The Best Canned Potatoes for a Starchy Supper

The best canned potatoes are soft, silky, and ready to be used in a variety of canned potato recipes, no boiling necessary. They’re cheap and they’re convenient and, no, I’ve never personally used potatoes in a can in my kitchen (no shade), but I appreciate their utility—as long as you buy the good ones. 

For this taste test, I popped open as many cans of potatoes as I could find at the grocery store—canned whole potatoes, canned sliced potatoes, and canned diced potatoes—and tasted them back to back directly from the can. Was this a fun taste test? Not really! But I’m pretty sure it’s the first taste test we’ve ever done here at Sporked that resulted in a win for an Amazon Fresh product. So there’s that.

I looked for potatoes that are smooth rather than grainy, and ones that still taste earthy like potatoes rather than salty, starchy water. Whether you’re making a quick potato soup, no-boil mashed potatoes, or potatoes au gratin that don’t come dehydrated in a Betty Crocker box, these are the best potatoes in a can for all your canned potato recipes.

Best Texture

Signature Select Whole Potatoes

Vons

Only two brands of canned potatoes were worthy of our ranking: Signature Select (a proprietary brand sold at Albertsons-owned grocery stores) and Amazon Fresh. These Signature Select canned whole potatoes don’t have the most potato flavor, but they earned a spot on the ranking for their smooth, creamy texture. Cube these up for potatoes O’Brien, easy corned beef hash (with the best canned corn beef from our ranking), or use them in a stew you don’t plan on simmering all day long. These are the best canned potatoes if you want to avoid grainy potatoes at all costs.

Credit: Merc / Vons

Rating:

8.5/10

Sporks

Best Sliced

Signature Select Sliced White Potatoes

Vons

These canned sliced potatoes are the best potatoes in a can for German potato salad or potatoes au gratin. They have a nice, starchy consistency and the flavor is decent. No, these aren’t terribly potatoey tasting, but they’ll pass. These canned sliced potatoes aren’t so silky that it seems like all the starch seeped out into the briny water in the can. And they don’t have that weird, tell-tale canned food flavor (even if they do taste a littttttle bit like can on the finish).

Credit: Merc / Vons

Rating:

9/10

Sporks

Best of the Best

Amazon Fresh Whole White Potatoes

Amazon

As I mentioned earlier,  I’m pretty sure this is the first time an Amazon Fresh product has taken the top spot in a Sporked ranking. Welcome to the #1 spot, Sir Jeffrey Bezos! Of the 11 cans of potatoes we tried, this was the only one that contained potatoes that actually taste like potatoes. They still have some starchy texture, too—not grainy, but not totally silky. There’s a little bit of can flavor on the finish, but that seems to be par for the course with canned whole potatoes. I read that people use potatoes in a can to thicken up instant mashed potatoes, and these seem like the best canned potatoes for that purpose. They’re starchy and potatoey and rib sticking. You can’t do much better when it comes to canned potatoes.

Credit: Merc / Amazon

Rating:

10/10

Sporks

Other products we tried: Great Value (Diced, Sliced, and Whole), Del Monte (Sliced and Whole), Kroger (Sliced, Whole, and No Salt Added)