The Best Canned Beef Stew Comes From A Modern Food Brand

Beef stew is one of the most comforting meals to warm us up on a cold day. And while we have plenty of recipes for beef stew that span culinary cultures, they're all a long labor of love. So, if you don't have the time to slow cook beef, broth, and veggies to stewed perfection, canned stew is a much more convenient option. And we found the very best option to grab off grocery store shelves. We tasted five different canned beef stews, ranking them according to how interesting their flavors were as well as how balanced their textures and consistencies were.

The winner by a long shot was Yellowstone Cowboy Beef Stew. Before heating this stew up, we knew just by sight alone that it was going to be good. It had a visibly thick and creamy consistency, which differentiates stew from soup, and visible chunks of beef and tender vegetables. The beef stew is packed with cooked beef, potatoes, and carrots, seasoned with onion powder, celery, salt, and other spices. The beefy broth remained thick and hearty, a far cry from its watery, thin competitors. We also loved the large ratio of beef to veggies which really help the tender beef pieces shine as the star of the stew, with the potatoes and carrots bringing a more tender textural contrast and an earthy complement to the beef's umami-richness. While the broth could've been more flavorful, the combination of consistency, texture, and ingredient ratio put Yellowstone in first place.

Yellowstone's Cowboy Beef Stew garnered some pretty satisfied customers who took to social media to provide glowing reviews. One TikTok review noted a promising visual, stating, "there are chunks of carrots, chunks of potatoes, and most importantly, chunks of beef." The look of the soup resulted in a taste as satisfying as it appeared. The reviewer complimented the fact that "the beef actually has some texture to it," which he compared to a beef jerky-like chew. A YouTube review thought the ratio of potatoes and carrots to beef fell short, but they said, "I give it a pass because the flavor of this beef stew is excellent."

Of course, not all the reviews were good. And one YouTube review was quite scathing, stating, "I was absolutely flabbergasted at the lack of flavor and texture in this with the exception of the petrified flavorless pieces of meat."  The reviewer bemoaned the lack of fat which they attribute to the root cause of its tastelessness. That said, many of the taste test reviews stated that the flavor of the stew is vastly improved by the addition of salt.

You can also make a can of Yellowstone beef stew taste infinitely better with the help of a red wine reduction. If that sounds too time consuming, a dash of Worcestershire sauce would pack a spicy umami punch to enhance the taste of the beef. Dried and fresh herbs are always welcome for a fresh, aromatic boost.