Campbell’s Beef with Country Vegetables is as thick as any stew and its taste reminds me of my mom’s beef stew when I was a kid. On cold evenings, I love to eat it in a shallow bowl on top of a slice of sourdough (takes me back).
Campbell’s has offered this forever, but they have changed the name and the labels several times over the years without warning. They have so many Beef [XXXX] Chunky Soups that each time it took a couple of months of trying various cans before I found it again.
Hormel Chili is fine, if you don’t mind that the meat is a slurry rather than anything recognizable.
Wolfgang Puck has a line of canned soups that’s pretty good, although Googling, it may be discontinued. And another decent brand is The Original Soupman, from the real-life guy on whom the Soup Nazi in Seinfeld was based. These soups are packaged in aseptic boxes.
Yeah…I try not to think what the meat is in Hormel Chili. Indeed most of these canned things aren’t going to give you anything remotely good when it comes to meat.
You are always, always, always better off making your own food if you can. You know what is in it and are avoiding a lot of the unhealthy tricks used to make packaged food tasty. Also, when you make your own you can tweak things to your taste.
But the OP did not ask for good food. They asked about packaged food that was tasty. That said…homemade every time if you can.
I was raised on Wolf Brand Chili in Texas, and I still like it . . .
but I think I like Chilli Man (from downstate Illinois, for cryin’ out loud) even better. Probably not available nationwide. Wolf Brand wasn’t, either, 30 years ago, causing me to search for an alternative.
I should note that, being Texan, I do not eat beans in my chili. That seems to cause a lot of confusion among non-Texans.
This isn’t technically a canned soup because they sell it in plastic containers. But I figure it’s a commercial soup.
Marketside Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice soup. Yes, I realize I am talking about a Walmart store brand. But this soup is great.
All prepared foods welcome here. 
I think many supermarkets have similar products; soups in refrigerated plastic tubs. Unlike the canned soups, you can’t just store them in the pantry for months. But they may taste better than the canned soups.
Full disclosure: I buy canned soup and other ready-to-eat food for a neighborhood Little Free Pantry. I stock it three times a week. In my neighborhood people need the support. Some homeless people come by, too. So the refrigerated stuff wouldn’t work there. But I’m also interested in suggestions for myself when I’m feeling lazy.
Combine 1 can of Campbell’s Tomato, 1 can of Campbell’s French Onion, 1 can of water, some splashes of Worcestershire Sauce, some sprinkles of Nuoc Nam, heat ‘n’ stir, squeeze of lemon and serve.
I don’t do much canned soup but if we expand the topic to shelf stable, I’ll add classic Maruchan ramen blocks. When I crave cheap ramen (typically, after not feeling well), nothing else will do. Favorites are creamy chicken (I think there’s nondairy creamer in there), soy sauce (formerly Oriental flavor, there’s a nice ginger flavor), shrimp & spicy chicken.
I’ve gotten plenty of good answers to the canned soup question, and I’m glad you introduced the subject of ramen. The other night I amused myself by watching approx. one zillion 3 & 4 minute Korean cooking videos on YouTube. Very interesting! Lots of variations on omelets, cheese & egg sandwiches, French-esque toast. All done with chopsticks.
Anyhoo, during my exploration I came across some videos on ramen, and Shin Ramyun is the most popular instant ramen brand in korea. Has anyone tried it?
I’d definitely be interested in hearing people’s creative, esoteric ways with instant ramen. Apparently there’s a whole cuisine based on cooking instant ramen in prison. (Not making this up.)
Shin Ramyun is amazing, I buy it frequently, despite being about 4-8 times the price of cheap bag ramen. It comes with an intense soup base plus a small bag of dried herbs. One of the things I frequently do to ‘kick’ up ramen is buy bags of frozen, shell on shrimp (normally when they’re below $6.99 lb) and save the shells. When it’s time to make ramen, I’ll simmer 2 handfuls of raw shells for 20 minutes or so, strain, and use that instead of water for the ramen. I’ll normally also poach an egg on the side in water acidulated with a bit of rice wine vinegar and put in on top, or simmer shrimp in the stock.
You can do a lot more, but at a certain point, you’re making the soup from stock and just using the bag ramen for the noodles, it’s an ingredient rather than a base at that point. Normally, I’ll just add 2-3 more steps as above, because past that, the time savings that make ramen attractive are washed out by the extra work.
Does anyone know if Reames (the folks who make frozen egg noodles) still makes the frozen chicken noodle soup kit? It had the chicken, the noodles, the vegetables, and the broth in separate pouches. That used to be one of my favorites, then it disappeared. I was never sure (like a lot of things I like that go away) whether they quit making it or my store just quit carrying it.
I see lots of frozen noodles but nothing with the soup ingredients.
You rang?
I never eat meals from cans these days, but back when I did, I was partial to Campbell’s Scotch Broth.
I like a can of Hormel Chili with Beans once in a while.
I’ve never been disappointed with Amy’s brand soups, and in fact use this brand when I need a cream soup instead of Campbell’s, which reformulated theirs a few years ago, and those are disgusting in both flavor and texture.
I’ve seen the Wolfgang Puck soups in stores recently. I did notice that the quality declined around the time they Photoshopped the gap out of his front teeth.
Not the biggest fan of canned soup. Even adding a bit of onion or fresh herb livens them up a lot. Scotch Broth is good, as are boxes of squash soup and Loblaw’s Thai Chicken. As a student I liked Knorr’s Potato Soup.
Far as I’m concerned the only passable canned chili is Stagg, which was bought out by Hormel in the 1990’s. Hormel of course also owns the only palatable canned corned beef hash in Mary Kitchen.
The best canned minestrone used to be from Trader Joe’s, but IMHO weirdly they took a giant step backwards with their new and improved deli-shop version in a plastic container.
When I lived in Indonesia and interacted with lots of Texan expatriates, they practically worshiped Bush’s baked beans - they were a hot item at the commissary. I tried them a couple times and thought they were pretty good.