Review: Marie Callender's - Beef & Bean Chili Cornbread Pie Frozen Meal

Marie Callender's Beef & Bean Chili Cornbread Pie frozen meal features "beef chili made with black beans, green bell peppers, tomatoes, and onions with a cornbread topping.

I bought an 11.7-oz box for $2.49 on sale (it's normally $4.29).

I suppose you could consider this the Texan version of shepherd's pie with chili topped with cornbread instead of ground meat topped with mashed potatoes.

The chili portion was fairly chunk with a fair amount of variety in texture but was quite mild in taste. It was tomato-y, lightly seasoned, and slightly sweet. As far as chili goes, it was passable.

The cornbread was fairly ho-hum as well. It was more savory than sweet with a decent corn flavor. Unfortunately, it didn't go well with the chili and I ended up trying to eat them separately, which was difficult as it seemed they went with cornbread batter rather than baking the cornbread prior to topping the chili. The batter mixed with the chili quite a bit as it cooked in the microwave, which left me with a middle layer of chili-cornbread slurry. I tried giving the cornbread some time in the toaster oven to give it some color but it didn't do much.

Taken altogether, Marie Callender's Beef & Bean Chili Cornbread Pie frozen meal was a miss for me. The chili and cornbread were just okay on their own and somehow worse together. A more robust chili would have definitely helped it along as would have some separation between the chili and the cornbread.

Nutritional Info - Marie Callender's Beef & Bean Chili Cornbread Pie frozen meal (332g)
Calories - 520 (from Fat - 250)
Fat - 28g (Saturated Fat - 12g)
Sodium - 1030mg
Carbs - 51g (Sugar - 14g)
Protein - 17g