Skip This Store-Bought Chicken Salad — It Has The Texture Of Mashed Potatoes

One of the best things about a delicious, homemade chicken salad is how versatile it is. Put it on a sandwich or a bed of lettuce, or eat it with crackers or chips. If you don't have time to make chicken salad from scratch, a grocery store salad is a great alternative, as long as it's made by a high-quality brand. To find out which ones are worth the money, Tasting Table ranked eight store-bought chicken salads from worst to best. The most disappointing one we tried had the texture of mashed potatoes.

We found Reser's Rotisserie Chicken Salad to be the absolute worst chicken salad of all of the ones we bought at our local Kroger. Because Reser's makes our favorite store-bought coleslaw, we thought the brand's chicken salad would be equally delicious. After all, its label states that the salad is made with chunks of premium, white-meat rotisserie chicken breast. Unfortunately, the chicken tasted more like an unseasoned chicken breast, and its texture was mousse-like and unpleasant. The entire salad had a homogenous texture that was almost like all of the ingredients had been whipped or blended together, making it hard to distinguish any specific flavors or textures.

Overall, it was one of the strangest chicken salad options, which was made even more regrettable given how expensive it was. A 12-ounce tub of Reser's Rotisserie Chicken Salad costs about $7.99 at Kroger, which is a dollar or two more than the other options we tried. It's not surprising that it only has 2.26 stars on the Kroger website.

There aren't many customer reviews for Reser's Rotisserie Chicken Salad online. However, on Kroger's website, shoppers are not holding back. One person, who rated it a mere one star, described the salad as "more like baby food salad," going on to say, "It was AWFUL. It looked like puréed chicken and had very little taste."

Another customer agreed with the baby food comparison, saying of the salad, "It was mushy, no crunch, no chunks of chicken, it was like baby food." More than one customer also claimed that the texture of the salad was more like a purée, with a particularly angry shopper going so far as to call it "horrible" and "disgusting," saying, "What in the world happened to this chicken salad? It's puréed! This is not the same chicken salad I use[d] to buy for lunch years ago. It's literally OVER PROCESSED GOOP. It's the texture of grits. It's HORRIBLE!"

Of the 27 reviews left for the chicken salad on Kroger's website, only seven of them were positive. That's about 25%, or an F-rating. If you're craving a crisp and creamy chicken salad that has the perfect crunchy texture, you're better off making your own than buying Reser's.