8 Store-Bought Pulled Pork Brands Ranked From Worst To Absolute Best

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Ahh, pork: the other white meat. Well, actually, it's red meat by USDA definition, but an '80s commercial campaign by the National Pork Board used the slogan in an effort to convince consumers to ditch chicken and swap in pork for dishes like cordon bleu and kebabs. While the campaign was certainly memorable, pork remains a lean red meat, albeit an extremely versatile one.

From chops to loins to sausages and bacon, there are dozens of cuts of pork to enjoy and ways to prepare them. My personal favorite version of pork, though, is slow-cooked and pulled. Any food that serves as a delivery vehicle for barbecue sauce is a winner in my book, but alas, not all pulled pork is created equal. 

While cooking your own at home is the preferred method, sometimes convenience is a top priority, so a prepackaged pulled pork might be the route to go. Thankfully, your local grocers offer plenty of preprepared pulled pork options, but as always, variety also means variability. I tried eight different store-bought pulled pork brands to find out which ones deserve a spot on your plate and which should stay in the store.

I'm not against shelf-stable meats. I love tuna, and the concept of a canned or pouched meat makes sense: it's an easy, on-the-go source of protein. However, just because something is possible does not mean it should be created. Case in point: Great Value's Pulled Pork in BBQ Sauce Pouch.

For one thing, this pork isn't pulled; it's pulverized. Cat food has more texture than this product, which is one step away from a meat paste. The taste isn't much better. Salt with a side of salt is the flavor profile, which makes sense considering the 2.6-ounce package contains an impressive 430 milligrams of sodium. The sauce itself is very tomato-forward and tastes cheap.

For $1.78 at Walmart, this snack is edible, but only barely. I opted to eat the pork at room temperature since heating it up requires transferring the food to a different dish, which more or less eliminates the convenience of pouched meat.

In short, don't buy shelf-stable pulled pork! There are tons of great options in the refrigerated aisle that only require a zap in the microwave, so the few minutes you might save with Great Value's Pulled Pork in BBQ Sauce Pouch is nowhere near worth it.

Thankfully, every pulled pork option from here on requires cooking and actually feels and tastes like meat. Lloyd's Fully Cooked Seasoned Shredded Pork in BBQ Sauce comes in a bright red container that makes cooking a snap. Simply remove the lid, poke a few holes in the plastic film, and microwave. It doesn't get a whole lot easier than that.

Unfortunately, speed is where my appreciation for Lloyd's ends. I love barbecue sauce, but a proper sauce-to-meat ratio matters, and Lloyd's fails miserably. This is barbecue sauce soup with bits of pulled pork floating in it. While the meat is moderately tender, I also found it a bit fatty. Plus, it's shredded so finely that pulling a substantial chunk from the lake of sauce is nearly impossible. A 16-ounce tub of Lloyd's Shredded Pork is $5.48 at Walmart, and while it's not the worst pulled pork you can buy there, it's far from the best.

Most of the precooked pulled pork you'll find at the store comes in a very similar package with nearly identical heating instructions. Kingsford is one such option. The pork and sauce come in a vacuum-sealed bag inside a microwave-safe plastic tray. After a few punctures to the bag, you pop it along with the tray in the microwave and let the meat steam to perfection. It's quick, easy, and with no added dishes, convenient.

Still, quality is the key, and Kingsford comes up just short. This is still significantly better than what Lloyd's has to offer, but I was left wanting largely due to some dry, occasionally chewy meat. Kingsford employs a much thicker, sweeter sauce than the tomato-forward version employed by the first two entries, but the sauce is asked to do too much. The meat, while it is well-shredded and still offers some larger chunks, is lacking and needs the sauce to cover any deficiencies.

I snagged a 16-ounce container of Kingsford Pulled Pork at Woodman's for $7.99. It's one of a handful of super similar options, but because the meat isn't nearly as tender or juicy as it should be, it's the lesser of the bunch.

Good & Gather, Target's store brand, could swap places with Kingsford on this list and I would have a hard time arguing. These porks are extremely similar, right down to the packaging and price, which is exactly the same.

Priced at $7.99, the Good & Gather Pulled and Seasoned Pork in Bourbon Barbecue Sauce is another saucy pulled pork, which is somewhat to the dish's detriment. The meat isn't bad; it's decently tender and juicy enough to stand on its own, but a deluge of sauce is standing in the way. 

Thankfully, this is a good sauce with a thick consistency and tasty sweetness, but there's too much. Having to separate meat from sauce for a sandwich is a pain. I'd rather add more of my own than have to remove any as I'm eating. The meat is good, though, so if you're okay fishing a bit or are simply a sauce fanatic, Good & Gather offers a quality pulled pork.

From one store brand to another, Walmart's higher-end brand, Marketside, has its own take on sauced pulled pork that's leaps and bounds better than the Great Value offering. Another bag-in-tray product that's easy to heat, Marketside gets the leg up over Kingsford and Good & Gather thanks to better meat and a more balanced sauce ratio.

This dish has some real chunks of meat. I actually had to break a few up as I tasted, but they were uniformly tender and very juicy. There were still a few fatty pieces here and there, but as much should be expected from pulled pork. The sauce on this pork is darker and richer than the others; not my favorite, but a far cry from bad. At $7.97 for 16 ounces, I saved a whole 2 cents on Marketside's Smoked and Seasoned Pulled Pork in BBQ Sauce over the previous entries, so on top of quality, it's also a deal.

Anytime I sample multiple of the same foods, it leaves me with a refrigerator full of duplicates. I love pulled pork, so leftovers aren't a problem, especially when they can be frozen, but after sampling, it means I get to dive into my favorites first and save the lesser options for later. While it's not at the top of the list, Jack Daniel's Pulled Pork is the final one that comes presauced, which made it the perfect addition to some homemade mac and cheese.

This is about as good as precooked, sauced pulled pork gets. The meat is really tender, very juicy, and perfectly shredded. There were no big chunks to break apart, and nothing was too fine — just forkful after forkful of saucy, shredded pork.

The sauce was also my favorite of the bunch. It's a bit thinner and has a hint of spice, which makes it unique. At $9.97 for 16 ounces, Jack Daniel's Pulled Pork is a bit pricier than its sauced counterparts, but it's worth a few extra dollars for the best meat-and-sauce combination I found.

Not all precooked pulled pork comes in sauce. Curly's offers a sauced and sauceless version and, given that the top pick on this list is only offered in sauceless, I opted to try another without sauce, and I'm glad I did.

The cooking instructions for this pork are a bit more complicated than most. The pork comes in a vacuum-sealed bag inside a resealable container. To cook it, you have to remove the meat, which is in a fairly solid and very dense brick thanks to the pork fat. Once you separate it, the instructions call for adding a ¼ cup of water before microwaving the container on 50% power for two and a half minutes. Adding water is certainly a step above what any of the others call for, but in the end, it's worth the minor hassle.

Curly's pork has excellent flavor — the kind of taste you'd expect from home-cooked meat. The texture is equally impressive. Tender and juicy, thanks in part to the added water, with which you could probably do just under a ¼ cup of, the shreds are even and only fatty enough to provide flavor. Priced at $6.29 for a 12-ounce container, Curly's Sauceless Pulled Pork is an excellent foundation for any meal and a product I will strongly consider buying again.

Does Costco ever miss? From a bakery that pumps out some of the best goods you can buy to rotisserie chickens the size of small dinosaurs, Costco is known as much for quantity as for quality. The Kirkland Signature Smoked Pulled Pork Rubbed with Seasonings is no different.

The 2-pound container is priced at $13.99, making it a touch less expensive than most of the others. Once again packed in a vacuum-sealed bag, this pork requires no additions. Just pop it in a microwave-safe dish and heat it for seven minutes. The inside of the package is dripping with flavorful fat that comes through in every bite. This meat is super tender, extremely juicy, and smoky in a way that none of the others came close to. Most had sauces to add flavor, but Kirkland and Curly's have to rely on the meat alone and while Curly's pork is good, the Kirkland version is excellent.

Given the versatility of unsauced pulled pork, I can't think of a reason not to keep a package of Kirkland Pulled Pork in the freezer at all times. It's easy to heat up and would complement any dish it's paired with, making it the best store-bought pulled pork I tasted.

I purchased all eight pulled pork brands from four different stores and brought them home to photograph and sample. Most packages offered a few cooking options, so I chose the microwave since it's by far the easiest. I heated each package according to the directions and snapped a few pictures while the meat cooled before diving in. My evaluations were based on flavor, texture, quality, convenience, and value. Prices are as of the date of publication and may vary based on region.