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Whole Chicken in a Can Taste Test

20090430-cannedchicken.jpg

Photograph by Tracy O'Connor

Ever see a can give birth to a chicken before? Head to I Hate My Message Board for all the gooey photos. Blogger Tracy O'Connor documents the uncanning of a Sweet Sue Canned Whole Chicken and tastes test it so you don't have to. Ingredient-wise it's inoffensive—there's just chicken, water, and salt. Unsurprisingly, it doesn't taste very good ("it all tasted like all the flavor had been cooked out"), despite how delicious the can says it should taste. Full-on chicken goo action, after the jump.

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What sound doth this chicken make? Shloop? Ploop? Fwwuup? Photograph by Tracy O'Connor

[via Food Network Humor]

For another fun description sans visual accompaniment, read Paul Lukas's review at Core77. Once a quivering mound of congealed goop, always a quivering mound of congealed goop:

After following the directions to chill the product, I opened the can, dumped the contents into a large pan, and found myself staring at a quivering mound of congealed goop. Figuring there must be a fowl in there somewhere, I pawed my way through the gelatinous mass and, sure enough, discovered one very sorry-looking chicken about the size of a Cornish hen. I poked at a wing; it fell off.

And to the few of you whose appetite for more canned chicken action has yet to abate, the A.V. Club reviewed a different brand of canned chicken with video documentation back in February.

33 Comments:

Does anyone remember that "flashy thingy" from Men In Black? I need it NOW!!!! Set for 5 minutes ago....before I saw that picture. YIKES!!!!!
Sweet Sue I beg you to go out of business and take that thing with you.... and bury it.

That kid is definitely going to suffer from poultry traumatic stress disorder.

the flashy thing would be great right about now. i am quite glad i'm not having chicken for dinner.

Where do you buy this? I haven't seen them in any grocery I ever go to... is it at the 99 cent store?

O-M-G! Flashy thing! Please Flashy thing me right now! Although, this would make for a hilarious mother's day gift. Oh that would be hilarious! Where can I get this stuff? I wanna get it for my mother!

6 cans for $49.99 on Amazon, complete with snarky review "I think this is a superb idea for quick last-minute meals. However, I will wait for what I believe will be Sweet Sue's next venture: an entire cow in a can."

Yeah, but does it really look any worse than canned ham?

eiwww slimy goop!
meh, guess its just fat anyway in the end lol...
do not want.

You know, I can almost smell what that smells like, because that picture was so traumatizing I'm now hallucinating. I imagine it smells a combination of wet dog and death.

I wonder if it is worthwhile for making a stock at least... better than premade stock hopefully.

Probably not.

I wish I never saw that...

what a waste of a chicken's life

Sweet Sue...Sweet Jesus!

OMG, it looks like a chicken emerging from a Matrix cocoon! "Neo, hand me the salt n pepper".

Quick, take me back to the picture of the Tony Luke roast pork sandwich!

@akwardcabbage - i agree. what a waste of a chickens life.

they should have designed the package to look like a "garbage" can.

I can't believe that there would be demand for that type of product. It looks horrendous!

It makes Spam look appetizing.

Those of us who suffer from a rare medical disorder that restricts us to eating ONLY canned foods are very grateful to Sweet Sue for bringing chicken into our lives.

I am completely laughing at all the comments especially the Matrix reference. Thank you for making my Friday morning.

BTW, yuck!

Dang! I'm a pretty happy carnivore but that picture alone makes me feel like I should seriously reconsider.

Wow - I forgot all about Sweet Sue. My folks used to buy a can to pack along in our camping trips. This was back in the late 50's early 60's. Then mom would pick the chicken and add broth and noodles and we'd have a soupy/noodle dinner. I remember it tasting okay - not objectionable, but not as good as when she used a fresh chicken. We also had canned bacon (really! - strips of bacon wrapped up in a spam sized can) canned hams and the usual tuna and chicken in cans. These were all cooked in the little stove of the kind of camper that fit on the back of a pickup truck.

i just can't believe you would even sample that!

I don't think even my cats would eat that. Or the dogs, for that matter.

Seriously, how long til SLop uses this in a episode? I bet it'd be "super simple" to put it into one of her recipes.

@maered - "wet dog and death." Still laughing at that one!

This brings back fond memories of the can I bought and passed around to my daughter and her friends. We would pantry hide it, but never had the nerve to open it. I wonder where it is now...

I have actually eaten that stuff numerous times and it really is not that bad. Straight out of the can it is rather flavorless, but it can be incorporated in to a recipe for cooked chicken fairly easily. The gel that forms around it is just from the bones and will form around a fresh chicken that has been chilled as well.

If you guys are this squeamish about canned chicken you would never make it as a really poor person.

It reminds me of that scene from "The Bodysnatchers". As they were coming out of their cocoons.

First I must apologize to 1stmakearoux. I ADORE Spam. Now to this obscenity in a can. I have only seen it in the midwest and I remember my Grandmother in Plymouth, Michigan using it often for [tasteless] chicken salads and sandwiches. It was very cheap at that time - about sixty years ago and it indeed looked gross. The only good part of the chicken in a can was the chicken soup Grandma made with the gelled broth. Now that was actually tasty. Thanks, winkyjo, for the visual of "cow in a can."

YUMMY, the gelatinous GLOP-GLAZE was the selling point for me and the pale pastey almost blue hue the cooking gave the chicken was the perfect compliment to the GLOP-GLAZE. Thanks for the blog I'll be on the lookout for it next time I go shopping and have the craving for such a Gastronomical Gourmet Offering or is it simply gastronomically offensive. Excuse me while I hurl !

What next? Canned whole turkey???

I believe this chicken has had too much to drink. I mean who walks around with a can on their head?

"Other Excellent Uses

Creamed chicken and mushrooms, chicken ala king, fricassee or serve cold just as chicken comes from the can."

Ye gods.

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