5 Store-Bought Chicken Pot Pies, Ranked Worst To Best

Sometimes, late at night when I can’t sleep, I like to play a little game with myself, and the game goes like this: Humanity is several years into a nonspecific apocalypse. I, being gritty and skilled in ways I am obviously not actually gritty and skilled (I can’t even chop wood), am one of the lucky few to have survived … though this being the apocalypse and all, luck is a relative word. Our compound/walled city/forest village ekes out a pathetic existence, hardened to it all by our lost loved ones, lack of hot baths, and measly meals.

Then, out of nowhere, I am granted a no-holds-barred banquet from the World Before. What do I choose for my table? Believe it or not, although my answer varies depending on the night and the degree of insomnia, chicken pot pie features in the fantasy more often than you’d think. There’s a reason the greats like Martha Stewart and Ree Drummond have put out their own versions; there’s a reason people have studied the science of air frying chicken pot pie like it will cure cancer. It’s just that good.

It was with great joy, therefore, that I learned I was to rank every store-bought chicken pot pie I could find. Granted, there were confusingly few choices (only five that I could find after visiting four separate stores), but still. It gave us a good idea of where to go next time the craving hits. If you, too, would like the inside deets, here’s our ranking of chicken pot pies, worst to best.

I have to say, the Blake’s package looked so appealing that it honestly didn’t occur to me that this chicken pot pie would be icky. And yet, here we are: It ranked the worst for a reason. It was too crunchy, the top was hard to get through with a fork, and it lacked a lower crust, which I personally find offensive. I know not everyone agrees with me on this, but I really like a crusty, gluten-rich, tender, falling-apart chicken pot pie. This one, on the other hand, was so tough that when I first tried to break into it, the top simply popped off the base like a hard, dough frisbee, causing the children to fall all over themselves laughing. The small boy described it as “mid, except lower than mid,” while the small girl took a minuscule bite and declared her opinion formed from the crust alone.

It’s only fair to note that we did have an outlier: the husband. Because he does not care for crust the way we do, and because gravy is his religion, he liked that there was no bottom to the pie. He described the wet-to-dry ratio as favorable (even if the chicken wasn’t tender) and enjoyed that the casing was closer to a dry puff pastry than a pie dough. IMHO, it’s not called chicken pot pastry; it’s called chicken pot pie for a reason. But there’s no accounting for taste, and at $3.88, he’s welcome to have it any time he likes.

You would think that Gordon Ramsay would be able to come up with a good store-bought chicken pot pie, even if it was intended for mass production, wouldn’t you? The television personality and beef Wellington guru should surely have enough cooking acumen to make a frozen meal taste good, right? And yet, no. In fact, this By Chef Ramsay pie almost ranked worst, saved only by what we might term the Great Blake’s Frisbee Incident of 2025.

The problems were numerous: The crust was difficult to cut into, it was dry, and it was hard to pull a bite away from the main pie. Once again, the crust was more like puff pastry than pie crust, a fact about which opinions varied widely. While the husband once again liked this, the small girl hated it.

Next complaint is that the veggies tasted kind of canned. Like, come on, Ramsay camp! While canned ingredients can actually help upgrade a homemade chicken pot pie, used judiciously, you shouldn’t be able to taste the can itself … especially for $5.94, even if the pot pie would easily feed two to three people.

That said, there were some plus sides. Although it had to fight hard to be heard over the weird-ish vegetables and tough crust, the flavor of the gravy was the best of the lot, tasting like butter and mellow seasonings. Plus, the chicken was very tender, which isn’t always the case with a chicken pot pie. Still, in the end, the small boy put it best: “There simply wasn’t enough substance to recommend it.”

When I think of store-bought chicken pot pie, I think of Marie Callender’s. Although I don’t think I’ve ever even bought one before, I must have passed by these pies a million times in the frozen section of various grocery stores. Once I knew where to look for them, I realized that they’d be hard to miss. Although I had a tough time finding even five chicken pot pie options, as discussed, this one was available in every store I visited, with the exception of Costco.

Not only that, but it was arranged in giant banks, taking up multiple freezer section doors at each of those stores. Seriously, the chicken pot pie eaters of the world must really, really like this one. Or they have a market stranglehold for some other reason, such as the number of options they offer: cauliflower crust, creamy parmesan, chicken and bacon, plant-based, the list goes on. Still, we ranked it middle of the pack, neither worst nor best, because it neither impressed nor offended us.

Overall, the crust was buttery enough, and the chicken was tender. The veggies were fine, the gravy was fine, and the overall experience was … fine. The small boy liked it well enough, while the small girl felt it had a bizarre aftertaste that she couldn’t put her finger on. (Or, as she said it, “I can’t put my tongue on it.) At $3.27, though, you can’t really go wrong if you want to try it.

This store-bought chicken pot pie ranked second-best, but not because it really wowed. Lord only knows what kind of meat and veggies are in it to accommodate its bargain-bin price of only $1. Yes, you read that right: a mere buck, which feels like a price tag that should have disappeared along with the ’80s, but here we are. Still, it surprised me: I actually kind of liked it.

That’s not to say it was good, per se. The chicken was not tender enough, and it had a somewhat canned taste. (Canned chicken is the WORST). However, the sauce was tasty, and the crust was nice. The potatoes were also good and rounded out the creamy filling nicely. In the end, my main takeaway is how sad it is that the product that cost the least — and not just the least, but least by a mile — tasted second-best. Still, if your highest good is a bargain and you don’t examine the ingredients closely, this is a good bet.

While I enjoy a homemade, elevated chicken pot pie with unique ingredients such as mushrooms and squash, there’s nothing like a classic one with peas, carrots, and onions. It was with great pleasure, therefore, that we sampled the true classic that is Costco’s fan favorite store-bought chicken pot pie.

While we don’t eat a ton of pot pies, we could tell this was one of the best specimens right off the bat. It was a fantastic blend of gravy, meat, crust, and vegetables, including peas, carrots, and onions. The chicken comes from Costco’s rotisserie birds, which we like. The gravy was savory without being overpoweringly salty, and we really liked the crust, which was nice and tender.

However, one look at the sticker showed a shocking amount of ingredients for something that really only needs a basic ingredients list. Another complaint I have is that the crust was not well crimped. When we were removing it from the plastic pie container, the latticed strips — which are laid on top of one another rather than being interwoven — almost fell off and onto the ground. Thus, make a note to be careful when transferring the pie from the container to the baking sheet. That said, if you’ve got to serve a hot meal to a big group and don’t want to make it yourself, this is a great way to go, easily feeding 15 people for only $24.41.

When ranking chicken pot pie from worst to best, a few factors really matter. Is the crust good? Is the gravy flavorful? Do the veggies taste real? Is the chicken tender? (No one likes gagging on hard white meat chicken, especially not Yours Truly, who has a swallowing disorder.) We therefore accounted for each of these in our tasting.

It is also worth noting that we tried all the chicken pot pies at the same time. We didn’t want to influence our ranking by eating them at different times, when we might be more or less hungry, or eat them with different side dishes that changed their flavor profiles. We also avoided eating a large helping of any of the pies until we’d tried a forkful of each, to avoid filling up. Overall, we tried to make it as fair as possible.

Finally, we did not factor price into this ranking. We didn’t find any of the pricing to be outrageous, so we leave it up to consumers to decide how much they want to pay. And, as always, the taste test team included myself, my dear husband, one small girl, and one small boy.