.
We went full winter warmer with our meal and paired it with mash, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and a homemade onion gravy.
So what about the pie? Crust - it's good. We wouldn't know it was vegan if we hadn't been told.
And the filling - it actually made us smile. If you are meat-reducing or used to eat meat, then the filling is really familiar and definitely triggered some nostalgia here. The pieces of fake chicken come in all shapes and sizes, just like the original. There's a mix of different veggies in there too. The only thing which we noticed was a bit different is that the gravy is heavily spiced. It's really pepper-y and it gives it a bit of a kick. It's not a bad thing, but we weren't expecting it.
All in all, these are good little pies which don't break the bank and are widely available. There's not much to dislike at all.
Rating - 8/10
Tasty, readily available and will make you think of simpler times (if you're in your mid-twenties like us).
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