The Canned Chicken Noodle Soup We Honestly Think Tastes Like Dishwater

When Daily Meal published a ranking of the best and worst canned chicken noodle soups, one contender sank to the bottom of the stockpot. That was Health Valley Organic Chicken Noodle Soup, which was compared unfavorably to dishwater with bits of gritty dark meat chicken and an overwhelming flavor of onion powder.

The soup boasts an impressive list of virtuous-sounding credits: Dairy-free, organic, sugar-conscious, and low-sodium. The ingredient list is brief and easy to pronounce. On paper, the Health Valley canned soup seems amazing. Or, maybe, just too good to be true.

Health Valley Organic Chicken Noodle sports tepid reviews on several platforms, with many commenters complaining of tough chicken, scant veggies, and an overabundance of thin, bland broth. Even Food Network host Kardea Brown has stated that a common chicken soup mistake is failing to take steps to coax extra flavor from the simple ingredients. Chicken soup is not complicated and relies heavily on loving attention to making some basic components sing. It seems that, in its quest to make a "healthy" soup, Health Valley skimped on the elements that would have made the product actually taste good.

There's a reason that Progresso ranked highest in our subjective ranking of chicken soups. The nutritional label prominently lists sodium and sugar as ingredients, along with other flavoring agents like tomato puree, chicken fat, garlic and onion powder, "spice," and "natural flavor." These ingredients share in common that they all enrich the broth. Naturally, Progresso's can doesn't tout the same health claims as Health Valley's. With that said, adding yummy things to the broth for flavor is only one way to improve chicken soup.

The other way is to not skimp on the filling ingredients. A great chicken soup should be hearty and bursting with bold cuts of vegetables, generous chunks of chicken, and sturdy noodles. There are ways to amp up your chicken soup experience simply by improving the way you prepare these ingredients, like adding sofrito to your soup base (simply more veg and seasoning!) or browning the ingredients before you smother them in liquid and risk washing away your flavors. It's unreasonable to expect that you can skimp on ingredients and add them to watery, tasteless broth and call it a satisfying chicken noodle soup, and that's where Health Valley goes wrong.