9 Store-Bought Canned Chili Brands Ranked Worst To Best

Chefs who work long hours are sometimes characterized as having remarkably poor diets. Taco Bell, frozen foods, and microwave dinners are often all you have energy for when you spend all day (and night) on your feet cooking. In my experience working in kitchens, this is pretty true. I may get to snack on Wagyu steak scraps on the job, but when I get home, I'm usually looking for leftovers or something easy to fix that is actually delicious. Canned chili is one of my favorite pantry items to have on hand for a quick dinner. It is loaded with protein, is easy to heat up, and tastes good. You can easily dress it up with some shredded cheese, green onions, or sour cream (I also love to add chili crisp to mine) and make it feel homemade with minimal effort.

When it comes to choosing a chili brand from the grocery store, there's some debate as to which is the best. I've met loyal chili enthusiasts who will opt for the most expensive can in the pursuit of quality. But do the cheaper brands also stack up? I tried nine different brands of canned chili and ranked them in order from worst to best, judging based on flavor, consistency, quality, and price, so that next time you're looking for a quick dinner, you can choose the best one.

To the meat-lovers out there, it probably won't come as a surprise that a plant-based chili was my least favorite (although you may be surprised to learn that one of the higher-ranked brands is also plant-based). The Gardein brand, though — which I purchased at Whole Foods — was simply gross. I have nothing against vegetarian food — using less meat has many benefits for you and for the planet. I do, however, have a problem with vegan and vegetarian food that tries its very hardest to be something it's not. Why do we need pretend meat when we could just use beans?

This one is loaded with soy protein — the can boasts an impressive 32 grams of protein — but boy, oh boy, can you tell. As the chili comes out of the can, the consistency and color are alarming, to say the least. Pasty and orange-brown, this chili smells and tastes like dog food. There are some soy-based "meat alternatives" that do taste good, like seitan and tofu, but the concentrated soy protein in this can just tastes bad. If you're vegetarian, read on to discover the brand I actually really enjoyed, or make your own three-bean vegetarian chili at home.

Coming out of the can, the Wolf brand chili with beans looked oddly similar to the Gardein plant-based chili despite the fact that this one has both pork and "partially defatted" beef among the contents. They do both share one common ingredient: rolled oats, which is sometimes used as a thickening agent. I like a thick chili, but the texture of this one, like Gardein, is a bit pasty.

The flavor, on the other hand, has a nice heat on the back end that slowly grows as you continue eating. It's not enough to mask an odd undertone, though. I'm not sure if it's from the oats or the meat used, but there's something a bit funky underneath the spice in this bowl that isn't super delicious. I love some good kick in a chili — it's called chili, after all. But unfortunately, the spice wasn't enough to make me overlook the odd texture and unenjoyable flavors.

I tried the Armour brand chili with no beans, as that was the one available to me. Its consistency out of the can is quite gloopy — not a word I would use to describe an appetizing bowl of food. This might be a bit improved by beans, which would at least add some variation to the textures as you eat, but the version with beans was more difficult to find in my area.

The flavor is surprisingly cheesy, as if cheddar has already been melted into it. It's creamy and salty, which is a bit confusing. I like my chili cheesy, but usually from the cheese I add myself, not coming from the can. The flavor isn't bad, but I didn't like it as much as some of the other chilis that boast a bit of heat and acid.

All in all, I thought that the next chili from Wendy's was slightly better for the smoky and acidic flavor notes and more normal consistency. A pasty plop just doesn't look great coming out of a can.

Wendy's chili is a popular order for the fast food chain. Considering some of the more unhealthy options on the menu, chili isn't a bad choice. But when it comes to the canned variety, how does it stack up? Wendy's wasn't one of my favorites, largely due to the texture of the meat. It's a bit rubbery, in a similar way to a chicken nugget or the ground beef at Taco Bell — you can just tell it isn't quite what it should be.

I do see why Wendy's chili is popular, especially when you order it out. It has a nice smoky flavor on the first bite, the tomato flavor is strong, and it finishes with acidity. Plus, there are a bunch of ways to customize Wendy's chili.

As far as consistency, it's one of the runnier, more tomato-forward chilis on this list. I could see myself ordering it if I find myself at Wendy's, but I don't think I would buy the canned version again. Plus, it had one of the longest ingredients lists of any of these brands, a sight that makes one think you're better off opting for a brand with more straightforward, healthy ingredients.

Hormel chunky beef chili is a super common product in many grocery stores, especially on the East Coast. Its contents are pretty much what you'd expect from a canned chili — a solid middle ground.

There's a good amount of beans and beef. It definitely lives up to the description on the label. While the beef chunks have a pretty normal texture that you'd expect of a canned product, the flavor falls flat. It has a good baseline, but it does leave me wanting for some complexity of flavor; a little kick or some more sweet acidity from tomato paste would go a long way to make this can more interesting.

That being said, Hormel chili is super easy to find, and it's not bad. So if you're looking for something easily accessible that you can dress up at home, it will serve its purpose just fine.

Brookdale chili, which I purchased at Aldi, is made with both beef and pork — a wonderful combination that creates a rich, deep flavor. It's darker in color than most of the other chilis on this list and has a bit of a kick at the end. The overall flavor is fantastic. It tastes like caramelized tomato paste, browned, crispy pork fat, and charred chilis.

The drawback that made me rank it below a few other brands was the consistency. Thickened with corn flour, soy flour, and modified cornstarch, this chili leaves an annoying gummy residue behind on your spoon, mouth, and teeth, a classic sign that you've used too much cornstarch in a recipe. There are plenty of ways to thicken a chili, and cornstarch has to be my least favorite. It detracts from the flavor and makes the bowl less enjoyable. If you're less concerned with texture than flavor, though, this one does taste great and costs less than $3 at Aldi, one of the most affordable places to shop in the U.S.

It's interesting, and perhaps clever, that Amy's doesn't advertise its medium chili as being plant-based. It has beans as well as tofu that's crumbled and cooked in such a way as to mimic ground meat, and it tastes so good I'm sure there are plenty of people who may never read the ingredients list and know the difference.

It's leaps and bounds better than the plant-based Gardein, which was rank with soy protein. Amazingly, this can still has 26 grams of protein in it, without the sour, dog-food taste of the other. Amy's used rice flour as a thickener, and it has a nice consistency. It's not as thick as those that use corn flour, but it's also not pasty or gloopy. There's a faint heat at the end, enough to add complexity but not enough to scare away the heat-intolerant.

Overall, a really solid can of chili that, for $4.99, will make a filling and nourishing dinner for the busy individual who needs something quick to eat. The consistency was much more enjoyable than Aldi's, but even the very convincing tofu in this can doesn't quite stack up to the real deal. There were a few cans that just tasted better.

The first aspect of Trader Joe's chili I enjoyed was the simple and straightforward list of ingredients. There are no hard-to-pronounce chemical names or words you need to look up — just normal food.

It has a classic canned chili flavor, and the consistency isn't pasty or gloopy. It's thickened with corn flour rather than cornstarch, which creates a more even bite that doesn't stick to your teeth. Using cornmeal or corn flour is a classic way to thicken chili in the Southwest, and I'm really not sure why more of these brands don't use it instead of cornstarch or xanthan gum. Perhaps it's an issue of cost, but in this case it's clear that the corn flour creates a much better texture.

In terms of flavor, I would probably prefer if this brand used pork instead of turkey — a factor that did keep it at second place — but turkey is a versatile option that will appeal to anyone who avoids red meat. There's a nice mellow acidity from the tomatoes, and although there isn't much heat (which I love), this can of chili will satisfy most customers. Plus, it's only $2.69, a great price for a healthy and straightforward meal you can heat up in a few minutes.

When you first open this can of Clover Valley chili with beans, the appearance might be a bit surprising — tiny black flecks speckle the red and orange mixture. I was immediately interested, as I know from experience making chili that those are exactly the flecks left behind when you char chili peppers and blend them into a soup. They may not look appetizing if you're not sure where they come from, but if you love char and spice, they're definitely a good sign.

Clover Valley has a really short ingredients list: pork, beans, tomato paste, a special blend of chili powder and some other seasonings, and cornstarch as a thickener. It's proof that you don't need a bunch of fancy ingredients to make something taste good. The flavor is fantastic. The pork is rich and hearty, the heat and char strong. Cornstarch is not my favorite thickener, and this chili does have a bit of gummy flavor (although not nearly as excessive as some other brands), but it tastes so good I didn't even mind.

Trader Joe's turkey chili was a close second place. It tastes good, has a straightforward list of ingredients, and a great consistency, but Clover Valley is loaded with flavor from the pork and chili powder. Depending on which store you're visiting, though, you can't go wrong with either.

Food is largely subjective, and branding bears its own weight of nostalgia. Maybe you've been eating one kind of chili since you were a kid and have positive associations to the flavor. If so, why not stick with it? But if you're looking to find a great can of chili that can be a staple in your pantry for those longs days when you need something filling and don't have the time or energy to cook, then you may find this list useful.

I ranked these chili brands based on their flavor, first. Do they have a bit of complexity? Can you taste the tomato and the chili, and are the flavors balanced? Consistency was the secondary concern. There are several ingredients you can use to thicken chili, and they all have a pretty different effect on how it will eat. The ones that leave behind a slimy residue from using too much xanthan gum or cornstarch I find too off-putting to enjoy.

Lastly, I factored in the cost and ingredients list. If we're talking about eating something that's convenient but decently healthy, ideally it would have a straightforward and easy to understand list of ingredients, along with a price tag that justifies an easy meal. When all of these things were considered, there were some clear winners.