The Botanist Birmingham Chicken and Chorizo Pie Review

Laura and the pies!

It’s now just over a year since The Botanist opened their doors in Birmingham, immediately becoming one of the better pie producers in the heart of Birmingham with a range of pies available on their menu. So when I was invited recently to go back and rate one of their other pies – the chicken and chorizo pie, which I’d had my eye on in the past – I certainly wasn’t going to say no!

I’d been told the pies had been improved since my visits to rate the Steak and Lamb Hotpot pies last year, so I eagerly awaited my visit! On top of that I’d arranged to meet up with award winning Birmingham blogger Laura from Full to the Brum (yep, she loves food puns as much as we do!) as it was British Pie Week and because, well, pie not?! Fans of her blog will know Laura enjoys a good pie too, and has put us to shame by doing her review on what she thought of the pie (having had the same one as me) a few weeks ago! There were some very positive comments in her review, even if she did chicken out a bit by not giving a pie rating! (This in spite of me taking a full “Pierateer in Training” pack with me!!!) No such worries here though – this is what we thought of The Botanist’s Chicken and Chorizo pie:

Hope Laura @FulltotheBrum forgives me for being a few minutes late when she sees her #PierateerInTraining pack! pic.twitter.com/umDuhmHNgv

— Pierate (@pierateers) March 8, 2016

As previously mentioned I had already tried the Lamb Hotpot pie back when The Botanist had only recently opened, which sadly fell down on our criteria as it was a mash-topped “pie” with pastry sides and base. However I had a much more enjoyable and filling ex-pie-rience in the form of a fully encased Steak and Stout pie the last time I went, which scored 4.5/7. There was however some room for improvement still and I’m delighted to say that The Botanist has delivered on a number of our recommendations.



Botanist Chicken Chorizo Pie Review

The clearest improvement was that of the packed capacity and content, which was far better filled and more enjoyable in this Chicken and Chorizo pie. There could have been a little more chicken, but overall this scored a lot better in this new pie. In fact, the scores had improved in nearly every one of our 7 Cs of pie rating, even if it must be remembered this is a different flavour pie filling.

Botanist Chicken Chorizo Pie cross-section

The colour was improved too, a lot more golden on the top and sides even if a little too crisp in places, and while the filling was a slightly shocking bright orange, this was understandable due to the flavours involved! The oozy orange sauce complemented the big chunks of chicken and chorizo (in fact, it was unusual to get such big pieces of chorizo in a pie, as normally they are tiny or even undetectable in pies I’ve rated before!), even if this did mean the larger pieces of chorizo were a bit chewy! However this is expected of the meat, so I can’t really fault it for this!

The condition was pretty good, again well-presented and golden, crisp and well made. The flavours were good – chicken and chorizo is a classic combo! And for £10.95 this meal is quite reasonable for a city centre meal, even if there are a few slightly cheaper options out there. I’d happily recommend it and look forward to trying the other pies on their menu too!

The Botanist Birmingham Chicken and Chorizo Pie
Score: 5.5/7
[Colour 6, Capacity 6, Consistency 5, Condition 5.5, Chewiness 5, Cheapness 5, Content 6]

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Dee's Pies Chicken and Chorizo Pie Review

We run a tight ship here at Pierate, juggling writing the UK’s leading pie blog as a hobby alongside some quite hectic day jobs, so there are times when it takes a little longer than ideal for a pie to get from our pie backlog and onto the blog! But some pies are worth the wait to be reviewed, because they’re just so good we can’t not tell you about them! So here’s my view on what’s noteworthy of the last Dee’s Pie I rated - and yes, I saved the best til last!

Dee's Pies Chicken and Chorizo Pie Review

For those of you that don’t know, I rated four Dee’s Pies just a few weeks ago, having met up with small business owner Dee himself in London as part of the #LondonPie Tour. He handed me a bag of pies to rate and with four already rated, my last one was a Chicken and Chorizo pie. Like the other Dee’s pies it had the lovely shortcrust pastry and was absolutely packed with meaty content!

Pie purists will be pleased to know the pie passed the “hand-held” test, holding together very well despite being jam packed with lovely tender chicken pieces and a sprinkling of Chorizo. There is very little to fault with this pie filling, so overall an amazing effort! My only thought was perhaps the pie could have had a little more Chorizo just to add a little more to the flavour, but the combination of meats was near ideal, so this would be just a small im-pie-rovement! It didn’t really have a lot of a sauce to speak of, but the meat was so tender and juicy and the flavours of the meat so nice that I didn’t feel it lacked anything for it. The colour once again was decent and I was definitely craving a second one of these pies as soon as I’d finished the first one! That’s a very good sign in my book!!!

At £3.50 I’d hope for a tad bigger pie for the piefect cheapness score, but the capacity and quality of content are such strong scorers here that it gets Dee’s Pies yet another Pierate Highly Recommended pie! No wonder Chris Evans was so quick to get Dee’s Pies to cater for his Top Gear writing sessions recently, which were all over the papers and twitter! Great work Dee’s Pies!

Dee's Pies Chicken and Chorizo Pie
Score: 6.3/7
[Colour 5.5, Capacity 7, Consistency 6.5, Condition 6.2, Chewiness 6.5, Cheapness 5.5, Content 6.9, Total: 6.3/7]
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