Wendy’s chili is an institution. It’s the perfect thing to order when you’re hungry and in a hurry and you don’t want to consume a bacon-covered burger that sounds like it was sent from the future to kill you. Put it on a baked potato? My god. Heaven.
Suffice it to say, we were pretty excited last year when Wendy’s chili in a can hit stores. I can’t say it’s an exact dupe for Wendy’s chili from the restaurant, but I can (and did) say lots of other nice things about it. It’s super savory and a little bit smoky, so it definitely nods at the restaurant stuff, which is reportedly made with leftover Wendy’s burgers. And it’s bean-y, too—kidney beansand pinto beans.
But, hey. Maybe beans aren’t your thing. Or maybe you can’t eat them for gastrointestinal reasons. If that’s the case, we have good news: Wendy’s canned chili now comes in a no beans variety. Is it as good as the original? I heated up a can of Wendy’s chili (no beans) for lunch to find out.
Pros: If you like Wendy’s chili in a can and you aren’t super attached to beans in your chili, you’re probably going to like this new Wendy’s chili in a can. It tastes pretty much the same as the original—super savory, a little smoky, and very salty (but chili tends to be, especially fast food chili). There are bits of diced tomato and green peppers, which serve to break up the monotony of meat, meat, meat, because that’s what you’re getting in this can. A lot of meat. Thirty percent more meat than in the variety with beans. That also means more protein (20 grams a serving versus 17 grams in the with beans version), which I’m sure is a big pro for some people. It’s a very beefy experience.
Cons: It’s a lot of meat. And it’s canned meat, which means it’s a little mushy, as canned meat tends to be. Additionally, we don’t really harp a lot on nutritional info here unless we’re specifically ranking something like low calorie ice cream or the best keto desserts. But, wow, I was pretty shocked by the numbers on this can’s label. A one-cup serving (about half a can) contains 15 grams of fat (there’s 24 grams in a whole can), 7 grams of saturated fat, and 1,000 mg of sodium. Their chili with beans isn’t much better, but I still think it’s worth knowing what you’re getting into before you go to town on a full can for lunch.
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.
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Gwynedd Stuart
Jordan Myrick
Matt Crowley
