Welcome to this week’s Try Me Tuesday. As a reminder…each week I will grab a new set of products and test them out. I’ll put the Publix brand up against a national brand product and report back.
I know many times I struggle with what brand to choose. Often a sale or a coupon/sale combination make that an easier decision…but what about those times when you need an item and there is not a sale? Do you grab the house brand or pay more and get the national brand? More importantly, is there really a difference in taste?
This week we tried Publix Cream of Chicken Condensed Soup.
Publix Cream of Chicken, 10.5 oz, $0.87
Calories – 120
Total Fat – 8g
Sodium – 800mg
Total Carb – 10g
Dietary Fiber – 1g
Sugars – 1g
Ingredients: Chicken Broth, Wheat Flour, Chicken Meat (Cooked Chicken Meat, Water, Modified Food Starch, Salt, Sodium Phosphate), Soybean Oil, Contains Less Than 2% Of The Following Ingredients: Unmodified Food Starch, Salt, Cream, Chicken Fat, Modified Corn Starch, Whey, Soy Protein Concentrate, Sugar, Onion Powder, Seasoning (Hydrolyzed Soy, Corn, Wheat Gluten Proteins, Autolyzed Yeast, Natural Flavor, Torula Yeast, Garlic Powder, Disodium Inosinate, Disodium Guanylate, Dextrose, Thiamine Hydrochloride, Tartaric Acid, Gum Arabic), Monosodium Glutamate, Autolyzed Yeast Extract, Oleoresin Carrot.
Campbell’s Cream of Chicken, 10.5 oz, $1.43
Calories – 120
Total Fat – 8g
Sodium – 870mg
Total Carb – 9g
Dietary Fiber – 0g
Sugars – 1g
Ingredients: Chicken Stock, Modified Food Starch, Vegetable Oil, Wheat Flour, Chicken Meat, Cream (Milk), Chicken Fat, Contains Less Than 2% Of: Salt, Whey*, Water, Monosodium Glutamate, Soy Protein Concentrate, Yeast Extract, Flavoring, Beta Carotene For Color, Soy Protein Isolate, Sodium Phosphate, Chicken*, Celery Extract, Sunflower Oil, Onion Extract, Butter (Cream, Annatto). *dehydrated
RESULTS
- Publix – 1
- Campbell’s – 3
Since this is an ingredient that is best used in a recipe, I decided to use the condensed soups to make some mini pot pies. I basically split my ingredients so that the only thing different was the soup. I try to be as fair as possible so as not to skew the results.
I did a mini taste test before I added the soup to the other ingredients just to see how they compared before being cooked. I noticed a few differences. I preferred the taste and texture of the Campbell’s soup. It was definitely creamier than the Publix version and I thought the taste was a bit richer.
Once I had the chicken, onions, peas, carrots and all my other ingredients mixed in…it was really hard to even see a difference.
Everyone agreed that the pies were crazy similar in flavor. My guys all complimented the taste of both but as you can see above, the Campbell’s version got the win this week.
The nutritional info is quite similar. The biggest difference that I see is the sodium content. The Campbell’s has 70 mg more than the Publix version. That might be of interest to some folks?!
I personally think that there was very little difference in taste once cooked up with the other ingredients. I am not sure that anyone would be able to tell the difference if they hadn’t tasted the pies side by side. That’s a pretty significant price difference…and in a situation where there was no coupon or sale, I would have no problem grabbing the Publix version for my recipes.
So have you tried both? Did you have a preference?
