Trader Joe's Chicken Balti Pies

This is an unexpected Day 6 in a row of reviews of brand-new Trader Joe's products. 

I was in the store yesterday (Saturday) when I saw a big sign on the freezer case announcing this new product. I bought it and had for lunch one of the two pies it contains. The item is so new that a Google search finds literally zero hits about it--nothing on TJ's own web site, no images, etc. I'm sure that will change quickly, however.

I had next to no idea what to expect. I had never heard of "balti" before. According to Wikipedia,

Balti is a type of curry served in a thin, pressed-steel wok called a "balti bowl." It is served in restaurants throughout the United Kingdom, and the consensus appears to be that the term refers to the pot in which the curry is cooked, rather than to any specific ingredient or cooking technique. 

There are several theories regarding the origin of Balti and balti-style dishes. Some believe it was invented in Birmingham, England, while others believe it originated in northern Pakistan in the region called Baltistan, whence it spread to Britain. 

Some of the seasonings are expected (curry powder, mustard, paprika); others surprising, at least to me (coriander, brown sugar, nigella seeds).

The overall result is kind of a weird mashup between British and Indian. Depending on exactly what my fork picked up, sometimes it tasted like a slightly spicy chicken pot pie, and sometimes like a curry dish in a crust.

It's that neither-fish-nor-fowl characteristic that dampened my enthusiasm for it in the end. It did not feel like a successful blend of two traditions, but more like the creators couldn't make up their minds what they wanted it to be. Maybe the chefs really wanted to make it more distinctly Indian, but the Trader Joe's Blandification Committee made them tone it down. If so, it's a shame. I think it would work better if they went full-bore on the spices. That is, have the form be British, but the taste clearly Indian. I think that would be interesting and delicious meld of cuisines. Going halfway isn't working.

Cook time per the instructions was OK, but not ideal. I used the maximum of the 45-50 minutes recommended, and for the second one I'll extend that another five minutes, because it was not quite hot all the way through. This is a recurring problem with TJ's frozen goods.

Will I buy it again? 

No. It's a good idea that falls short of success by not being carried through to its logical conclusion.


Addendum 

I liked the second one better than the first. I expect part of this was the extra cook time, so it was genuinely hot throughout. Some of it may also have been that I knew what to expect, so there wasn't the clash between my expectations (which initially had been of a hotter curry dish) and reality. Maybe I'll rethink whether I would buy it again.