Canada’s Best Chicken Broth: A Definitive Ranking

There’s this soup I make on evenings when I have no time, but need to feed two hungry, picky kids. You pan-fry a handful of short noodles for a couple of minutes, top it with a carton of chicken broth, throw in a cup or two of chopped vegetables and in the last 90 seconds, dribble in a wide ribbon of beaten eggs. It’s thick, comforting, colourful, takes precisely 15 minutes to make—and always gets slurped down.

Its success, like many other emergency dinner non-recipe recipes, relies entirely on how good the chicken broth is. As much as I love making my own, especially after roasting a whole bird, I’m also human, and I use the boxed stuff. Not infrequently. Given the wide range in quality among packaged chicken broth on the market, it’s worth taking the time to find your favourite. Brand reputation and even price don’t necessarily determine a great one, so we set out to find our own, sipping our way through 10 widely available brands.

Imagine Chicken Bone Broth, $4 for 946 mL

“Imagine…if this broth had flavour,” wrote one tester, among a slew of comments about this option’s slightly grayish colour and ashy aftertaste. We really wanted to like this one—unlike the regular stuff, bone broth should have a thicker texture and richer flavour—but alas.

Pacific Chicken Bone Broth, $9 for 946 mL

This broth had a simple, inoffensive chicken note upon first sip, but a lingering plant-based aftertaste: some tasters described it as oat- or mushroom-like. For $9 a carton, this broth didn’t clear the bar for flavour.

Kitchen Basics Chicken Broth, $3.29 for 956 mL

Nearly everyone detected a strong celery flavour in this broth, throwing them off the taste of the chicken. Not a complete miss, but not a favourite, either.

No Name Chicken Broth, $2 for 946 mL

Upon first pour, the broth from this brand’s iconic yellow packaging had an off-putting, slightly greenish tinge to it. It fared better in the flavour department, with some testers detecting flavours of corn and celery.

Compliments Chicken Broth, $2 for 946 mL

Among big-name grocer value brands, Compliments landed solidly in the middle of the pack. “Light and salty,” was noted more than once; the chicken flavour was quite subtle.

PC Chicken Bone Broth, $4 for 900 mL

Among the three bone broths included in this lineup, PC’s version fared the best in terms of colour and texture: It has a noticeably thicker viscosity and clean chicken flavour. There was also a strong black pepper note that a number of tasters didn’t love, however.

Irresistibles Life Smart Chicken Broth, $2 for 900 mL

You’ll notice this is the only low-sodium broth in the lineup. In trying to include as many grocery brands as possible, we included in this option in the absence of any other Metro-made chicken broth—and were pleasantly surprised at how it holds up against some of the saltier options on this list.

Campbell’s Chicken Broth, $2 for 900 mL

Testers really like the chicken flavour in Campbell’s broth, but across the board noted that it tasted surprisingly salty compared to its counterparts.

Longo’s Chicken Broth, $2 for 946 mL

Unlike other picks that featured overpowering vegetable flavours, the caramelized-onion notes in this light, tasty broth complemented the taste of chicken very well, making it among the top picks among the Chatelaine team. Clear, not-too-salty and highly sippable, this pick is an excellent choice for a soup base.

T&T Chicken Broth, $1 for 398 mL

This tiny little can clocks in at half the size of most packages we tried, but packs twice as much flavour: A rich, seasoned broth with a lingering chicken fat aftertaste. Every descriptor from our tasters noted how much like fresh chicken broth this option either smelled or tasted like, and at just over $1 a can, it’s an excellent deal. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it also has a higher sodium content compared to all the other brands we tried. If this is incompatible with your diet, we’d suggest reserving this pantry staple as a seasoning agent, braising liquid or other supporting-role use than as a sipping broth. Otherwise? Pour on the flavour!

How we select our products. We’re committed to finding the best and most accessible pantry ingredients, and that means being able to test and judge them fairly: in the same place, at the same time, under the same conditions. This means not every single brand available on the national market is going to make it to our Toronto-based kitchen. Some items are only regionally available in a specific province, while others are priced well out of the average grocery budget. Here’s what we guarantee: at least half of our picks will always be available nationally, we will always include selections from major grocery store chains. And if there’s a pick you really think we missed, we’d love to hear about it: letters@chatelaine.com.