Wendy's Sells Chili In A Can — But Is It The Same As What You Get Fresh?

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

There might be a compelling reason to think twice before you order a Wendy's Frosty, but we believe the company's chili is a major underdog in the race for the best unconventional drive-thru side order. Oh, sure, you can also get a baked potato at a Wendy's restaurant, which is a novelty among fast food sides, but that chili hits every time. It's beefy, beany, and chockablock full of belly-warming goodness. 

Come to find out, however, Wendy's has broadened its horizons and expanded to chili you can eat at home anytime, thanks to a canned version available in the grocery store. We've seen it on Amazon (as a six-pack) and perched on the shelves at our local supermarket. Us Foodies are big fans of cooking chili at home — just refer to our spicy, savory turkey chili recipe — but it's hard to beat the convenience of either takeout or canned foods. The question is, how do the canned and fast food versions of Wendy's chili compare?

Wendy's makes its chili fresh every day in-store, with its meat component coming from – per the claims of purported employees writing online – burgers that were not consumed the previous day. Looking at the ingredients lists of both chilis, you see a lot of the usual suspects: ground beef, green pepper, beans, and tomato products. However, the canned chili alone contains both "beef flavor" and "smoke flavor," as well as preservatives lacking in the restaurant version. The restaurant chili carries allergen warnings for milk and soy, while the canned chili just contains a warning for soy.

In the Walmart reviews for Wendy's canned chili, one comment broke the difference down: "I thought that this chili was really really good. It's not what they serve out of the restaurant." A YouTube content creator actually preferred the canned version, opining that it was thicker and meatier than a serving that he ordered from his local drive-thru. On Reddit, some users balked at the cost of the canned chili, saying it was pricier than even a large order at Wendy's itself, but the taste earned raves: "Definitely the best canned chili I have ever had. I'm not even exaggerating, it's millions of miles ahead of all the other brands." However, on yet another Reddit thread, where there was even more praise for the canned chili, a commenter summed up what everyone was thinking: "Unfortunately, Wendy's canned chili doesn't taste like the chili at Wendy's."

It seems that the verdict is in: both Wendy's in-restaurant chili and its canned chili are tasty, but they are simply not the same thing. You likely won't be disappointed by the canned version if you judge it merely as a canned chili, but you might get a pang if you are hoping for a 1:1 replacement for what you get at a Wendy's drive-thru. Given that the ingredients are slightly different, this wasn't an altogether shocking discovery. It's good to know that you have options as a consumer other than making your own chili, but those options (canned versus takeout) are slightly distinct from one another.