Imagine doing the serious work of whipping up mashed spuds. Would you want to go through the time and effort of following our tips for the best mashed potatoes just to mess it all up with disappointing gravy? One of our writers here at Tasting Table went on a culinary campaign to uncover the best (and worst) store-bought gravy. Based on their rankings, ShopRite’s Bowl & Basket Chicken Gravy comes in first place as the most delicious and affordable option on the list, leaving other well-known brands like Campbell’s and McCormick in the dust.
Bowl & Basket’s Chicken Gravy proved to be smooth and perfectly savory, heating up to an ideal thickness on the stove. The prominent chicken flavor is just enough to tickle your tastebuds, but not enough to overpower them. Beyond the thick gravy liquid, the mixture contains tiny pieces of chicken, adding even more umami flavor to the overall result. It also boasted the low price of $1.19 on Shoprite’s website, making it one of the cheapest gravies our writer tested.
ShopRite’s Bowl & Basket brand saved the day
Bowl & Basket is a private food label sold exclusively at ShopRite stores. Launched in 2019, it’s the product of the store’s effort to rebrand and take customer feedback into account. ShopRite and Wakefern Food Corp., Bowl & Basket’s distributor, worked together to survey customers and tailor new products based on the results. Though the store began with only a few hundred Bowl & Basket items, it now carries thousands. Everything from salad kits, canned foods, and milk to potato chips, oils, and bottled water all with high quality and lower prices.
The chicken gravy is arguably a prime example of ShopRite striving to offer better ingredients with Bowl & Basket, as it has a noticeably short ingredients list. Chicken broth, water, and rendered chicken fat are the first three components listed, followed by wheat flour, food starch, and mechanically separated chicken. The simplicity of the product proves that sometimes less really is more – unless you’re trying to upgrade your mashed potatoes, in which case, load on as much gravy, cheese, and butter as you desire.
