You're Better Off Leaving This Canned Chicken Brand Out Of Your Cart

If you've never had canned chicken before, let's get one thing out of the way: Don't knock it until you try it. Canned chicken is surrounded by tragic myths and rumors you should really stop believing. It's a great source of easy protein when you're running low on cash, time, or energy, and you can dress it up in tons of ways. You just have to get a good brand to truly unlock the potential of canned chicken. Fortunately for you, we went ahead and ranked 13 canned chicken brands from worst to best, giving you a great starting place the next time you head to the grocery store. And from us? Swanson is definitely the worst canned chicken brand we tried.

Now, Swanson as a brand does a lot of things right. Its broths are top-notch, and it has a strong focus on poultry products in general that makes you think it'd have an edge with canned chicken, too. Tragically, that just isn't the case. In fact, our taster didn't even try this chicken because there was tons of fatty skin and discoloration in the can. Out of an abundance of caution, they refrained from tasting it just in case the discoloration happened to be blood or blood clots. This canned chicken is also packed with bio-engineered ingredients and preservatives, so it gets a hard pass from us.

Across the internet, comments echo our concerns about this sad, sad can of chicken. The Walmart one-star review section is full of disappointed commenters pointing out the flaws with the texture, with one calling it mushy. Another reviewer complained about how tasteless the meat is, and how badly it needs salt. Amazon one-star reviews read much the same, calling out the fact that the chicken itself is not generously portioned and filled with a much higher amount of water than meat.

Unfortunately, we agree with the initial taster: You only have to look at the picture of this can to see everything wrong with it. Instead of opting for Swanson, choose some of our top picks instead, like Bumble Bee, Wild Planet, or Kroger's, which all offer more (and higher quality) meat. In short? Don't give up on canned chicken as an ingredient in your favorite salads, pot pies, soups, or more. Just skip over Swanson, since this canned chicken brand will only bring fatty, small pieces of chicken to your kitchen table.