The scores
Stella & Chewy’s Raw Blend Baked Kibble: A (90/100) — Excellent. Chicken + chicken meal lead, with freeze-dried chicken, liver, and heart added back into the baked kibble. The only A-tier baked-plus-raw hybrid in the US mainstream market.
Orijen Original: A (90/100) — Excellent. Fresh chicken + raw turkey + fresh chicken giblets + raw whole herring + raw whole hake + fresh eggs + raw turkey liver pack the top seven. The Champion Petfoods WholePrey flagship.
How the ingredients compare
The top five ingredients:
Stella & Chewy’s: Chicken, Chicken Meal, Peas, Lentils, Pea Protein
Orijen Original: Fresh Chicken, Raw Turkey, Fresh Chicken Giblets (Liver, Heart), Raw Whole Herring, Raw Whole Hake
Orijen’s top five is all animal protein, all fresh or raw — no meal-form concentrate, no carbohydrate until position twelve (whole red lentils). That’s a fundamentally different ingredient-list architecture than anything else in the US market. Stella & Chewy’s Raw Blend takes a more conventional baked-kibble approach at the top (fresh chicken + chicken meal) and then uses legume density (peas + lentils + pea protein) to hit its protein target. The freeze-dried raw additions — chicken, liver, heart — come in positions eleven through thirteen.
The protein-source philosophy is the real divide. Orijen’s WholePrey approach mirrors what a wolf would eat — meat, organ, bone, fish, egg — by including those same components as ingredients. Stella & Chewy’s approximates the same outcome through freeze-dried raw pieces blended into a baked kibble base, which keeps the price lower than Orijen’s flagship line. Both formulas result in high-protein, low-carb diets, but Orijen commits more ingredient-list real estate to animal proteins while Stella & Chewy’s gives more to legume-based plant proteins.
Further down, Stella & Chewy’s adds chicken fat, dried egg product, pea starch, natural flavor, flaxseed, freeze-dried chicken, freeze-dried chicken liver, freeze-dried chicken heart, and pumpkinseeds. Orijen adds whole red lentils, whole chickpeas, whole peas, chicken liver oil, whole green lentils, whole pinto beans, and a premix heavy on chelated minerals and probiotics. Orijen’s legume mix is more diverse; Stella & Chewy’s concentrates on peas plus the freeze-dried raw inclusions.
Where Stella & Chewy’s pulls ahead
More accessible price. Stella & Chewy’s Raw Blend lands meaningfully cheaper per pound than Orijen at Chewy, Petco, and Amazon — often 20–35% less. For owners who want to access the A tier without the Orijen price point, this is the pragmatic path.
Raw inclusions visible in the kibble. The freeze-dried raw chicken, liver, and heart pieces are visibly distinct in the bag — recognizably raw rather than ground into the kibble. For owners interested in transitioning toward a raw-feeding philosophy, Stella & Chewy’s offers a genuine middle step rather than marketing language.
US manufacturing. Stella & Chewy’s operates its own US facility with strong quality control. Orijen is also manufactured at the Champion Petfoods DogStar Kitchen in Kentucky, but some owners specifically prefer independent US brands over WellPet-scale operations. Shop on Amazon →
Where Orijen holds its own
Unmatched animal-protein density in the top ingredients. Seven named animal proteins in the top seven ingredients is unique in the US dry-food market. No other mainstream brand commits that much ingredient-list real estate to fresh and raw animal inputs. For owners who evaluate food primarily by the top-of-label composition, Orijen is the gold standard.
Fresh rather than freeze-dried. Orijen’s WholePrey approach uses fresh chicken, raw turkey, raw herring, raw hake, and fresh eggs — included as ingredients before the kibble is extruded at low temperature. Stella & Chewy’s uses freeze-dried pieces added to an already-baked kibble. Both approaches preserve nutrition, but Orijen’s ingredient list carries more fresh and raw weight upfront.
Champion Petfoods WholePrey methodology. Orijen was the brand that pioneered the WholePrey approach — using fresh meat, organ, bone, cartilage, fish, and egg proportionally. Two decades of formulation refinement show in the ingredient list. For owners who want to buy into a specific nutrition philosophy with a long track record, Orijen has the deepest provenance. Shop on Amazon →
The bottom line
If you want the most animal-protein-dense, fresh-ingredient-first formulation on the US market and price isn’t the blocker, Orijen Original is the A-tier benchmark — seven named animal proteins in the top seven ingredients. If you want A-tier quality with raw-feeding DNA at a lower price point, Stella & Chewy’s Raw Blend is the right match — baked kibble plus visible freeze-dried raw pieces. Both legitimately earn A/90, but from different philosophies. See our best high-protein dog food guide for more A-tier options.