Tesco Chicken & Bacon Lattice Pie

Description: Puff Pastry. Succulent British chicken and bacon inside a rich sauce made using West country cream and tarragon, with a crispy golden puff pastry top.

Cost: £2 for a big pie (550g) which is enough for about 3 people I guess or 2 if you are very hungry.

Cooking: 45mins on number 6 from frozen.

Verdict: First impressions? The description sounds great. West country cream eh? Chicken & Bacon.. wow.. sounds yummy! Picked this because the missus isn't big on steak pies, and this chicken/bacon one with its lattice top it would be more her kind of pie.

I cook it for the recommended amount of time and serve it up with my compulsory potatoes and peas.

Cutting it open the filling smells great. Small lumps of chicken and chopped up bits of bacon. Pastry was crispy and quite filling.

The missus seemed to enjoy hers, but I was not impressed. The filling just wasn't full of flavour and was a quite bland. I think it would be better with some leek or something in it to give it a bit more taste. In the end I had to add some Daddies sauce to try and help me finish it off.

Bit of a disappointment really, and just didn't cut it compared to some of the other chicken pies I've had. Certainly wont be buying this one again.


Calorie count for this pie is 730 calories for half a pie.

Rating?  3.5 out of 10.

Tesco Cheesy Bolognese Pie

Description: Shortcrust Pastry, Delicious minced beef in a rich bolognese sauce, topped with crispy breadcrumbs and hand sprinkled with Cheddar cheese.

Cost: £2 for a big pie (520g) which is enough for 2 or maybe 3 people at a push.

Cooking: 40mins on number 6 from frozen.

Verdict: First impressions? Not my normal sort of pie, but the missus loves bolognese and cheese. So, whilst I was stocking my trolley up with my manly steak and ale pies she slipped this one in. Opening up the packet it looks interesting. Pie base, filled with bolognese mince and topped with breadcrumbs and cheese. This will be an interesting pie to try.

Cutting through the pie the minced stuff in the middle looks more of a kind of mush. Think of what a tin of re-fried beans look like when you open it... that's this filling. No visible lumps of mince in there. But, then that's normal for minced beef pies. The base was lovely and crispy, perfect shortcrust. The topping was weird for me, as I'm used to a pastry crust top. This was very crispy breadcrumbs. But, was still nice. Couldn't really taste much cheese at all. It said it was hand topped.... suspect the guy who did this by hand was slacking. In fact the missus added loads of extra cheese to hers!

So whats it taste like? Well different, but in a good way. Imagine liquidised bolognese mince stuffed in a pie. It was actually quite tasty and a really nice change. The missus enjoyed it and has added it to the shopping list!! It didn't seem very filling compared to "normal" pies, but for the money, I think its worth a try.

Calorie count for this pie is 710 calorie for half a pie.

Rating?  6 out of 10.

Pieminister Morning Glory Breakfast Pie

Description: Get ready to tackle the Morning Glory breakfast pie. Beans, mushrooms and smoked cheese.

Cost: Not sure, but each pie is pretty small. It weighs 170g apparently. I got this free as part of an 02 Rugby promotion to sample.

Cooking: 20 minutes on number 4 from chilled.

Verdict: First impressions? Well, id had the "Full English" breakfast pie earlier in the week and was not overly impressed, so my expectations from this pie were not great. Pie looks the same as the other one out of the box and same sort of cooking instructions.

Whats the verdict? Well, cut it open and dived in. The insides were just a spoonfull of beans, about 3 slices of mushroom and some dark flavouring which I guess was the cheese. These pies must be well cheap to make as 1 mushroom would probably do 3 pies!

Being a vegetarian pie, sure enough there was no meat in it. But by the lack of meet in the "Full English" pie, I think veggies could very safely just have one of those instead.

Taste wise, it tasted identical to the Full English pie - a sort of cheesy garlic taste to it - not at all how you`d expect a breakfast pie to taste. I would have liked to have tasted something more akin to a full english breakfast but with a crust - maybe eggs, bacon, sausages, mushrooms, onions etc.. The crust itself is quite tasty, and nicely crunchy.  You can pick this pie up and eat it with your hands without it worrying about falling all over the shop - ideal if your driving or at a Rugby / Footie game.

So all in all im not too impressed. Sure, the marketing is good and trying to make pies more fashionable is a good thing, but as someone who loves their pies.... the Morning Glory is not making me full of glory.

Calorie count for this pie is 397 calories per pie.

Rating? 4 out of 10.