Dad's Pies - Butter Chicken product reviews

We have become fans of Dad's Pies in our house recently. We have now tried a number of them and have been very happy with the quality, flavour and texture. The Butter Chicken pie was no exception.

I took the pie out of the freezer after breakfast and when I went to cook it for an early lunch I found that it wasn't thawed enough. I used the defrost function on our microwave to defrost it a bit more. I wouldn't have tried this in my previous microwave as it would have cooked it and dried it out rather than thawing it. My new microwave is a bit more trustworthy when it comes to defrosting. I still kept a good eye on it as I didn't want to ruin the pie. From my experience so far with Dad's pies, the pastry is always great and never soggy. I didn't want to start having soggy pastry now! With great success in the defrosting department, I cooked the pie in the oven for 20 minutes as per the instructions. Even with the bit of defrosting, the pie was up to the same standard as the other pies in the range that I have tried so far.

My husband had a little wedge of the pie and he thought that there wasn't too much meat in it. This was the opposite to what I had experienced. It seems that the chicken wasn't equally dispersed through the pie as I found quite a bit of meat in my bit. I actually thought that the pie had some decent chunks of chicken. They were nice and tender too. I found that the sauce was nice and creamy and not filled with thickeners (or at least it didn't taste like that).

When the kids heard what the pie was called, they instantly weren't interested! Neither of our kids are into butter chicken. The funny thing is that Mr Six tried the sauce and didn't like it. Unfortunately Miss Three tried it straight after him and followed his lead and said she didn't like it. I think if I tried her by herself she may well have liked it. She is into food with a little spice and would most likely enjoy it if she gave it a chance. It isn't such a big problem if the kids don't like them anyway as that means more for my husband and me!

Just like all the other Dad's Pies we have tried, the pastry is a huge selling point. We found that it was a perfect texture and flavour. It held together nicely when I was eating it and when I cut it in half to share as well.

Although I enjoyed this pie, it is not probably one I would make a habit of buying. I do think it is great to have some different options available for people who don't like the standard mince and cheese or steak and cheese.

This is flavour pie was one of the staples of my diet for the 6+ years I worked in a Wild Bean Cafe, so I was curious to see how the flavour has changed since then, or whether there was any difference in flavour between the "gourmet" size and the "standard" size that we have here. There is no real big differences between the sizes. At the most, the standard pies have a slightly smaller filling to pastry ratio, but that is to be expected.

The amount of chicken is about average, with a few medium sized chunks spread throughout the pie. It added a nice texture when you got a piece in your mouthful, but was noticeably absent in the mouthfuls that didn't. The remaining butter chicken sauce and pastry wasn't all that amazing without the actual physical pieces of chicken included.

One of the main aspects that I did notice was a strong spice flavour. Not a "hot" spice flavour, but obviously one of the mentioned herbs and spices (if I had to guess, something that tastes similar to cardamom pods?) that had a rather overwhelming amount of flavour. Unfortunately, whatever this spice was, it masked the other flavours, and left the pie tasting...unique. Whether the recipe has actually changed, or whether I just got a less than optimal batch, this product failed to appeal to me. That spice just ruined the flavour for me, and I couldn't taste that butter chicken flavour that I love.

I have always enjoyed Indian food, so the idea of a butter chicken pie was an interesting slant on a perennial. The first view of the pie was one of an attractively presented pastry case sprinkled with green herbs - which in itself made it look appetising. When it came out of the oven and was cut into three, the smell was an authentic butter chicken aroma and made us feel hungry straight away!

I did enjoy the experience and would try this flavour again as it is pleasantly mild and would appeal to those who do not like their food too spicy. The filling was reasonably smooth with lots of meaty chunks, and the flavours of the tomato and coconut cream combined with various spices contributed to the true butter chicken flavour.

However, there was one flaw (for me) which I think could have been improved on. There was a slight after-taste of one raw spice - I think it was turmeric - as if it had not been fully processed before the pie was put together. It left a slightly sharp taste in my mouth and I know I have encountered a similar effect when I have failed to properly prepare the spices before adding them to a sauce. However, in fairness to the product, I was alone in noticing this. The two friends I was sharing the pie with did not notice it at all and both reported that it was delicious.

What else can I say? The pastry was crisp and tasty, the colour of the filling was exactly the shade of light brown that I would expect from a good butter chicken, and the sauce-meat ratio was perfect with just the right amount of liquid. The filling stayed together when the pie was cut into three so it was ideal to serve as finger food. I will be going back for some more of this!

Butter chicken is my partners all time favourite meal so much so that after eating this Butter Chicken pie for lunch he has requested that we have Butter Chicken again for dinner. Butter Chicken isn't something that I have ever eaten in pie form, my Butter Chicken is usually served with rice and naan bread so the concept of having Butter Chicken encased inside a crisp pastry shell was a bit strange to me, however with the large array of different and unique pie flavours from Dad's Pies that I had sampled so far I was pretty sure that the pie would go down just fine.

I heated the pie in the oven from thawed for 25 minutes in the bag and it came out perfectly with the crisp, golden pastry that I've now come to expect from that of Dad's Pies. I could smell the aromas of the Indian spices immediately as I ripped the pie from it's bag. This pie had a distinguishable sprinkling of herbs over the pastry lid which gave it a nice appeal. Before trying the pie myself and serving it up to my partner I decided to remove the lid to check out what the filling was like, I was impressed to see 5 or 6 good sized chunks of chicken in amongst the sauce which seemed to be quite a nice consistency, the one thing I did note however was the colour of the sauce which to me wasn't quite the colour which i'm used to when eating a Butter Chicken dish.

The taste test was next and i'd say the taste did get pulled off quite nicely, it had a nice amount of spices but certainly wasn't to spicy like Butter Chicken can sometimes be. If it came down to it this wouldn't be my pick out of the Dad's Pies range, however in comparison to the other chicken pies I have tasted in the range this would be my top pick.

I eat butter chicken and have bought a different brand of butter chicken pie before and I was suffering from a really hot mouth by the end of it so I was wanting to try this pie from Dad's pies but was a bit hesitant to let the kids try this. I bite into this and had a look at the filling which was now spilling over onto my fingers. I was dissapointed to find yet again the chicken pieces were noticeably missing , it would have been nicer to have proper pieces of chicken, I also noticed that the fiery heat I was expecting never happened even after eating the whole pie , so in respect of taste I would of preferred a bit more bite.

I waited a few hours to see what sort of after effects I might suffer but there were none, no funny feeling in my tummy and no strange after taste. The pastry was good, nice and soft with the herbs on the lid which made it at least look good.

I would not be happy to buy this pie for myself as the heat was lacking (some would like it but butter chicken is supposed to have a bite) but I know my kids would like this pie as it is incredibly mild, the chicken pieces were almost missing and for that price I would expect a lot more from a pie.

One thing I love about Dad's pies is that they are very consistent with their pastry. It holds it's shape well, nice golden colour and tastes great. This butter chicken pie was nicely presented with a dash of herbs across the top.

I had tasted a butter chicken pie from a wild bean cafe previously as it sounded such an interesting pie, it turned out that I was rather disappointed in it's taste. I thought that this may be because the pie had been overheated at the cafe so thought it best to try again. I carefully heated to the directions on the packet in the oven, making sure only to heat it through enough - not too much.

I decided to pull this pie apart to see what was inside for the purpose of this review. I was surprised to see that there was only a few small chunks of chicken inside. The rest was all a gravy consistency. This disappointed me as I would of hoped for a few more chunks of chicken throughout this pie. The packet does state 34% chicken. Where was it?

I found the flavour to be very interesting. It was butter chicken and nice but found it just a little bit too sweet and creamy to be a in a pastry case. Maybe if it possibly had a bit of rice mixed through the filling or a bit more chicken it would not of felt so creamy.

Overall this is a pie with a difference and with a bit more tweaking I think could be a pie of my choice.

I do love a good butter chicken dish, though I do find it a little hard to find any decent butter chicken dishes at the moment but I was interested enough to give this pie a go and see how it stacked up in the world of butter chicken. It's a good thing that I noticed that I needed to have this defrosted first, so instead of this being for my dinner I had it as a late night snack. This says that you can cook in the bag but I forgot this and already had it out and in the oven before realizing.

The pie presents nicely though whilst it was cooking I didn't notice any kind of aroma coming from the kitchen but it held up its shape well (I've had pies collapse on me while heating up) and still looked lovely. Cutting into it I did notice that the chicken was a finely chopped up and no huge chunks, which I was happy to see. This did have a slightly stronger pepper taste to it than I would have liked (though pepper isn't listed on the back, so may just have been a different spice) but the hint of heat wasn't too strong and I devoured the whole pie on my own.

I loved this pie and wish I had a couple more in the freezer.

Butter chicken has been one of my favourite examples of Asian cuisine, I remember early childhood memories of my Dad and I ordering this stuff from either a restaurant or a mobile vendor, but it was delicious, and we had it with rice. Since then, my love for this dish hasn't dwindled, but I was happy to jump at the opportunity to try something that took this dish to another level, and from a pie brand I have fallen in love with!

The sauce was the thing I noticed the most, it was creamy, but not as spicy as I expected. it did still have spice in it, I wouldn't call it "true" butter chicken if it was completely spice-less, but as it was, the amount of spice I found in this pie was still adequate, and appealed to my tastes. I prefer dishes that melt in your mouth, rather than melting the mouth itself!

The chicken meat was also impressive, it was tender, soft, and delicious, qualities that I always hope for in meat dishes, and just remembering it is already making my mouth water, no joke! The dough had bonded well, and resulted in a pie crust that was firm, but still had a softness to it that didn't make it difficult to try and bit through. It also added a bit of sweetness, which worked well if you ask me.

Reading through the ingredients list, I was shocked to discover that there was coconut in the mix! I couldn't detect the flavour of it, but I'm guessing that it's the source of the sauce's creaminess, and it seemed to work well. I liked how there were herbs added on top, it was a nice aesthetic touch which provided a bit of character and uniqueness for the pie.

Overall, I think that this is another awesome pie from this brand, it has high-quality ingredients, is easy to cook, and is very affordable considering these aspects. I am very impressed with this product and would highly recommend it to anyone who loved the dish that this pie was based off, as the chef's behind Dad's Pies have done an excellent job of converting this favoured Asian dish into something that can be eaten on the go, if necessary. Now I just hope I can find a place that sells these!

After many unpleasant experiences with watery sauce, bland flavour, pureed chicken mince that tasted like it had been boiled rather than cooked in the curry sauce... well, 'butter chicken pie' has grown to become something similar in my mind as many other insulting and derogatory phrases. I have discovered a few, rare exceptions to the general rule of "just don't bother", and I am very happy to add this to that short list.

As with all the other Dad's Pies variants I have tried so far, the pastry has held up very well in the microwave. This was the first of the pies that I tried cooking from thawed, in the bag, without tearing a vent hole. I see now that cooking from thawed gives a better result, but not as extreme a difference as I would have expected. Not sure if that's because when I cook the pies from frozen, I cook them for around 4 minutes in total, mostly at 50% power or less.

However, this time I cooked it for 2 minutes at 50%, then finished it off with 30 seconds at 70% - this was ideal for me - hot enough to be food-safe, but not so hot that my tongue got burned and lost the sense of taste. And what a delightful taste it is too... a nice, fairly thick sauce, plenty of authentic flavour with just a hint of spicy heat, chunks of chicken (but never enough for me, being a right carnivore), and that rich, deep colour that made it look so appealing for me.

I did find that it was too mild for my personal tastes - I do like biting into food that bites back - and it was strangely sweeter than I thought it should be, possibly because it seemed to be quite rich in tomato flavour too. Still, as tomato is my all-time favourite fruit-used-as-a-vege, that wasn't a big deal for me and gave the pie an almost 'Summer' flavour. The texture of the filling was quite appealing and pleasant in my mouth, and while the chucken chunks were fewer than I would have liked, I can appreciate that to keep this pie affordable, you can't add $5 of chicken to a $4 pie.

Overall, a very tasty pie that I would be happy to buy at this price again, but I plan to be stocking up on it if I see it come on special at any time.

I've had butter chicken pies before, and love them, so when I saw one of offer from Dad's pies I was keen to try it. Along with 2 others that seemed family friendly, I heated it up in the oven for our dinner. It says you can leave the pie in the bag, but it was only a suggestion so I ended up taking it out and popping it on the oven tray. Luckily I had noticed earlier that they should be defrosted first (not what I'm used to with pies) and the suggested cooking time worked well.

Unfortunately Miss 7, although I pointed out she likes butter chicken, wasn't so keen on having this particular pie so she focussed on a couple of the others. Hubby wasn't sure of the concept of butter chicken in his pie and wouldn't touch it at first but later came back hungry and I noticed he happily gobbled down the third of the pie I'd saved and seemed to quite enjoy it cold!

I enjoyed the pie - I have to say it wasn't my favourite (now I've tried a few flavours) but I enjoyed the small amount of heat in the after taste and the taste was OK but perhaps not like butter chicken I'm used to. There were a few chunks of chicken in there and with the sauce too, I can say it was a generous amount of filling. The pastry was generous and crispy but perhaps slightly on the dry side - nothing a bit of sauce couldn't mop up!

Overall it wasn't perhaps exactly what I was expecting, and I'd definitely go for the Thai chicken flavour over this one, but it was nice enough. Price for a quality pie is OK though as I don't mind paying more for decent pies.