The Best (And Worst) Deli Meat To Buy From Walmart

The selection of groceries at Walmart covers just about anything and everything imaginable, short of perhaps truly gourmet foods. Walmart is an unexpectedly great place to buy high-quality ground beef, for example. On the other end of the spectrum, customers have found that there are at least 15 Walmart Great Value groceries that should be avoided at all costs. Since products can diverge so significantly in quality, shopping for groceries at Walmart can be a gamble without knowing what to look for ahead of time.

I visited my local Walmart Neighborhood Market in the suburbs of Las Vegas and picked up 15 deli meats covering as wide a range of types of meat and brands as possible, with some extra focus on Walmart's Great Value brand. After trying them all, I was able to determine which are worth buying and which fell short. Based on that experience, then, ahead are some of the very best deli meats at Walmart, and some deli meat products better off left on the shelf.

While chicken may be in ample supply in the raw meat aisle, sliced chicken is typically scarce in most grocery stores' deli meat aisles. Since it's so uncommon, my expectations were relatively low for Walmart's Great Value Rotisserie Chicken — I assumed it was something they sold merely for variety's sake. I was surprised, then, to find my Great Value Rotisserie Chicken to be one of the very best products from Walmart's deli department.

My favorite thing about Walmart's Great Value deli meats is their advertised lack of nitrites and nitrates, which is especially rare at their budget price point. While that might not mean it's the least processed meat you can find at the deli, it's a step in the right direction. Texturally, my Great Value Rotisserie Chicken was just slightly subpar, due to some excess moisture and relatively thin slices. Making up for that deficiency was its flavor, driven by a healthy dose of a paprika-forward spice blend. To my palate, it wasn't really reminiscent of a rotisserie chicken, but it satisfied all the same. Accenting that paprika was a blend of garlic, onion, and black pepper. With the addition of a plain mayo, that spice would shine on even the simplest of sandwiches. So, thanks to relatively natural ingredients and a standout flavor, Great Value Rotisserie Chicken is one of the Walmart deli aisle's standouts.

My local Walmart sells 9-ounce packs of its nitrite- and nitrate-free Great Value deli meats at a $3.57 price point. Those Great Value deli meats, then, balance somewhat natural ingredients with relative affordability. Those qualities are negligible, however, in Great Value's Oven Roasted Turkey, thanks to a subpar flavor that makes whatever value it may offer simply not worth it.

First off, I found the texture of my Great Value Oven Roasted Turkey perfectly fine, maintaining a meaty firmness despite thin — but not excessively so — slices. What brought the product down was its flavor, defined not by a natural turkey character but by a funky blend of added ingredients. It was hard to put my finger on just how to define that flavor, but it left a lasting impression of overt artificiality. That artificial taste lingered in my mouth for a little while afterward, amplifying my negative opinion. Since there's at least one superior sliced turkey in Walmart's deli department, the Great Value Oven Roasted Turkey's killer value is better off skipped for something that actually tastes good.

While Walmart sells its Great Value Rotisserie Seasoned Chicken Breast and Oven Roasted Turkey Breast in plastic tubs that advertise their lack of nitrites and nitrates, the Walmart's Great Value Cooked Ham I picked up was packaged in a plastic bag and contained sodium nitrite. It seems, then, that there are two tiers of Great Value meat, the less natural of which includes Great Value Cooked Ham. That said, it's sold at a $4.47 price point for 16 ounces, beating the price-per-ounce of those more natural Great Value deli meats, at $3.37 for 9 ounces.

Theoretically, I would prefer a nitrite-free deli ham, even at a higher price point, but Walmart's budget Great Value Cooked Ham is outright tastier than some of the pricier products on the shelves beside it. For what it's worth, there's nothing particularly amazing about the Great Value Cooked Ham, but a lack of weaknesses is what makes it shine. Each slice, for instance, is surprisingly thick, resulting in a dense, meaty texture. The flavor of the meat, meanwhile, is what comes through first and foremost, rather than adjunct spices or flavorings. At its pretty much unrivaled price point — and if nitrites aren't totally a deal-breaker — Great Value Cooked Ham is perfectly competent and well worth a purchase.

For a baseline, uncomplicated deli ham, Walmart's Great Value Cooked Ham gets the job done. But for some occasions, plain ham is a little too boring, which is why plenty of brands also make a sweeter honey ham. Unfortunately for Walmart shoppers coveting a sweet sandwich meat, Great Value Honey Ham just isn't up to par.

A good honey ham should balance an identifiable pork flavor with an ample, but not excessive, honey sweetness. My Great Value Honey Ham straight up had none of that, tasting only faintly sweet and just lightly fatty, without any pork character beyond that subtle fat. A bit of smoke emerged in its aftertaste but that was too little too late, and not what should be defining the flavor of a honey ham anyway. Its texture, at least, was fine. Great Value Honey Ham does not deliver on its base premise, falling well short of plenty of alternatives on the shelves of Walmart's deli department.

Those who grew up with Oscar Mayer Bologna might find it as pedestrian as, say, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I personally was never a bologna kid, which meant I was trying plain Oscar Mayer Bologna for the first time for this article. Between bologna brands that use high quality ingredients and ones you should avoid, Oscar Mayer falls firmly in the latter camp. In other words, I was a little wary of my Oscar Mayer Bologna. Then I tried it, and I loved it.

Like the best Frankenfoods — Spam, for example — Oscar Mayer Bologna is extreme, jam-packed with salt and pork fat. It's not good for you, but it's delicious. Despite a sort of slimy appearance, its texture worked for me too, achieving heft without becoming chewy. Just because of its unhealthfulness, I'm not going to buy Oscar Mayer Bologna again anytime soon. Nevertheless, it tastes great, and falls among the very best Walmart's deli aisle has to offer.

This ranking of Walmart deli meats was essentially my introduction to sliced bologna. I tried Bar-S Classic Bologna immediately after my Oscar Mayer Bologna had impressed me to a degree I had not expected. As it turned out, Bar-S Classic Bologna was the lesser of the two products.

Around the edge of each Bar-S bologna slice is a red strip of plastic that has to be removed before eating. For whatever reason, seeing plastic adhered to my meat gave me a bad impression off the bat. At first, I thought the flavor of my Bar-S bologna was fine, richer in meat and lower in salt than Oscar Mayer's bologna. However, an excess of black pepper took over, and I found that the extremity of that black pepper flavor ruined the experience. For the best bologna at Walmart, then, skip Bar-S and stick with Oscar Mayer.

What makes Black Forest ham different from the regular kind is a darker color and smokier flavor, based on the way ham is prepared in Germany's Black Forest region. Land O' Frost produces what it calls an "Old World Style" Black Forest Ham, invoking the European origins of the Black Forest designation.

Despite that attempt at suggesting quality with its "Old World Style" label, I didn't feel like my Land O' Frost Black Forest Ham was a premium product. But that was okay, because I enjoyed it all the same. Each slice of my Land O' Frost ham was relatively thin, but not quite to the point of sacrificing meatiness. Its flavor was equally fatty and salty, complemented by the right amount of smoke. Land O' Frost kept that smoke flavor subtle enough to hide any possible artificiality. All in all, I thought this particular Black Forest ham was better than plain ham, ranking as one of the best choices in Walmart's deli aisle.

Farmer John's packaging for its sliced Cooked Ham spotlights the fact it contains 43% less sodium than its "regular ham." I can't imagine what that supposedly regular ham might taste like, because I found my Farmer John Cooked Ham excessively salty. Missing was an identifiable pork flavor, giving me the feeling I was overindulging in salt but with nothing else to help justify that fact.

Compounding my issue with the salt was a wet, chewy texture. Looking back at the packaging, I noticed Farmer John describes this as a "ham and water product," with 32% of its weight coming from added ingredients. Between a salt-dominant flavor and the fact that each slice of ham is apparently ⅓ water, I had a viscerally negative reaction to each bite of my Farmer John Cooked Ham. Pretty much any other ham in Walmart's deli aisle is better than this one.

FUD is a meat and cheese brand founded in Mexico, so it's likely not available in Walmarts nationwide. My Walmart carried packages of FUD's so-called Selecto Cooked Ham. The word "Selecto" is accompanied by a trademark symbol, and appears to be proprietary to the FUD brand. While it's not entirely clear what FUD is trying to indicate with its Selecto branding, I found this to be a solid, no-frills, baseline ham.

My sole issue with my FUD Selecto Cooked Ham was that it was a little sinewy. Other than that, its texture was fine. Its flavor was pretty much what most would expect from a sliced ham, balancing salt and a perceptible pork flavor, with nothing out of the ordinary to color those core elements. While I preferred the flavor of my Land O' Frost Black Forest Ham, FUD Selecto Cooked Ham stands alongside Great Value Cooked Ham as one of two perfectly competent deli meat options at Walmart.

Among 11 famous brands behind Walmart's Great Value products is Tyson Foods, which happens to be the company that owns Hillshire Farm. Notably, the packaging of some Great Value and Hillshire Farm products is virtually identical, housing a plastic bag of sliced meat within a hard-shell plastic container. As it turned out, Great Value Honey Ham and Hillshire Farm Ultra Thin Honey Ham actually tasted quite a bit different, but like its Great Value cousin, I thought my Hillshire Farm honey ham came up short.

Contrary to what I was expecting, I enjoyed my Hillshire Farm honey ham's "ultra thin" slices. Piling a few together was fun, but ultimately not worth it, considering their somewhat unpleasant taste. At the forefront of my Hillshire Farm honey ham's flavor was a huge dose of sweetness. Contrasting with that sweetness was salty, smoky, fatty pork. Simply put, those two components didn't mesh together very well. Whereas a proper honey ham would integrate its added flavors with the natural character of its pork, I found Hillshire Farm Ultra Thin Honey Ham's combination of flavors totally incongruous, more disorienting than enjoyable.

What makes the Buddig brand unique is the fact it produces single servings of various deli meats at a 92-cent price point. Also of note is the fact Buddig makes a corned beef, which is a bit of a rarity at grocery stores among countless sliced turkeys and sliced hams. As cool as my 92-cent packet of Buddig Corned Beef was in theory, I just didn't enjoy it all that much.

My Buddig corned beef did, at least, taste like corned beef, with a slightly funky, spice-forward meat flavor. However, an excess of salt and preservatives imbued it with a blatantly artificial character. Texturally, it was sliced thinner than a typical deli corned beef, and a little weirdly wet too. For its price point and convenience, Buddig Corned Beef deserves its place on Walmart shelves, but for any reason other than value, Buddig Corned Beef is a letdown.

Gallo Salame is an Italian-American brand that specializes in salami and pepperoni. Walmart carries Gallo's All Natural Uncured Dry Salami, which is notably free from nitrites and nitrates — its ingredients pretty much consist of just pork and spices.

Like any good salami, my Gallo Salame slices were thick and chewy. Matching that chewiness was a pronounced fatty flavor. Even more prominent was a burst of salt and black pepper. At times I thought the black pepper almost became excessive, but thanks to the extremity of its fattiness, the salami ended up achieving a sort of balance. The only caveat I would add to my enjoyment of my Gallo salami was that, due to its chewiness, I would strictly pair it with soft bread and not a hard baguette. Otherwise, true to its name, Gallo Salame makes a pretty dang good salami.

StoneRidge Ranch sells its Shaved Deli Style Pastrami in a microwavable plastic box, stocked next to the refrigerated plastic boxes of premade BBQ and mac and cheese, for example, rather than the rest of the deli meats. Also of note is the fact it's sold in a sizable, 14-ounce package at a $10.93 price point.

I initially tried my StoneRidge Ranch Shaved Deli Style Pastrami cold before heating it up per its microwave instructions. In both cases, I thought it was a little weak in both texture and flavor. My pastrami slices were dry and chewy despite their thinness, and their flavor was overly black pepper-forward, without enough oily meat to match. Those deficiencies were altogether minor, but — especially since StoneRidge Ranch Shaved Deli Style Pastrami is priced like a premium product — they were enough to negatively color the experience all the same.

Among various products made by the Smithfield meat brand is sliced deli meat, packaged under the Prime Fresh Delicatessen label. Its packaging is minimal, more closely resembling freshly sliced deli turkey than a typical grocery store product. Prime Fresh Delicatessen also utilizes a natural recipe for its Oven Roasted Turkey Breast, lacking nitrites or nitrates.

In most cases, deli turkeys taste a bit artificial, even if that's just due to high salt content. My Prime Fresh Delicatessen Oven Roasted Turkey Breast, however, more closely resembled sliced Thanksgiving turkey than typical deli meat. Like a Thanksgiving turkey, it was a tad dry, but fortunately fell just short of excessive dryness. Otherwise, it tasted like turkey meat first and foremost, accented by just enough salt. Because of its strong turkey character, I thought it would be ideal for a classic Gobbler sandwich. On the strength of such a uniquely natural flavor, I'd say Prime Fresh Delicatessen makes the single best sliced turkey at Walmart.

Among some of the more unique products in Walmart's deli department is Oscar Mayer's pre-built "Sub Kit" of Smoked Ham and Extra Lean Smoked Turkey Breast. Within each package are layers of alternating ham and turkey slices intended to be placed directly on sandwich bread, more convenient than normal thanks to that pre-layering.

What my Oscar Mayer Sub Kit offered in convenience, it lacked in flavor. First of all, I could hardly tell the difference between the ham and turkey visually. That matched a pervasive blandness in each meat, with the turkey tasting nominally better than the ham, thanks to a slightly more prominent meat character. In both meats was an excess of salt — this is an Oscar Mayer product, after all — and the ham was a little rubbery. Together, both meats combined into a salt bomb with no personality. At-home sub sandwiches, then, would benefit from opting for something other than Oscar Mayer's Sub Kit.

I chose my selection of Walmart deli meats based on three main principles — showcasing a range of Great Value products, including as many different brands as possible, and covering the widest variety of types of deli meat I could. The one category somewhat lacking from my selection was natural and/or organic brands. That's because I based my selection on a search for deli meat on the Walmart website, and many of those products did not come up in that initial search for whatever reason.

I picked up all the products I had pre-selected from my local Walmart Neighborhood Market in the suburbs of Las Vegas. At home, I tried every lunch meat in one sitting, eating at least 75% and often at least one slice of every meat. My assessments are based entirely on this experience and not any prior thoughts I may have had on any of the included products.