We do not get the Swanson brand here at all anymore. I grew up on it, and it was so successful they have sold out to many giant corporations. They were actually very good back in the 50's and 60's. They had real chicken then.
In my memory Swanson chicken pot pies has tasty gravy, good chicken chunks, peas, carrots and potatoes, all encased in a delicious, flaky crust.
I have tried Boston Market, Stouffers, Marie Calendars, and you know what? Banquet brand.
The first three are bigger, more expensive, but all lack a key element from the Swansons of my childhood. Some lack peas, some lack carrots, some lack potatoes. Banquet has all three in a very tasty gravy in a lard crust. The "chicken" in the Banquet version is "mechanically separated" pretty disgusting, and you really don't want to look at as you are eating. The rest of the Banquet line is garbage.
Banquet chicken pot pies are garbage too. The "chicken" is an abomination. I do not look at, but I eat it to get the 12 grams of protein from the 350 calorie serving. The potatoes are overcooked mush, the carrots are undercooked or just rubbery from freezing, but the peas are spot on, as is the gravy and the lard crust.
This is what Serious Eats has to say about frozen chicken pot pies.
In order to prepare a frozen chicken pot pie to its admittedly limited best state, make sure you take a sharp knife and cut deeply through the top crust in several areas. I like to make a decorative pattern, but one may think that is gilding a, well ... you know. This step is important so the boiling gravy doesn't blow the top crust off and spill onto the baking pan. I like to put the pie in while preheating the oven. Frozen pot pies are one of the few things that benefit from doing that. You want the bottom crust cooked, right? I also take a couple of narrow foil strips and mold them around the rim of the crust. Otherwise it burns to just an inedible ring that you have to discard.
It's all about the flaky lard crust, the tasty gravy and the peas to me.
I had one tonight, my guilty pleasure.
