2 things I've added that has yielded some pretty decent results...adding chicken bouillon and smoked/seasoned salt. Instant upgrade.
I’m hoping someone more experienced with cooking can help get me up to speed on dressing up store-bought chicken broth. I make a solid homemade chicken broth, but I don’t always have it on hand. I would love to be able to come home and improve on a quality store-bought chicken broth so I could enjoy a quick soup even when I don’t have homemade broth.
It doesn’t seem like it would be that hard- when I make a roast chicken or a turkey tenderloin, the drippings in the bottom of the pan are so amazing that I eat them with a spoon. There’s nothing in there except potatoes, carrots, onion, garlic, salt, and pepper. Why is it magical in the bottom of a roasting pan but just sad and weak when I simmer all those ingredients in store-bought broth? What am I missing?! Schmaltz? Thanks for any recommendations you can offer!
2 things I've added that has yielded some pretty decent results...adding chicken bouillon and smoked/seasoned salt. Instant upgrade.
Just use Better Than Bouillon.
Came here to say this.
It is truly this simple. 100% reliable and delicious and cheap! No shame.
Yep, this is the best advice. This is what I was going to say.. Better Than Bouillon is great.
BtB has too much salt, just like all other bouillons. Even the low sodium variants are not palatable.
BTB is consistently the most useful item in my fridge.
So buy low sodium store chicken stock. Add some better than bouillon roasted chicken base. A little smoke paprika and some roasted vegetable base.
It might be the broth you're buying. Several years ago, for my first colonoscopy, I used the opportunity to buy all the different brands of chicken broth I could find and taste tested them. This Knorr broth gel tasted the best by far. My local grocery stores don't carry it any more, so nowdays I usually buy the roasted chicken Better than Bouillon, and it's pretty close. With the Better than Bouillon, if your broth tastes anemic & thin, you can always add a little more base to make it more robust. Of course you need to be careful due to salt content, but it is very adjustable.
Dressing up store bought chicken stock is almost as hard as making good chicken stock. In a bag in your freezer keep vegetables trimmings that would be good in stock: onion, celery, carrot, lettuce, and mushroom ends and tomato navels. When a one gallon bag is full, enjoy a rotisserie chicken, Don't pick the carcass completely clean. The actual work has three parts: (1) dump the vegetable trimmings onto a sheet pan, put the carcass on top, and roast at 400 until lightly browned. (2). put the roasted carcass and vegetables into a pot, toss in a teaspoon of herbes de Provence and a couple of bay leaves, a dozen whole peppercorns, about 3 tbsp. of salt, and about six quarts of water. Bring it to not quite a boil and let it simmer without bubbling for 3-6 hours; and (3) strain it. Very little actual work.
Get the low sodium Better than Bullion.
Agreed 💯 %
I've worked for three James Beard nominees and felt like their chicken stocks were always a little bland. There was a guy on saute with me at the last place and I tried his one day and it was perfect. We kept a scrap bucket to make stocks with and I went through it with him trying to figure out what he was doing differently and it was bell pepper. Totally rounded off the stock.
Add a splash of soys sauce to your mirepoix while it sautéed. I always have a bag of chicken wings in the freezer and toss one into broth to amp up the flavor and collagen.
When I don’t have time to make my own, I just get a box of Swanson’s ( or whatever’s cheap), and then juzzh it up with Better than Bouillon and some herbs.
Start with a better brand of broth. Store brands are the absolute worst broths and "premium organic" labels costing more are not necessarily better. Some high end delis and butcher shops in general sell stock that is pure gelatin and worth the cost, but not always accessible to people. Kitchen Basics stock and Better than Bullion are the two items I keep in my kitchen at all times. For a prepared stock, Kitchen Basics has a great aroma, nice color, and it's not a salt bomb. You get clean herbal notes and good mouthfeel. For a prepared stock there is little you need to do to dress it up aside from some additional seasoning of your choice. BTB roasted chicken is simply a great bullion and easy way to up the flavor of rice, prepared soups, veggies, you name it. The one thing a simple stock of BTB will be noticeably missing is mouthfeel, there is just not enough gelatin in the product. The easiest way to greatly improve the mouthfeel of any type of stock is to always have packets of powdered gelatin on hand. Dissolve a packet of gelatin with 8 ounces of cold stock/water until the white powder is reconstituted, about 5 to 8 minutes, then add to hot stock or bring to temp with the rest of your stock until hot. The additional gelatin will really give you that velvety mouth feel and really help flavors stick to your tongue longer. After gelatin, a dash of acid like vinegar, a dash of MSG in the form of Accent or soy sauce with a pinch of sugar will really help the flavors of the stock pop as you round out all the taste receptors.
NYT cooking reviewed these and if memory serves Target's Good n Gather rated really high especially for the price. If you buy chicken, and have freezer space, save bones and skin and veggies scraps then monthly or so cook it all up. Then let it evaporate over low heat. Freeze in ice cube trays and into ziplock and you've got nice little lumps of above average brother for whatever.
100% on the gelatin, however the packets are stupid expensive in the grocery store. Unflavored beef gelatin powder is available online for around $15/lb and works great. (Side note: Knox gelatin is actually pork derived.)
I do two things...
i do exactly that, gotta start with fresh mirepoix and deglaze w something like white wine or light beer that will add another layer of flavor to a ready-made stock. also in order to be shelf stable they are usually severely lacking in fat, so hell yes OP, schmaltz it if you got it! or use "better than bullion," or any good brand that might have more fat
If I’m feeling rich, I like the Kettle & Fire broth, the mushroom and chicken is nice and full flavored. If I’m feeling cheap or want to leave room for other flavors, I buy Simple Truth Free Range Chicken Broth - reduced sodium (I only have Kroger for groceries). Both are good and better than the name brands. I find adding in some thyme and some lightly cooked garlic also helps. Always go low sodium if you can, most are too salty and it overpowers other flavors. Try some Worcestershire for umami, or adding a Parmesan rind and simmering with the soup/sauce.
You are definitely missing the gelatin and flavor from longer cooking. You can actually just add unflavored gelatin to add body. There are already tons of great comments about adding flavor. I also recommend adding better than boullion. You could also reduce the broth by heating gently.
This is the way
Swanson’s low sodium is it for me (if I can’t have homemade). I keep it on hand for fast soups, deglazing, sauces where you just need a little.
I use store bought broth constantly. Sure homemade is good, but ain’t nobody always got time for that 🤣 You just need more spices, veggies, herbs, flavor! Things like butter, oil, thyme sprigs, bay leaves, a scoop of pesto, lemon zest or juice, tomato paste, gochujang, shredded cheeses, Dijon, cream - the world is your oyster baby! Whatever it is you’re making, you can absolutely make store bought broth shine!
Lots of BtB suggestions here, and I fully endorse them, but most of the time I can't be bothered. Give Knorr chicken bouillon powder a try. It's my magic wand for everything that calls for chicken broth, and you don't have to scoop the (delicious) goop out of a jar.
A soup of just broth and drippings does sound a bit lacklustre. I started writing suggestions for improvements but then realised you wanted something quick, so I would say make extra soup ahead of time and freeze so it’s available when you don’t have time.
They are concentrated and caramelized in the bottom of the roasting pan. That's why they taste amazing. They are diluted and pale cooked in the broth. That's why they taste sad.
The best on the market is Trader Joe's, hands down. Not the low sodium though. Trust me. I know where of I speak.
Freeze your drippings in ice cube trays. One cube to one cup of water makes the perfect stock.
if you haven't seen pressure cooker stock methods, they take an hour and produce an amazing stock from a rotisserie chicken. Pretty easy to make a lot rapidly and freeze.
I’m a huge fan of BTB low sodium, amped up with Lee Kum Kee. Add some unflavored gelatin, and you can get a pretty powerful result.
Store-bought stock as opposed to broth generally has more oomph; I agree that sb broth nowadays is very bland. I’ve even tried reducing some by half, and it still sucked. But with sb stock, I think your additions would work nicely.
I make my own broth also but there are times when I can't get to it. Use low sodium Better Than Bouillon. It's really good and it definitely is great for backup.
If you use a lot of salt then you are tongue blind and can't taste anything without a ton of salt. It takes months to be able to ween yourself off and get taste back. USDA and FDA are in alignment. See guidance.
Bouillon and pastes like Better than Bouillon have a lot of salt.
For OP u/southerncartel when I do make stock from scratch, I don't use potatoes. I find that an interesting choice. Can you explain why and where you got that idea? That said, Chef Jean-Pierre (link in next paragraph) uses parsnips which have similar characteristics. I've made stock with and without parsnips and the biggest difference I've detected is in thickness and not in flavor.
When I make my own I generally home can it in accordance with NCHFP guidelines which is pretty basic. When I use it I add mirepoix (onion, carrot, celery), garlic, S&P, often cumin. If you're making it straight through, consider the thoughts of Chef Jean-Pierre on stock, whether you make matzo ball soup or not. You should, but you don't have to. I have two gallons of my canned stock in pints and quarts at the moment.
I've made stock from raw chicken, from chicken carcass after roasting it for other uses, and from store bought rotisserie chicken (very rarely done). The rotisserie chicken stock doesn't taste very good to me. The roasted chicken remnants has been the best. I think the roasted bones make a difference.
For day-to-day cooking I use Kitchen Basics Unsalted Chicken Stock. It is good enough that I can heat it up and drink it as is. Note that unsalted means no added salt. It has 90 mg of naturally occurring sodium.
Some people really like fat. Schmaltz works but is labor intensive beyond the rendered fat you get from drippings and the carcass. Butter works also. If you overdo it you'll get a greasy mouth feel.
The magic at the bottom of the pan is from some caramelization. Season and brown your veggies in some oil or butter before you add the broth so they don't just stew in the liquid. Better than Bouillon makes a tastier broth/stock than most of the cans/cartons at the store. I consider a jar of the roast chicken, and the beef, as pantry essentials in my fridge. A little msg should help, too.