5 Canned Beef Stew Brands, Ranked

There are a lot of canned soups available at grocery stores, but beef stew specifically is a little hard to find — believe me, I looked around. Most options on the shelves are labeled as some type of soup. I want to test as much of this limited food product as possible to determine which brand makes the best. I ultimately located five brands, but if you're lucky, you might find some others near you. I've decided to rank these by how interesting the flavors were, while considering whether the stew had a balanced texture and consistency. In my opinion, a stew should be pretty thick with not a lot of water content, which is one of the major differences between a soup and a stew. 

I make soups and stews very frequently in my kitchen, so I'm looking for the most interesting, flavorful canned beef stew on the market. I wanted actual chunks of beef with equally chunky ingredients like potato and carrot, as well as a thick broth. I think I found one that's worthy of a spot in your pantry. At the same time, others were not necessarily horrible, but they were definitely not as flavorful. Quit stewing about it, and let's review the best contenders.

I could tell from the image on the Southgate Beef Stew packaging that this wasn't going to be very stew-like; it looked quite liquid and full of potatoes. I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't quite as watery as the image suggested, but it was still the most liquid in consistency of all the ones I tried. On top of that, the flavor just tastes like you added a tiny sprinkle of seasoning to some water. It's extremely watery and flavorless, making every bite bland.

As if that wasn't bad enough, there's very little beef in this stew; the meat pieces are tiny and don't add much flavor or texture to the final result. When I looked it up on Dollar Tree's website, one of the first reviews I saw mentioned things like garbage, dog food, and barf bag all in one review. I'm not saying it's that bad, but it tastes like watery potato soup with a hint of tomato paste. Although this is the affordable option from the discount retailer, I would skip this altogether. Stick with some of the other gourmet options from Dollar Tree, or opt for other tasty pantry staples instead.

If you're like me, you might associate Armour Star with the surprisingly versatile canned Vienna sausages. But the brand has a wider selection that extends beyond the little sausages. The Armour Star Homestyle Beef Stew offers beef, rehydrated potatoes, and carrots as the foundation. There's also tomato puree, corn protein, and MSG to offer a distinctly umami taste. It's not extremely tomato-forward, but it's there in every bite. The consistency is incredibly watery compared to some of the higher-ranking stews, so you're left with a lot of broth overall. Here, the consistency is a major downfall.

The beef chunks are very small, more like ground beef crumbles than anything. This does not help the overall flavor or texture of the dish, as the pieces are both small and soft. I want a better balance to offer a more interesting mouthfeel so it doesn't feel so mushy. This canned product is mediocre, and it's way too soupy to be considered a stew, even if the broth has some element of thickness to it — thanks to the cornstarch. Luckily, the tomato puree makes it more flavorful than Southgate to give it a lead.

I tried two Dinty Moore products and think they are slightly similar. I tested the regular Beef Stew as well as the one with 25% less sodium, and, as you can imagine, the latter has a milder, less salty flavor. While the standard one is considerably more interesting and more robust, the lower-sodium option still provides a similar textural experience and inspired flavor (with less salt, of course). However, I ultimately found the low-sodium formulation somewhat bland in comparison, so the regular Dinty Moore Beef Stew is the winner in my book.

These soups have a nice thickness level where the broth itself seems hearty and sturdy compared to the watery nature of Armour Star. The stew features key players like beef, carrots, and potatoes, but you can also see ingredients like textured vegetable protein made from soy, mushroom extract, and tomato paste on the nutrition list. The 'shroom and tomato combo establishes an ultra savory and umami depth that the other broths lack. This features one of the best flavor bases among all the soups I tried; it's complex and richly flavored. I love using tomato paste in stews because it transforms the overall taste as it cooks. It offers a touch of sharpness and acidity, but then the mushroom extract also brings dimension that the paste alone cannot achieve. I love this combination! The meat is good but a little softer than I'd like. Overall, this is a great option to stock in your pantry.

Castleberry's has a really fantastic flavor profile that makes you want to keep slurping. It's definitely comparable to Dinty Moore for fantastic flavor but takes the lead because of the saltier dimension. The stew is thick, rich, and full of flavor. That portion alone makes it easy to eat. I appreciate the beefiness of the large chunks; however, they have a spongy texture due to the textured soy protein. It reminds me of the "steak" breakfast sandwich at McDonald's. I wanted a nice meaty quality, but it kind of fell apart in my mouth, and not in a fall-off-the-bone tender type of way. 

The beef crumbles are composed of beef, water, and that soy flour-based vegetable protein, and it's a little more obvious that they're not actual stand-alone beef chunks. This soup is also extremely potato-heavy, with very few carrots, and I truly wanted some more of the orange vegetables to offer an additional layer of flavor. The brothy base, as tasty as it is, isn't enough to make this the top stew when the beef is somewhat lackluster. I think this would be great to eat on a cold day, or it would have been fun when I was car camping at Coachella and I needed sustenance, but there's one option that fares a bit better overall.

When I opened the can, I knew the Yellowstone Cowboy Beef Stew would be good. It appeared perfectly thick, with a cloudy, rich broth and a great ratio of meat, carrots, and potatoes that made it feel incredibly hearty. It features cooked beef made with modified food starch, potatoes, and carrots, along with seasonings such as onion powder, celery, and salt. I appreciate how the nice beef chunks offer a bit of contrast. The broth is appropriately thick thanks to a cooked beef base, hydrolyzed corn and soy protein, and other ingredients. 

This stew features a balanced flavor profile with enticing meaty pieces of beef that give you something to chew on. Nothing seems overcooked or too soft, so every bite has the right mouthfeel and leaves me satiated. I liked the evenness of the ingredients, while other lower-ranking options were super watery or really heavy on the potatoes. I think the broth itself isn't the most intriguing of everything I tried, but it still hits enough to rank high. If this stew had the Dinty Moore or Castleberry's broth base, it would take the flavor up several notches. However, as it stands, the beef, vegetables, and thickness of the broth help give it the lead as my top pick. The overall result made me interested in the Yellowstone brand's selection of frozen meals, where Tasting Table deemed the Rip's Ranch Hand Beef and Cheese Pasta Bake a must-try.

I bought my stews from Walmart and Dollar Tree. I was, first of all, looking for something that lived up to the stew's name, meaning it needed to be quite thick, with little broth or liquid to water it down. I wanted nice beef chunks and a combination of other vegetables, such as carrots and potatoes. I also factored in taste, aiming for the most consistent, savory, and well-rounded flavor. The best-tasting stews with an appropriate thickness ranked high, while lower-ranking ones were watery, bland, or otherwise problematic.

I cooked each stew in the microwave according to the instructions to speed up the process of cooking six stews — you may notice a bit of a messy appearance on the bowls as they somewhat exploded during heating and were difficult to wipe off. However, they all had stovetop directions, and I'd recommend going that route if you have time. If you're hungry or camping, any of these brands make great offerings, but for the purposes of this ranking, I had to get specific about my criteria to narrow down the best.