LogFAQs > #933084585

adjl posted...

Most of the typical ingredients for chicken pot pies are actually very cheap, and if they're being mass produced, the labour/energy costs per pie are pretty negligible. The majority of the cost would come from the chicken (and to a lesser extent, butter, which is generally going to be replaced with shortening in something this cheap), so I'd guess they use some kind of byproduct meat, like whatever they could strain out of a pot of chicken stock (which would be used for other purposes or possibly sold on its own) after boiling a few carcasses.

Obviously, it's not going to be a very good pie at that price, but you can actually get them surprisingly cheap without having to sacrifice all ingredients that would qualify as food. Given that this is a sale, it's also likely that the store is selling them at cost or at a small loss to use them as a loss leader.

That's not wrong, but you can get the same peace of mind by meal prepping for the week before you have that long day, usually with better food. Labour-wise, there's not much difference between pulling a dirt cheap pot pie out of the freezer and pulling a tupperware full of sesame ginger pork and garlic green beans out of the fridge, but the latter's going to taste better and generally be healthier. Just a matter of planning.

I hear what you're saying, and I've always been an advocate of owning a crock pot since there's hundreds if not thousands of great recipes to be made on the cheap for things that take all of 20 minutes to prep before you go to work and it cooks all day, you come home to a good warm meal plus leftovers...but I'm also not going to judge someone for stocking up on frozen foods when the price is right either, and I think it's foolish worrying about being judged for it.

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