Sweet Sue canned chicken: which size to buy

Canned chicken is the least glamorous thing in the pantry and one of the most useful. It is cooked, it keeps for years, and it turns into lunch with a fork and a bowl. Sweet Sue packs it four ways.

The four packs are not the same product in different jackets. The fill changes, the liquid changes and the price per ounce changes several times over. A few minutes with the labels saves money and a few wrong cans.

The smallest is a 3 oz foil pouch of premium chunk white chicken. Next comes the 5 oz can of chunk white chicken in water, the size of a tuna can. The 10 oz can holds twice that. The largest is a 50 oz can of boneless chicken with broth, the kind a cafeteria opens.

Three of the four hold chicken breast. The cans add the words with rib meat, which is the label's own description of the cut. The bulk can says boneless chicken, with no claim that it is breast only, and its pieces come in their own broth.

The ingredient lists

The canned chunk white chicken has 5 ingredients: white chicken, water, 2% or less of salt, modified food starch, sodium phosphate. The pouch lists the same five in a slightly different order, under the heading cooked chicken breast. Neither label carries a Contains line, and the product details mark both gluten free.

The 50 oz can reads differently. Its 7 ingredients are chicken meat, chicken broth, less than 2% of modified corn starch, salt, sodium phosphate, garlic powder, carrageenan. The broth, the garlic powder and the carrageenan are what set it apart from the cans packed in water.

The 10 oz can is missing from that table for a plain reason: its nutrition panel is not pictured with the product. The product details give 60 calories and 11 g of protein a serving, the same as the 5 oz can, and the can itself carries the full panel.

The pouch looks salty at first glance, with 510 mg on the panel against 320 mg for the can. Most of that gap is serving size. Ounce for ounce the pouch carries 170 mg and the can 162 mg.

One buyer of the pouch was caught out by this. The buyer expected a lower sodium figure and found 510 mg on the pouch that arrived. The pouch pictured with the product today shows 510 mg, so check the panel on the label and not an old picture.

By that FDA guide a 2 oz serving of the canned chicken, at 13% of the Daily Value, sits in the middle. A whole pouch, at 22%, crosses the line into high. Draining a can pours off some of the salted water, though the label does not say how much sodium leaves with it.

Grams of protein per dollar is the figure for anyone feeding a family on a budget. It divides the protein on the label by the price of the cheapest pack. The bulk can and the multi-packs of small cans stretch a dollar furthest, and the single pouch the least.

One buyer of the 5 oz can gets two large sandwiches from it as chicken salad, which matches the table. A buyer of the pouch who eats alone prefers it because a can leaves half in the refrigerator. A buyer of the 50 oz can likes that one large can covers a big dish without opening several small ones.

A chicken salad to start from

For two sandwiches, drain one 5 oz can and flake it into a bowl. Add 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise, 2 tablespoons of chopped celery, a squeeze of lemon and black pepper. Mix, taste and adjust.

From there the dish goes wherever the kitchen goes: halved grapes and pecans, curry powder and raisins, pickle relish and a boiled egg, or hot sauce and blue cheese. The base is forgiving. Remember that eggs, nuts and wheat bread each add an allergen the can itself does not have.

Hot dishes

In a hot dish the chicken goes in last. It is cooked already and only needs to warm through, so stir it into soup for the final 5 minutes and fold it into a casserole just before the dish goes into the oven. A Chicken Broth, 14.5 oz Can is enough liquid for a small pot of soup with one 10 oz can of chicken. Some cooks stir a drained can into Chicken & Dumplings, 24 oz Can to make the bowl meatier.

The 50 oz can is a recipe in two parts. Lift the meat out with a slotted spoon and pull it apart for the filling. Then strain the broth and use it as the liquid for the same dish: the gravy of a pot pie, the base of a soup, the stock for a pan of dressing.

Five weeknight uses

• Chicken quesadillas: one 10 oz can, drained, with 1 cup of shredded cheese between 4 tortillas.
• Buffalo chicken dip: one 10 oz can, 4 ounces of cream cheese and 3 tablespoons of hot sauce, baked until it bubbles.
• Chicken and rice: one 5 oz can stirred into 2 cups of cooked rice with a spoon of butter and frozen peas.
• Chicken noodle soup: one 10 oz can added to 4 cups of simmering broth and noodles for the last 5 minutes.
• Stuffed baked potatoes: one 5 oz can, warmed with a little broth, over 2 split potatoes.

What canned chicken does poorly

It will not brown. The meat is moist and soft, so it steams in a hot pan where fresh chicken would sear. It also falls apart when stirred hard, which rules out dishes that need neat cubes.

The flavor is mild and a little salty. A buyer of the 50 oz can was disappointed by exactly that, having hoped for the taste of a whole roasted bird. Treat canned chicken as an ingredient, give it a sauce or a dressing, and it does its job.

Cooked meat that needs no refrigerator and no stove is the backbone of an emergency shelf. Canned chicken and pouches fit that role well, because they can be eaten cold from the container.

The pull-tab lids of the 5 oz and 10 oz cans open without a tool, and the pouch tears by hand. The 50 oz can has a plain lid, so keep a manual can opener beside it. Small containers also make sense when the power is out: once a can is open, the leftovers need a refrigerator that may not be running.

The pouch costs 2.8 times as much per ounce as the can at their best pack prices. What that buys is convenience: nothing to drain, nothing to wash and nothing sharp to throw away. For a desk drawer, a hiking pack or a relative who cannot manage a can, that is a fair trade.

The spread is wide. The lowest price per ounce is 23¢ for the 50 oz can, single can. The highest is $1.04 for the 3 oz pouch, single pouch. A bigger pack is not always cheaper per ounce, so compare the price per ounce and not the pack price.

The canned chunk white chicken is the most-rated Sweet Sue product: 4.6 out of 5 from 3,958 ratings across the 5 oz and 10 oz cans. Buyers praise the all-white meat, the size of the chunks and the easy lid. They use it for chicken salad, soup, casseroles and food prep in bulk.

The pouch holds 4.5 from 226 ratings. Buyers like the single serving and the lack of liquid, and several call it expensive. The 50 oz can is the divisive one at 4.1 from 226 ratings. Some call it better than they expected for the price. Others say it looks like tuna and would not buy it again.

The code matters on two occasions. A recall notice names products by it, and a complaint to the company goes faster when you can read it out. Keep the can until the food is eaten for that reason, and write the purchase month on the lid if the stamp is hard to read.

Look at the can itself as well. The seams at the top and bottom should be flat and clean, and the sides should not bulge. A pull-tab lid should sit flush. If a can hisses loudly, spurts or smells wrong when opened, do not taste the food.

The easiest way to use canned chicken is to stop treating it as a special ingredient. It can stand in wherever a recipe says cooked, shredded or leftover chicken. Tacos, fried rice, pasta bakes and pot pies all take it without a change to the method.

Two habits help. Add it late, so it warms without breaking down. And balance it with something fresh or crisp: celery in a salad, cabbage in a taco, a squeeze of lemon over the plate. The chicken brings the protein and the salt, and the rest of the dish brings the texture.