A simple chicken pie is an easy way to solve a weeknight dinner, and there is one that will deliver on flavour, price and size.
Sometimes the easiest weeknight dinner isn’t a takeaway or a quick pasta – it’s the humble pie.
We have been a country of pie enthusiasts for many hundreds of years. From fruit-laden to suet-crusted pies were on the British menu since at least the 13th century.
Chicken pie is a crowd-pleaser, but if done wrong, it can turn your evening sour – as I know now all too well. To ensure you do not suffer a chicken pie disappointment, I have tested all the supermarket chicken pies to help you decide where to put your money.
I looked at steak pies from M&S, Waitrose, Aldi, Sainsbury’s and Tescos to find out which chicken pie delivers best on price and taste.
The winner was clear from the first spoonful – and it will come as a welcome surprise to your wallet. I was looking for crumbly pastry, a good flavour, and value in portion size – all of these pie prices are for two.
Marks and Spencer is somewhat of a UK national treasure, but this comes at a premium. As the most expensive pie by quite some margin, I was expecting the Gastropub Chicken, leek and smoked bacon pie to be the best. It was delicious, but another pie’s performance eclipsed it for a fraction of the price.
Of all the pies, the leek and bacon varieties were definitely more flavourful than the classic chicken pies. This was delicious.
The cooking instructions were accurate, and it was perfectly cooked through. The pastry was flaky, and there was no soggy bottom. The sesame also made for a nice pop of flavour on the crust.
Here’s the game-changer: Aldi’s chicken, bacon and leek pie tastes exactly the same as the M&S pie to me.
As a bonus, its over £3 cheaper.
The Aldi pie has a very similar rich flavour , a good amount of chicken and bacon content, and a strong pastry with sesame seeds on top.
It came out with a perfect golden crust and the first mouthful persuaded me this was a contender for the top spot.
It easily fed two people with a side of veg and would make for an easy, cheap weeknight dinner if you can’t be bothered to slave over an oven for hours.
Waitrose delivered, but it was a very mediocre, yet solid delivery. There was a good amount of chicken, bacon and leek in the filling – but the flavour was not quite there.
The pastry was good, and it cooked well. However, I felt this was just a little bland even though the price was reasonable.
This didn’t burn – it cooked well in the oven, but other than this, it was fairly unremarkable.
This was bad. The filling was easily the worst – it was watery and gelatinous. There was hardly any chicken in it and the pastry burnt despite me following the cooking instructions to a tee.
For £4.00 this is the cheapest pie but it is certainly not worth the pound discount. It tasted of very little, and the bottom was soggy. This pie needs to go back to the drawing board.
This was the only shortcrust pastry pie, and it was a nice change from the typical puff pastry – making it feel more like a substantial, traditional British pie.
Tesco says this feeds three, although it is a very similar size to the portion for two pies above. If you want to go for one of the cheaper pies this is a solid choice.
The flavour was good, the pastry was delicious and well cooked through and there was a decent amount of chicken in the filling. I would buy this again.
It is clear for me who is a winner and a looser. Aldi is in first place. I couldn’t tell it apart from the M&S pie, it was delicious and only £4.99.
Tesco is next in line for both price and taste. This was the second cheapest pie, but delivered on flavour, size, and pastry quality.
M&S followed next. I was surprised as I expected this to perform better due to it being the most expensive – but as it was so similar to the Aldi pie I cannot warrant ranking it in my top two.
Then it was Waitrose – this was a solid pie but nothing to write home about, but was cheaper than M&S and only one penny more than Aldi.
In last place – it is very firmly Sainsbury’s. The flavour was awful, the pastry burnt, and it had hardly any filling. This may be a good case study in getting what you pay for.
More surprisingly still, Waitrose was cheaper than M&S and Tesco and delivered the best pie.If you’re aiming for an affordable national pie week dinner in, I would recommend Aldi’s pie wholeheartedly.
