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| McDonald's Chicken Ham Pie - Thailand 2015 |
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| One of the few times the real item looked better than the photos! |
Consumed on 18 December 2015
Location - McDonald's Paragon Mall, Bangkok, Thailand
Price - 29THB = $0.79USD
Calories - Unknown
In early December, McDonald's Thailand quietly rolled out the Chicken Ham Pie. I had a trip back to Singapore in early December, so I missed out on it's initial launch, and when I finally looked to give it a try in mid-December, the first 2 branches I visited had either stopped selling it, or it was already sold out. I finally found on in one of the busier mall branches, and by the end of December, I no longer saw the posters for it at any branch, so this was certainly one of the shorter lived promotions in Thailand. Just for a reference point, the Hokkaido Salmon Burger which launched at the beginning of November, is still available at the time of writing this review (mid-January).
I'm a self proclaimed "Fried Pie" hater, and I know I say that on every deep fried pie review I do, but this pie may have actually changed my stance on this. Before I speak about the filling, I will admit that this pie would have never worked with the baked pie shell that you find in Canada and the US. This was only as good as it was because it was fried! There's also a pretty surprising trend appearing with the savoury pies I've had from Thailand over the last year, they are consistently very good, even when the flavour doesn't sound that great (or I have dengue).
As always, the photos don't really do it justice. The actual filling of this pie looked better than the promotional photos and despite my rather poor photos of the inside, it actually looked pretty good. The chicken, onions and carrot all were cut in giant chunks, much larger than any McDonald's pie filling I've had before. The "italian" tomato sauce was seasoned well, you could see the flakes of oregano throughout the sauce. There also was a slight hint of basil, so I wouldn't have been at all surprised it was in there as well. It reminded me of a respectable pasta sauce, which in Asia can often be a miss more than it is a hit (they are far too sweet) The only issue I had with this pie was with the amount of chicken ham inside. The filling had both heaps of veg and tomato sauce, but it was a little bit light on the chicken, probably to cut costs, but with only a few more pieces, this would have been a perfect pie. I also felt the chicken could have used a bit more seasoning. I buy a brand of chicken ham here in Thailand that has chilli mixed in and it's a wonderful combination of salty and spicy. This chicken on it's own was a bit on the bland side, but the great sauce did it's best to hide it.
I haven't been able to find any other reviews of this pie online, and I'd be interested to find out others opinions, as my view might be a little skewed on this one, as after my first bite, I was instantly brought back to my childhood as the pie tasted EXACTLY the same as a Pizza Pocket. Which were a Saturday afternoon lunch treat I used to enjoy. If you've ever had those, you can imagine exactly what this pie tasted like.
Rating - 4/5