The Store-Bought Chicken Pot Pie You Should Avoid Buying At All Costs

Few comfort foods hit the spot more than a warm, perfectly cooked chicken pot pie. The kind that has a light, airy, and crispy crust with a creamy inside filled with chicken-y, vegetable goodness. Whether it's an individual size or a large pie for the whole family, it's just hard to beat a chicken pot pie. As far as store-bought pies go, though, we advise doing a little research before purchasing one from the frozen meals section. Some store-bought options taste almost homemade, while others are better left in the freezer aisle — as we found out when we ranked store-bought chicken pot pies. 

One such example is Blake's brand chicken pot pie. It's described as being made with "white meat chicken, garden vegetables, and a flaky pastry crust." Nothing wrong there. Plus, the box makes the pot pie look outstanding. But while the marketing may be on point, Blake's execution of said chicken pot pie is sadly lacking. It starts with the unbreakable crust — so hard that our reviewer couldn't penetrate it with a fork. Instead, while trying to break its outer pastry walls, the entire top crust just popped off like some sort of rock-hard pastry frisbee. And that was just the beginning of this chicken pot pie fiasco.

Underneath the impenetrable frisbee of pastry was nothing special. The chicken wasn't tender, and, despite the hard top crust, Blake's pot pie doesn't have a lower crust at all. So basically, you're getting soup with stone-like pastry on top. As our reviewer noted, "It's not called chicken pot pastry; it's called chicken pot pie for a reason."

We're not the only ones who were critical of Blake's chicken pot pie. One Redditor commented, "Nothing chaps my a** more than a pot pie with only the top crust. That's not a pie, that's a cobbler." Another Reddit commenter mentioned how the brand changed the pot pie, saying "They turned it into a pea pie and instead of the beautiful chicken strips, they now have little crappy cubes that make it look like there's more chicken, but there's a lot less." Other complaints talked about the lack of filling, small serving size, and overall dryness of the pot pie.

Though Blake's version is a bit of a mess, some other options may meet your comfort food standards if you don't feel up to making a homemade chicken pot pie. We recommend a fan-favorite from Costco to get you in the chicken-y spirit – a classic frozen chicken pot pie with a tender crust, savory gravy, and tasty blend of chicken and vegetables. When it comes to store-bought chicken pot pies, all is not lost — except for maybe Blake's. That pot pie needs to go back to the drawing board.