Are Costco Chicken Pot Pies Really Worth The Hype?

Author’s note: I wasn’t paid to write this review, and I have no affiliation with Costco.

Ingredients in Costco Deli Chicken Pot Pie

Here is my best attempt at typing out the ingredients:

• 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, Spice extractives, Parsley, Thyme, Citric acid, Nisin [Preservative], Black pepper
• Rich flour (wheat flour, vitamins B1, B2, B3, iron, folic acid), vegetable oil (palm, canola, and palm kernel), water, sugar, dextrose, salt, and citric acid make up the crust.
• Chicken breast meat on a rotisserie (water, seasoning [salt, sodium phosphate, modified food starch, potato dextrin, carrageenan, sugar, dextrose, and spice extractives])

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.

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 “underbakes” rather than “overbakes.” I need to bake things longer or a little higher to get the same results as everyone else, so this doesn’t make sense. 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.

(Hey, do you love carrots? Here is my review of Costco’s Carrot Bar Cake, which includes pineapple, walnuts, raisins, and whole wheat. ).

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. There are onions and celery in the recipe, but I didn’t taste either one, 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.

The aluminum pie pan that this huge pie comes in isn’t strong enough to hold it; when you lift it, it buckles and bends, and the pie crust breaks off in chunks. 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.

Costco Kirkland Signature Chicken Pot Pie Review

FAQ

Is Sam’s Club chicken pot pie better than Costco?

The crust on Costco’s pie was better than Sam’s Club’s, but the filling is what makes the pie taste good, so I have to give this one to Costco. Although it doesn’t have a whole lot to do with flavor, I also found that Costco wins top marks for packaging and presentation of the pot pie.

Is Costco chicken pot pie good?

While the chicken pot pie includes quality ingredients like Costcoâs rotisserie chicken, it has been described as overly rich and sometimes dry. This inconsistency in texture and flavor makes it a less reliable choice. The main issues with the gyro meal kit are the dry and underseasoned meat, and a lackluster tzatziki sauce.

What is Costco chicken pot pie filling?

There are 1.5 pounds of shredded chicken from Costco’s famous rotisserie chicken, peas, carrots, and a creamy sauce in the chicken pot pie filling. It’s a classic chicken pot pie filling that is sure to satisfy your comfort food cravings.

How much does a Costco pot pie weigh?

Costco’s first pot pie, also known as the Kirkland chicken pot pie, can be found in the section of ready-to-eat foods. This is a fresh, unbaked pot pie that weighs a whopping 5 lbs. (2. 27 kg) or more. It contains big pieces of chicken, peas, carrots, and a creamy chicken pot pie gravy.