Does anyone remember Bunnicula? We think there’s a similar beast in the Banquet pot pie plant, only instead of sucking vegetables dry he’s draining the pies before they ship. That’s the only thing that can explain how the real pot pie this Consumerist reader cooked looks nothing like the bountiful pot pie harvest shown on the box. Oh wait: it could also be that Banquet is a cheap-assed company that can’t be bothered to sell decent frozen food.
I cooked up the Banquet Chicken Pot Pie per directions.
I flipped it over after cooking and put it in a bowl. I opened up the “bottom” to get at the pot pie goodness and what did I find? Practically nothing. It was almost completely hollow.
On the back of the box were the instructions for cooking.
The final step says to insert a thermometer to ensure a temp of 160 to make sure it is fully cooked. If I had actually done that the probe would have been in the hollow pocket of the pie and not been measuring anything but air.
I will stick with Marie Calendar pot pie from now on. They are actually filled with pot pie goodness.
(Thanks to couponknob!)
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@sarabadara: Yeah I bet I know why you liked it so much?…..n2o?
I just had one of these and although the filling was less than I remember it being, it was not as bad as pictured here.
They still taste good so I recommend nuking two at a time.
The Pie was Empty because U OVER Cooked IT,Not because there Cheap,might try following the Dir. on Box..I have also Over Cooked one before & Same thing happened to mine,so Now I keep closer look on it..
@Xerloq:
Coolness!
Thanks for the recipe!
I love the Banquet ones too, really. The ones at Aldi aren’t bad either.
This looks like a manufacturing oops. I bet there was an air bubble in the automatic thing that bloops the filling into the crusts. It probably didn’t bloop it in this one and no one caught it.
Reminds me of the time I bought a thin crust frozen pizza at Stop-n-Shop (It said CHICAGO on it and came in a black box.) After opening it, I found more then half of the pizza was empty and devoid of cheese, sauce, and topping. On top of that, there was very little cheese on the other half and only 2 pepperoni’s.
those pot pies are hardly worth eating in the first place. they are cheap yes, but not even worth heating.
the mary callenders pot pies are nice, but they cost a bit more and well…are pretty loaded with fat and all that good stuff!!
Are you sure that was even a registered company?
@TashaLuv: I don’t think that would make the filling just completely disappear.
And no matter what they cost, they should be filled to you know, the level of the pie. It’s not the OP’s fault for buying Banquet or not making a homemade pot pie. Maybe they were at work and heating this up for lunch. It’s not like you can spend an hour cooking at work, most places only have a microwave to heat food up. Contact Banquet and complain.
@snoop-blog: “Banquet pot pies: the most falsely advertised product on the market….
It contains no pot, nor does it taste like pie.”
OK, someone had to…
I looked up Banquet (ConAgra Foods) and went to their customer service contact form and sent them that very same information.
I received an email back saying that they took customer input very seriously and would be sending me coupons for free product within the next week. I wonder if the poor overworked customer service drone even got a laugh out of it…
i have gotten a can of catfood with nothing but water in it! strange…