9 Pork Rind Brands, Ranked Worst To Best

When I think of pork rinds, I think of a hot summer day at Silver Dollar City. Screams echoing from the Fire in the Hole ride, twangy banjo music in the air, and the sweet smell of funnel cake following me as I snack on a batch of hot, freshly fried pork rinds while walking to the next attraction. They were a favorite road trip snack of my grandmother's, so I grew up eating them a lot. In fact, my grandparents often had them around the house, so when I went to visit, I would usually sneak a few when they weren't looking.

There is nothing quite like the airy crunch and slightly salty taste of pork rinds. What are they, you may ask? Well, pork rinds are essentially pieces of pork skin that have been dehydrated and then deep-fried. It may not sound so appetizing, but what you get are fluffy, light, chip-like snacks that are very tasty. They're very popular in the South of the U.S., as well as Spain, South and Central America, the Philippines, and other places. You can even attempt crunchy homemade pork rinds yourself by getting skin-on pork belly and cutting the skin away to deep-fry.

However, for now, we're going to focus on pork rinds that you can find on the shelves of grocery stores and convenience stores. With the snack being popular in the South, you can imagine that there are a decent number of brands. I set out to rank some of the more popular ones. I did a taste test of two different flavors (where possible) from nine brands. I then ranked them from worst to best. Read on to find out my results.

When it comes to food products, the Great Value brand by Walmart is all over the place. It is a budget brand, but I don't hold that against it, as more often than not, it's fine. Sometimes, Great Value hits just right. Sometimes, it doesn't hit at all, and this was one of those unfortunate misses. I tried two flavors — original and barbecue. Both were disappointing.

The original has pork skins and salt as the ingredients, and they smelled good. They also had a very good crunch and airiness to them, plus they weren't super greasy. But the flavor was almost nonexistent. There was no hint of saltiness, and they pretty much tasted like cardboard. I was hoping for a bit of savoriness. There was the added pleasure of the pork rind sticking to the back of my throat as I tried to swallow. I would probably use these within a soup or salad, which would hopefully give them a bit more flavor.

The barbecue was also very light and crunchy and fared a bit better in the flavor department, likely because of the added sugar, paprika, and other flavoring. However, the flavor was also super light and didn't hit you right away. It took a minute (almost enough time for me to start writing down my scores) before I finally got a hint of smokiness in the back of my throat. I'm normally a fan of Great Value because the price point is lower, and with most of its products, you get something decent. Pork rinds, however, I'm going to take a big pass on.

With the Golden Flake brand, I tried the old-fashioned and the red pepper flavors. I was excited when I saw the ingredient list for the original, as it had pork, salt, brown sugar, onion, garlic, and natural smoke flavor. Many of the brands on the list had very bland original flavors (which you'll see as we get into more), so when I came to this one, I thought, "Finally, something with a bit of oomph." And then it let me down. They had a good crunch to them, but once again, the flavor just wasn't there. While I didn't expect originals to be bursting at the seams with it, I wanted something. A hint of salt, at least. Like Great Value, it was like chewing on crunchy air.

The Red Pepper Super Strips were a bit different. The ingredient list was a bit smaller, with just pork skins, salt, and red pepper. They did a little bit better in the flavor department. You could definitely smell it when you opened the bag. However, it didn't really hit all that hard with the flavor. Not to mention, they were very difficult to chew, and I worried about my teeth. The pork rinds were hard, and I was pretty sure at one point that my bridge (or any of my regular teeth) was going to crack or pop out.

Mac's is a pork rind brand that's been around for a very long time (since 1932) and claims to be the top brand in the U.S. It has a few flavors available, but for this ranking, I tried the original and barbecue flavors. It was a bit hard to choose, to be honest, as the other flavors looked like they could be just as good. And perhaps if I had gone with those, Mac's would have placed a bit higher.

The original flavored pork skins have pork skin, salt, and natural smoke flavor and are fried in rendered pork fat. I had pretty decent hopes for this, especially after the letdown of other original types. And then, like the others, they fell flat. They were stale rather than being nice and crunchy. There was no strong flavor. I couldn't taste the salt or natural smoke. But at least they didn't taste like cardboard — much like Great Value and Golden Flake.

The barbecue flavor was better, thankfully. These had salt, sugar, spices, tomato powder, paprika, garlic powder, and smoke flavor. The pork rinds look like they are well coated in seasoning. However, the taste isn't super strong, nor does it really taste like barbecue. It was almost like a spicy cheese. It lacks the sweetness and tanginess of barbecue sauce, but that's not to say that it's bad. I liked the flavor — it just wasn't really the flavor that was advertised.

This store brand of pork rinds fared a bit better than Great Value. Kroger had two flavors available that I got: original and barbecue. At this point in the taste test, I was prepared to get another round of not-so-flavorful original. They had the usual ingredients of pork rinds and salt, and it went about as expected. While they were light and fluffy and had a pleasing crunch to them, the flavor fell a bit flat. They weren't bad, but mostly boring. Perhaps this would be a good brand to add to something, such as in cornmeal batter to upgrade your cornbread. It would give a nice crunch without getting in the way of the flavor.

The barbecue was better. I opened the bag, and you could tell that you were about to eat something with a good flavor to it. These rinds had paprika, which showed up in the color, and also sugar and barbecue flavoring. It did take a minute for that flavoring to come into play. I had to chew a few times before I really got the tanginess and sweetness coming through. This one had a bit more spice to it than other barbecue flavors, which I liked. Overall, it was a pretty solid barbecue pork rind, though others definitely did it better.

The only reason Lowrey's is ranked this low is that it didn't have another flavor, and well, others stood out just a bit more. These were different from other pork rinds on the list — they're meant to be microwaved. Sold like popcorn bags, you have to pop the bag into the microwave for one to two minutes and watch it so that it doesn't burn. While they don't "pop" like popcorn, you get a satisfying crackling to let you know that it's working.

Perhaps it was the microwave, but they were pretty good. Eating them hot reminded me of those days getting pork rinds fresh at Silver Dollar City, though it is a bit of an art. I left them in for the full two minutes, and I had some that hadn't fully popped and some that were about to start burning. Overall, most of the pieces cooked just right and had an airy crunchiness that I loved. They weren't super greasy, which was another plus. There was also a nice aroma as the bag opened.

But the best part was the flavor. Out of all the original flavors, Lowrey's probably had the best. They had the right amount of saltiness to them that made them enjoyable. It was enough that you could actually tell they had a flavor. Granted, compared to others on the list, they didn't exactly stand out. I wish they had more flavors, since Lowrey's did well with its original, but I would likely try these again.

The Mission brand isn't the first on the list that also calls its pork rinds "chicharrones." Truthfully, pork rinds and chicharrones are slightly different, as the latter includes pieces of both fat and meat. However, they're still cooked in the same way. And in this case, it wasn't a bad thing and probably helped out in the flavor department.

The originals were basic, using pork skin and salt. They weren't very greasy and had a solid, airy crunch to them. They also had more flavor to them. The saltiness was more detectable, making them great for a snack or if you wanted to add them to breading for another dish. There's enough there to enjoy without pulling away from other flavors in a recipe; rather, it enhances them.

However, it was definitely the picante flavor that saved the day and put Mission higher up on the list. You could both smell and see the seasoning on them, which includes chili pepper, paprika, onion, and garlic. Right out of the bag, I knew they were going to have a good kick. And they did. Each pork rind was super coated, meaning you got a nice burn to it. They were light and crunchy and kind of tasted like if Doritos decided to make a line of pork rinds. I definitely got notes of chili pepper, onion, and garlic. As much as I loved snacking on them alone, I wouldn't mind trying this flavor to elevate fried chicken.

Baken-Ets is a brand of pork skins by Frito-Lay with several different flavors available. For this ranking, I went with its traditional flavor as well as the hot and spicy variety. Starting with the traditional flavor, the ingredient list is short and sweet — simply fried pork skins and salt. They had a slight smell of salt and pork when you opened the bag. The traditional flavor wasn't necessarily bad, but it didn't stand out tremendously. They were slightly greasy and had a good crunch, though they were light on the savory flavor. They needed a bit of salt, in my opinion. Or they could be good for turning your pork rinds into a sweet treat.

Like with Mission's, the hot and spicy flavor is what saves Baken-Ets. These have salt, various spices, onion powder, paprika, and garlic powder. You can definitely taste them all. They have a good heat level to them — not so much that it's overpowering, but enough that you get a good jolt. I liked the hint of garlic, and whatever unnamed spices it used really brought in an enjoyable spiciness. I wouldn't mind using these to add a bit of heat and crunch to an otherwise boring salad.

Southern Recipe was another brand that I could only get one flavor from (it had more, but I didn't have enough time to get them in). However, this brand didn't need a bunch of flavors because the variety using hot honey was enough to make it this high on the list. The fact that I couldn't try another — or even an original — flavor did not hurt it, though I suppose it would have been at the top of my list if the other flavors are as good as the hot honey kind.

From the moment I opened the bag, I could smell the honey and spices. The ingredient list includes sugar, salt, pepper, garlic, onion, honey, and other spices. Each was perfectly coated in seasoning with little grease on it. The texture was amazing — light, crispy, everything you want in a pork rind. It had such a satisfying crunch as I bit down.

The first thing you taste is that hint of sweetness, which is then followed by a rolling heap of spices. It was a perfect blend of sweet, spicy, and saltiness from the pork. I loved it so much that I went back for a few more. This was one of the few that got a perfect score. I would definitely buy this again, and not only that, I would purchase other flavors to try.

The issue with Rib Rack Pork Rinds was picking my favorite flavor because they were both so good. There was no doubt as soon as I tried both that this brand had to be at the top of the list. In fact, it was the only one that got perfect scores on both flavors. I tried the chili lime and barbecue kinds, and if I had to choose, I'd probably say the chili lime was better. But let's get into each.

The chili lime has pork skins, salt, chili pepper, paprika, and lime juice on the ingredient list. Upon opening the bag, you got a nice hit of citrus, though it wasn't overwhelming. They weren't super greasy, but there was enough seasoning on them that you could clearly see it. Once I took a bite, it was pork rind heaven. Rib Rack rinds are light and crispy, and there was an explosion of lime and salt across my tongue, followed by the chili. When looking at all flavors individually, this was by far my No. 1 favorite of them all.

The barbecue pork rinds had a lovely sweet hickory aroma when you opened the bag, which was echoed in the flavor. The rinds started with a nice sweetness, which was then followed by tanginess with a bit of hickory. Like the chili lime, the flavor bursts across your tongue with that first bite and spreads across your mouth. Hands down, nothing else quite came close to it, except for the hot honey variety by Southern Recipe. These are definitely pork skins I want to try again.

It was no small task to rank these nine brands. I started by picking out all the brands of pork rinds available in my area, which was a surprising amount. I then looked at how many flavors they had available. I wanted to try two flavors from each, if possible. Some of the brands only had one flavor, or if it had more, they weren't available at my local store. This was factored into the overall score. Thankfully, there were only two brands that this affected; however, one was so good, it still ranked pretty high on the list.

Then came the actual taste test. I set five categories with a scale of one to five points, with one being the worst and five being the best. These included smell, texture, greasiness, flavor, and overall score. Smell was how good or bad its scent was, and if there was none at all, it got an automatic three. With texture, I was looking for pork rinds that were light, airy, and crunchy. I wanted ones that weren't too hard to chew, but also not stale. The grease factor pretty much explains itself. While you can expect a bit of greasiness in pork rinds, you shouldn't have too much, and there also shouldn't be much residue left on your fingers.

The next was flavor. As mentioned, with many of the brands, I tried both the original and a different flavor. With originals, there should be a bit of saltiness because of the pork. With different seasonings, I paid attention to whether it actually tasted as advertised and if it was pleasing. Finally, I had the overall score, which was mostly based on how much I liked the rinds and whether I would want to try it again.