Costco Deli Chicken Pot Pie Review
There won’t be a next time.
I’m sorry if you’re one of the people who loves the Costco Deli Chicken Pot Pie. We aren’t going to see eye-to-eye on this. I know this must be a popular product, because my local Costco has had a huge, prominent, continuous display of chicken pot pies in Deli for the past couple months. Of course, the display case is ALWAYS full, so maybe they aren’t selling that many? Who knows.
I previously reviewed Publix’ Deli Chicken Pot Pie, which exceeded my expectations, so I was cautiously hopeful that Costco’s version might delight my taste-buds. Morgan Freeman voiceover: But it did not delight her taste-buds.
The appearance in the deli case was promising — the pies had a homemade look, with the lattice crust strips and fresh, unbaked appearance. Unfortunately, the Costco Deli staff did not bother to actually “lattice” the strips — the raw pie crust pieces are just laid on top of each other, instead of “woven” together. The strips are also NOT crimped in any way to the edges of the pie crust, so they slide around and fall apart during transit. It would only take 2 minutes to do the extra weaving/crimping steps before selling, so this seems odd. I ended up rearranging the crust pieces carefully at home and crimping the edges myself before baking.
Despite following the baking instructions exactly, I ended up with a dry, nearly burnt pie crust and very dry chicken inside. My oven tends to “underbake” rather than overbake — I usually have to bake things longer or at a slightly higher temperature to get the same results as everyone else, so this seems strange. If I were to bake this again, I would try covering the pie with aluminum foil for the first hour and then removed the foil for the last 30 minutes. It might also help to cook at 350 instead of 375. Strangely, the bottom crust wasn’t overbaked. It was actually too soft, although very brown.
I guess the biggest turn-off is the slimy gravy. The gravy is thick, but transparent, and appears to be thickened with “modified corn starch,” rather than flour. Instead of a creamy texture, it’s more like sticky snot. I could probably look past this unpleasantry, if there wasn’t so MUCH of this gravy! My pie was full of it. After eating through the top layer, there was an ocean of the slimy, jiggly gravy on the bottom crust layer. I picked the vegetables and chicken pieces out of it and ate them. But I couldn’t eat that gravy.
Happily, there is an abundance of tender vegetables in this pie. The carrots are whole baby carrots, which cooked evenly and thoroughly and maintain their bright orange color. The peas are soft without being mushy. There aren’t any other veggies here — no celery or potatoes.
The quality of the chicken meat is much better than Publix’s Chicken Pot Pie — it’s Costco’s own rotisserie chicken breast meat. Even though mine dried out too much from baking, it was still pretty good. Unfortunately, the meat distribution is extremely inconsistent. In some slices, there were huge, unwieldly chunks. But essentially “none” in others. My second slice of pie had only one tiny chicken fragment the size of my thumb-tip. It doesn’t appear that anyone bothered to chop up the chicken before dumping it into the pie. It might have made the gravy less disgusting if it had been distributed in and around the chicken instead of just a thick, sticky trench of it on the bottom of the pie. Probably would have kept the chicken from drying out, too.
I was underwhelmed by the flavors, overall. I can’t tell if it is the gravy or some other factor, but there was a subtle, off-putting aroma from this pie that I can’t quite put my finger on. There was plenty of “salty” taste, but there wasn’t enough savory, rich taste. Some extra celery flavor or butter would have helped a lot, IMHO. The ingredients list onions AND celery, but I did not detect either flavor, and there were no onion or celery pieces. This is a relatively bland pie.
I especially did not like the taste of the crust. I tried to make excuses for it — such as shifting the blame to the over-baked outcome — but the crust just doesn’t have a good taste. It’s not just because it’s dry and has a bad texture — it’s doesn’t have a good flavor. I feel strange saying this, because I’ve been a cheerleader for Costco pie crusts from the Bakery, every time. I don’t know why the Deli is such a different story. This crust needs different “fats” to taste right, methinks. I ended up throwing away almost all my crust.
I am someone who loves leftovers. I love leftovers almost more than I love freshly cooked food. I eat leftovers all day, every day. But, I did not want leftovers of this pie. I tried. Multiple times. My body just did not want to eat this. Since I sunk $22+ into this purchase, that is a huge disappointment. My frugal self was horrified. After a week, I threw my enormous, uneaten pie in the garbage. Sadness.
Heating Instructions for Kirkland Chicken Pot Pie
This massive pie is too heavy and liquid for the aluminum pie pan it is packaged in — it buckles and bends when lifting, and the pie crust breaks and falls off in chunks when this happens. I carefully slid mine onto a large cookie sheet that measures ~16×16 inches; the pie won’t fit on a standard half-sheet pan. Fortunately, no oozing of the gravy during baking.
I followed the cooking instructions from the product label exactly — 375 degrees for 1.5 hours, on the center rack of the oven. As mentioned above, this resulted in a nearly burnt crust and dry chicken. Next time, I might try dialing back the temperature to 350 degrees and/or covering the top of the pie with aluminum foil for the first hour or so.
Just kidding. There won’t be a next time.
Ingredients in Costco’s Deli Chicken Pot Pie
Here are the ingredients:
- Filling (Water, Chicken with natural juices, Carrots, Green peas, Onions, Modified corn starch, Chicken stock concentrate [Chicken broth, Yeast extract, Salt, Sugar, Chicken fat, Onion powder, Natural flavors, Xanthan gum], Vegetable purees [Carrot, Celery, Onion, Canola oil], Nonfat dry milk, Hydrolyzed soy protein, Hydrolyzed corn protein, Salt, Sugar, Corn starch, Yeast extract, Natural flavors, Onion powder, Rice flour, Maltodextrin, Turmeric [Color], Soybean oil, Wheat flour, Celery, Canola oil, Carrot powder, Extractives of carrots, Xanthan gum, Spice extractives, Parsley, Thyme, Citric acid, Nisin [Preservative], Black pepper
- Crust (Enriched flour [Wheat flour, Vitamins B1, B2, B3, Iron, Folic Acid], Vegetable oil (Canola, Palm, Palm kernel], Water, Sugar, Dextrose, Salt, Citric acid)
- Rotisserie chicken (Chicken breast meat, Water, Seasoning [Salt, Sodium Phosphate, Modified food starch, Potato dextrin, Carrageenan, Sugar, Dextrose, Spice extractives)
Price and Servings for Costco Chicken Pot Pie
My Costco chicken pot pie cost ~$22. These are sold by the pound at $3.99 per pound, so each pie is a slightly different price.
I weighed mine after baking, and it was 5.5 pounds exactly, which is 88 ounces. If you divide that into 12 servings, it is a generous 7.3 ounce serving for each slice.
The pie comes in a plastic box with a tight-fitting lid. After baking, I put my pie back in the box to refrigerate for leftovers. I’m a big fan of Costco’s plastic pie boxes. Unfortunately, I can’t eat the pie boxes.
More Reviews of Costco Dinners You Might Like (or Hate)
Check out these other reviews of Costco Deli stuff I’ve recently written:
- Costco Gyro Meal Kit Review
- Costco Chicken Street Tacos Meal Kit Review
- Costco Enchilada Bake with Rotisserie Chicken Review
Author’s note: I wasn’t paid to write this review (duh!), and I have no affiliation with Costco.
