freshpies Chicken and Vegetable Pies

Description: Shortcrust pastry base filled with tender pieces of chicken, peas and carrots topped with a puff pastry lid. It also says "No hydro generated fats, artificial colours or flavourings" which is promising!

 

Cost: £1.25 in Iceland for the pack of 4 small individual pies.

Cooking: 30mins on number 6 from frozen.

Verdict: First impressions? After trying the minced beef & onion version of these pies I knew what to expect. Sure enough, these are literally bite sized pies, so don't expect one, or even 2 to fill you up. Still, I'm here to do a job, so 2 pies in the oven go!

After 30mins they were ready, and like their minced beef & onion pies, some of the gravy had started to leak out of the pie - its as if the crust isn't sealed as well as it could be against the base. Luckily I caught it in time and saved wasting any filling.

I cut open both pies and inspected the filling. The text on the packet which said "No fats, no artificial colours or flavourings" should also have said "No filling". I actually counted the bits inside each pie to give you an example.  The first pie had 5 peas, 5 pea sized pieces of carrot and 3 pea sized pieces of chicken. I'm not joking. They should put some text on the packaging saying that these "chicken" pies are suitable for vegetarians!!!

The second pie in all fairness was a little better. This had 6 pieces of pea sized bits of chicken as well as 4 peas and 5 pea sized bits of carrot.

The filling has a nice chicken flavoured gravy which is tasty and the pastry is quite filling. The puff pasty is nice and flaky and the base nice and stodgy.

The small pieces of chicken (if you can find them) do taste like roast chicken breast - even though the package doesn't state its breast - just says chicken, and overall the pie is fairly tasty, although lacking in meaty filling. Comparing this to say a Birdseye Chicken Pie and its like night and day with regards to the quality, although the Birdseye pie is obviously more expensive.

These are not bad if you wanted a quick cheap snack, but id rather have the tesco value ones which are bigger and cheaper.
Calorie count for this pie is 283 calories per pie, which is healthier than their beef and onion version.

Rating?  4.5 out of 10.

Morrisons Deep Filled Chicken, Ham and Leek Pie

Description: The packaging says Shortcrust pastry filled with tender pieces of chicken, ham and leek in a rich sauce, topped with a puff pastry lid.

Cost: £3 for 2 large pies (i.e. enough to feed 4 people apparently)

Cooking: 40 minutes at number 6.

Verdict: The pie is a double sized pie, so really enough for 2 here. it looks quite nice out of the box and as always the cover picture shows a cracking pie full of chicken and bacon. Bung it in the oven, 40mins number 6 and count down the seconds. After 40mins it wasnt quite ready, the middle was cold, so it took a few extra minutes before it was ready to dive into to.
Cut it open and crust is lovely and crispy. Inside is what we are all waiting for. Well, lovely nice chunky bits of tender chicken, slivers of tasty leak. Gravy was nice and creamy, like a soup nearly. Bacon? What bacon? couldnt see or or taste any in here which was supprising. Bacon isnt expensive, but im at a loss as to where it was in this pie! The base was filling, all in all, not bad at all! Certainly one id buy again!

Calorie wise its 524 calories per half a pie. Although if your hungry you will be tempted to eat the whole pie!!!

Rating? 7 out of 10.