Canned Whole Chicken Actually Exists, And We're Not Sure Why

There are thousands of products on American store shelves serving twice as many culinary purposes; the extent of what you can do with food is limited only by your budget and your creativity. There are many products you've likely never heard of that could be game-changing if only you knew they existed, and hunting through a grocery store for new and unexpected items can be a surprisingly fun time.

But we're not here to talk about that sort of product. Instead, we're here to talk about a product whose existence is honestly very confusing: canned chicken. Yes, canned chicken exists — specifically canned whole chicken — and it's even been routinely featured as a challenge on TV shows like "Cutthroat Kitchen." People on YouTube attest that it smells horrific – though, apparently, it tastes surprisingly okay. (The consensus is: "Yeah, that's chicken.") But even if the taste isn't a problem, why would someone buy one? What advantage does this product offer that fresh chicken doesn't?

It's important to note that canning isn't inherently the issue here. Canning products makes a lot of sense when you're dealing with something that spoils quickly and isn't readily available in certain areas. Canned shellfish, for example, is such a huge industry because the quality of the stuff you're getting — once you get far enough inland — isn't going to be worth the cost. But chicken is readily available almost everywhere, and it doesn't generally vary in quality by geographic location. Availability just isn't a notable advantage for an entire canned chicken.

It would be one thing if canned chicken saved consumers money, but indications are it's actually more expensive than the fresh version of the bird. Obviously, prices vary, but Foodland, for instance, sells canned whole chicken for over $10. A cooked grocery store rotisserie chicken, meanwhile, generally comes in around less than $10 in most American shops. So, there's no savings to be found here.

Convenience doesn't help, either. It's not like canned whole chicken comes deboned for your convenience or anything; it's literally just a chicken carcass in a can. And since a lot of grocery stores sell pre-picked, broken-down rotisserie chickens, consumers can save both money and time by buying a rotisserie.

Now, to play devil's advocate, there is one (and only one) advantage that canned whole chicken has: shelf-stability. When properly stored, canned chicken lasts around three to five years. Fresh raw chicken, meanwhile, lasts about two days, while cooked chicken leftovers last around three to four. So, yes, someone creating a doomsday bunker would certainly find a use for this stuff. Likewise, if you live away from any source of fresh food and can't often get to a grocery store, it might be useful.

But short of that rather specific scenario, you're not going to get much benefit from this as compared to a cooked rotisserie chicken. Again, rotisserie chickens are widely available, cheaper, more convenient, and taste better (even if the canned whole chicken doesn't taste as bad as you might expect). Unless rotisseries simply aren't available where you are, it's hard to see why someone would buy this.