The Best Canned Chili at the Grocery Store (With a New #1!)

What’s in the best canned chili? Well, partner, that’s between you and god. There are so many options: beans or no beans; tomatoes or no tomatoes; beef or turkey or soy protein? Basically, if you like it in homemade chili, you’ll probably find it in canned chili from the grocery store. 

Chili is one of the most versatile foods known to man. We love that. You can crack open a can and just eat it straight, or dress it up with fixins like diced onion, crushed-up crackers, shredded cheddar, and sour cream. Hell, some people even eat it on spaghetti.

The best canned chili means different things to different people, and we wanted a little bit of something for everyone, but here’s what we were looking for in ALL the best canned chili: 

• No damn can flavor. Some canned chili tastes great…at first. Then you keep eating and realize your mouth is filling with an unpleasant tinny aftertaste. None of that, please!
• Creamy beans. If the chili has beans (our general preference, but you do you), they’d better be nice and tender rather than grainy. 
• No greasy goop. Canned chili made with meat is going to have some grease in the mix, but we nixed canned chilis that left a film in our mouths. 

Over the course of multiple taste tests (including our most recent on-camera taste test!), we tasted dozens of brands and styles of canned chili to find the best chili with beans, the best no bean chili, the best turkey chili, and even the best hot dog chili. Here’s what you should toss in your cart the next time making a pot of chili to your specifications sounds too tedious. 

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Best Budget

Great Value Chili with No Beans

Walmart

Great Value canned chili tastes great (like many Great Value foods), but it lacks the tender beans we crave and the meat isn’t the highest quality. Still, it’s one of the only canned chilis we tried that actually includes monosodium glutamate (MSG), which is a powerful flavor enhancer. Here at Sporked, we like MSG in doses, and it does wonders for chili. Get the flavor however you can. This is cheap, inoffensive, no BS chili that you can do a lot of things with. Put this canned chili on hot dogs, nachos, spaghetti, Doritos, tacos, your pillow. It’s your world, baby. It’s some of the best canned chili for its versatility alone. —Danny Palumbo

Credit: Ryan Martin / Walmart

Rating:

6/10

Sporks

Best Spicy

Stagg Chili Dynamite Hot Chili with Beans

Instacart

This chili is a little on the sweet side, but it’s pretty good if you like heat. “Thick and hearty” is what it says on the can, and that’s no lie. It does have a lot of pepper flakes, but it’s nice and spicy as a result (they credit the heat to habaneros). If you like your canned chili hot, no added hot sauce needed, this is the best spicy chili we tried. —Gwynedd Stuart

Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart

Rating:

7/10

Sporks

Best Hot Dog Chili

Tony Packo’s Hot Dog Sauce with Beef

Walmart

We did a whole separate taste test to find the best hot dog chili (two separate taste tests, in fact), and Tony Packo’s is the best canned chili for your dogs. It’s saucy rather than thick and chunky, so it’s perfect for chili dogs or chili burgers. It’s fatty and beefy and redolent of chili powder and onion. If you’re from the Toledo, Ohio, area, you’re probably familiar with this stuff, but if you’re not, seek it out. It’s great. (And if you’re a really, really big fan, buy this hat.) —Gwynedd Stuart

Rating:

7.5/10

Sporks

Best with Tortilla Chips

Trader Joe’s Beef Chili with Beans

Trader Joe’s

This canned chili is chunky and dark. The dark appearance and savory flavor likely come from ancho powder, which has a sweet, smoky, savory essence. Trader Joe’s beef chili is nicely spiced, and you can really  taste the cumin and paprika. It also contains some dried bell pepper that adds a nice herby sweetness. This chili is rich, hearty, and almost buttery. It could use a little more salt, though. Feel free to add your own or, shoot, add some crushed tortilla chips and hot sauce to spice it up. —Danny Palumbo

Credit: Ryan Martin

Rating:

7.5/10

Sporks

Best Hormel Chili

Hormel Angus Chili with Beans

Walmart

We’ve tried a lot of Hormel chili over the years. In our most recent taste test, we also re-tasted their original beef chili and it was BAD. We could all swear it had a sort of minty aftertaste, like someone spit toothpaste spit in the can. The Angus variety is much much better. The beans are creamy and it has a nice salty, beefy savory flavor. I’ve always been dubious that promoting Angus beef is anything but marketing, but it makes a difference if you’re looking for the best Hormel chili in a can. —Gwynedd Stuart

Credit: Merc / Walmart

Rating:

8/10

Sporks

Best Plant Based

Amy’s Organic Spicy Chili

Walmart

We previously had Amy’s Medium Organic Chili We previously had Amy’s Medium Organic Chili in this spot, but the spicy version—which we weren’t able to source last time—is so much better. I mean, it even looks better. It has a deeper red color—much more like what you expect from a good chili. On a retasting, Amy’s Medium is a little bit sweet. Yes, you could fix it up with some cheese and sour cream to make it a little more salty and savory, but the spicy version doesn’t really need it. I should also note that the “spicy” here tastes like a chipotle pepper spice—you get more smokiness than actual heat. If you have an aversion to spicy foods, I think you could totally handle this. And I absolutely love the meatless crumble in here! It’s really satisfying, but it isn’t the centerpiece like it is in Gardein’s canned chili, which, sadly, we didn’t enjoy enough to rank. —Gwynedd Stuart

Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart

Rating:

8/10

Sporks

Best for Work Lunch

Campbell’s Chunky Bowls Chili with Beans

Target

I’m usually not a fan of Campbell’s Chunky products, but this ready-to-microwave bowl of chili was a pleasant surprise. It’s very chunky—mostly kidney beans and beef. This isn’t a chili for veggie-lovers. There are some diced peppers, but tomatoes are nowhere to be found. If you like a tomatoey chili, there are better canned chilis on this list for you. This isn’t spicy, but the chili powder gives it a gentle, simmering heat. And while I’m sure it’s loaded with sodium, it doesn’t taste super salty. It’s really pleasant. And it doesn’t taste like a can! It mostly just tastes like beef, beans, and chili powder. It’s simple and super filling. I ended up eating the whole bowl for lunch! If you’re looking for the best chili you can simply put in the microwave, this is surprisingly good. —Gwynedd Stuart

Rating:

8/10

Sporks

Best No Bean Chili

Wendy’s No Beans Chili

Walmart

We don’t like Wendy’s No Beans Chili as much as we like their chili with beans, but if you can’t eat beans (or simply don’t want to), this is the best no bean chili you can buy. Like Wendy’s chili with beans, this stuff is very salty, but it really tastes like a well-seasoned hamburger, so it works. We also like the chunks of tomato in the mix in the absence of beans—there’s still a lot going on here, even if beef is the star of the show. —Gwynedd Stuart

Credit: Merc / Walmart

Rating:

8.5/10

Sporks

Best Turkey Chili

Dennison’s 98 Percent Fat Free Turkey Chili with Beans

Pavilions

This list previously featured Stagg Turkey Ranchero Chili as the best turkey chili, but we had to reconsider after our most recent taste test—it just didn’t hit this time around. Enter Dennison’s to save the day. This is what chili is supposed to taste like—chili powder and cumin. It’s actually more spiced than the other Dennison’s chilis on this list, which we assumed is to make up for the blandness of the turkey itself. It works. Oh, and this is 98 percent fat free, so it’s the best canned chili if you’re keeping an eye on that sort of thing. —Gwynedd Stuart

Rating:

9/10

Sporks

Best Salty

Wendy’s Chili with Beans

Instacart

The #1 best canned chili on this list is pretty neutral—that’s why we like it. But if what you’re looking for is a big ol’ flavor bomb, Wendy’s makes some of the best canned chili you can buy. Wendy’s whole thing is that their chili is made using Wendy’s hamburger patties, and that gives it a rich, savory flavor. While we’re confident that Wendy’s fresh, never-frozen burger patties aren’t involved in the canned version of their chili, it’s imbued with flavors that let you pretend—it’s a little smoky and very savory. It’s also packed with big chunks of tomato and both kidney and pinto beans, which are perfectly cooked and creamy. It’s good stuff, but it sure is salty. If that’s not a dealbreaker, this is some of the best canned chili at the grocery store. —Gwynedd Stuart

Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart

Rating:

9.5/10

Sporks

Best of the Best

Dennison’s Original Chili Con Carne with Beans

Instacart

Dennison’s Chili Con Carne with Beans is pretty much perfect. The beans are creamy, the flavor is neutral—and, most importantly, it doesn’t taste like an aluminum can. It’s hearty in a way other chilis can only dream of being, and it’s packed with big hunks of beef and pork rather than ground-up molecules of meat like a lot of competitors. It’s also not overly tomatoey, and there’s a steady yet subtle flavor of garlic and onion. The pinto beans really shine, too. This chili isn’t packed with flavor, but that makes it highly versatile and a great blank slate for sprucing up—use this as a base to make chili exactly the way you’d make it if you were cooking it from scratch. The ingredients work in harmony, making it the best canned chili we tasted overall. Balance is what makes good chili, and Dennison’s has that in spades. Don’t expect a flavor bomb, but buy it confidently. —Danny Palumbo & Gwynedd Stuart

Credit: Ryan Martin / Instacart

Rating:

9.5/10

Sporks

Best of the Best

Dennison’s Chunky Chili Con Carne with Beans

Walmart

My favorite thing about the previous #1 best chili on our list (which you’ll now find in the #2 spot) is that it’s delightfully bland. Dennison’s original chili is stuffed with creamy beans and the flavor is very neutral. If you like chili with a lot of spice—a lot of cumin, a lot of chili powder—it simply isn’t for you. It’s for dressing up with cheese and sour cream and crushed-up tortilla chips. This CHUNKY Dennison’s chili, on the other hand, is much more flavorful. It’s saltier tasting (even though the sodium content is lower somehow), and has a more robust and well-rounded chili flavor. It’s MUCH beefier, too, which has to be why it’s even more savory. It’s got big hunks of meat in the mix and they really do make an impression. Every time we sit down for a chili taste test, I’m positive another brand is gonna swoop in and get the W, but Dennison’s just keeps being our favorite! —Gwynedd Stuart

Credit: Merc / Walmart

Rating:

10/10

Sporks

Other products we tried: Kroger Original Chili with Beans, Nally Original Chili con Carne with Beans, Campbell’s Chunky Roadhouse Chili with Beans, Stagg Classic Chili with Beans, Wolf Brand Chili with Beans, Armour Star Chili with Beans, 365 Three Bean Vegan Chili, First Street Chunky Chili con Carne, Brookdale Original Chili with Beans, Marie Callender’s Angus Beef Chili, Hormel Turkey Chili with Beans, Gardein Plant-Based Chili with Beans, Wolf Brand Spicy Chili, Yellowstone Angus Beef Chili, Yellowstone Angus Beef Chili with Beans