Best Turkey Chili: Best Canned Turkey Chili We Tasted

The best turkey chili is every bit as savory and filling as chili that’s made with beef, but it’s usually lower in fat and calories. That seems to be turkey chili’s raison d’etre, but I’ve personally grown to love the way turkey absorbs all the other flavors and spices and gives chili a nice, meaty backbone without all the grease. When I make chili at home, I use ground turkey 80 percent of the time (and veggie crumbles the rest of the time). Surprisingly, there isn’t a lot of canned turkey chili at the grocery store! All the same, I picked up what we could find and ranked it for my fellow turkey chili fans out there. Here’s the best canned turkey chili you can buy. (Oh, and if you prefer beef and/or vegetarian chili, we ranked those, too).

Runner-Up

Dennison’s 98% Fat Free Turkey Chili

Albertsons

Dennison’s makes our favorite canned beef chili of them all so it’s no surprise that the brand makes a good turkey chili, too. This isn’t as flavorful as the best canned turkey chili, but this is a great base for toppings. The beans are super creamy and tender and the ground turkey has a clean, mild flavor—no gaminess at all. It also has a tiny bit of heat, which we always appreciate. Top this with a dollop of fat-free Greek yogurt, reduced fat shredded cheese, and some chopped-up chives, and this canned turkey chili is going to make a really nice meal.

Credit: Merc / Albertsons

Rating:

9/10

Sporks

Best of the Best

Stagg Turkey Ranchero Chili with Beans

Instacart

We tasted this canned turkey chili as part of our broader canned chili taste test, and we kind of freaked out over it. Of all the canned chili we tried (and we tried a lot), Stagg Turkey Ranchero chili tasted the most like homemade with its big chunks of vegetables and thick consistency. But, honestly, the best part of this chili is the turkey, and that clearly makes it the best canned turkey chili going. See, the turkey is shredded like stew meat rather than ground like beef and it’s really a revelation. This turkey chili is meaty, flavorful, and so different. Seriously, fill a tortilla with some rice, shredded cheese, and this chili, and that’s lunch.

Credit: Merc / Instacart

Rating:

10/10

Sporks

Other turkey chili we tried: Hormel Turkey Chili with Beans, Hormel Turkey Chili with No Beans

About the Author

Howdy! I’m Gwynedd, Sporked’s managing editor. I live in Los Angeles and have access to the best tacos the U.S. has to offer—but I’m a sucker for a crunchy Old El Paso taco night every now and then. I’ve been at Sporked since 2022 and I’m still searching frozen mozzarella sticks that can hold a candle to restaurant sticks. Why you should trust me: I’ve been a journalist for 20 years (yikes), a consumer of food for 40-plus years, and I’m truly hard pressed to think of foods I don’t like (or that I can’t tolerate at the very least). Oh and one time I cooked my way through Guy Fieri’s cookbook and wrote about the journey through Flavortown. What I buy every week: Trader Joe’s Original Savory Thins. Fat free plain yogurt (usually Fage or Nancy’s). Honeycrisp apples. Sweet cream coffee creamer for my at-home Americanos. A frozen cauliflower crust pizza and some jarred mushrooms to top it with. Old El Paso Stand ‘N Stuff taco shells and Gardein Ground Be’f, even though I think “be’f” is a nightmarish contraction. Favorite ranking: Stouffer’s frozen dinners. I don’t own a microwave (I get my cancers the old fashioned way!), so I love taste testing things that I don’t really buy to eat at home. Least favorite ranking: Soy sauce. Don’t get me wrong, I love soy sauce—but consuming that much sodium in one sitting is probably illegal in some countries. Our frozen enchilada taste test was a close second; the smell of microwaved corn tortillas still haunts me.