Lidl Pie, Chips & Mushy Peas

It’s British Pie Week, so compulsory to have a pie!  I’d bought an individual Castle Grove Creamy Chicken pie from Lidl especially for the event and planned to cook it in my mini oven, which I mostly bought in order to heat up pies!

The packet instructions for the pie said it takes 25 minutes at 200°C and the oven chips I used said 10-15 minutes at 200°C. 

Using the mini oven to cook this pie and chips I used the following mini-oven settings:

• I put the shelf on the bottom slot
• I turned the element selection knob to have just the bottom element on.  The top element is for grilling and I’d no need to brown/grill the pie and chips, just to heat them up with the mini oven acting as an oven.
• I set the temperature dial to 200°C (equivalent to 390°F)
• I set the timer for 10 minutes as I’d be putting the chips in after 10 minutes and so the oven would ping when that needed doing.

I let the pie cook on its own for 10 minutes, then I added the chips and reset the timer to a further 15 minutes.  I did open the mini oven half way through this part and turned the chips a little bit.

I’ll admit, again, to being too keen to get it all out of the oven and to eat it.  It could probably have done with another 2-3 minutes to be honest, but the pie was hot, the chips were cooked.  I microwaved the Harry Ramsdens mushy peas for a minute, stirred, then microwaved again.  I had thought about putting them into the mini oven to cook, as that would’ve worked.

As for the pie, I think I prefer Pukka Pies.  The Pukka Pie chicken & mushroom pie has a slightly thinner sauce and, actually, less meat than the Castle Grove pie.  The Pukka Pie pastry’s also of a more “suety” type of texture.  The pie gets the thumbs up and I’d buy one again, but given a choice I’d choose the Pukka Pie, to be honest.

The Harry Ramsden’s mushy peas weren’t as nice as the old version, which they called “Chip Shop Style Mushy Peas” though. Very disappointed with those.

If I’d bought a pie, chips and mushy peas at the chip shop this’d have cost me about £4.50.  Cooking it at home has cost me closer to £1.30.  That’s a saving of £3.20 just in one meal for one person, this mini oven’s going to pay for itself pretty soon!