Portobello Mushroom Soup with Homemade Chicken Stock (2024)

FAQs

Can you just use chicken stock for soup? ›

In most cases, stock and broth are interchangeable. If you're in the soup aisle and can't remember whether the recipe called for stock or broth, either will do for making soup, gravy, or a flavorful pot of rice or grains. Keep in mind that stock is unseasoned, and broth is seasoned.

"Ground paprika, turmeric, nutmeg, ground ginger, and other powdered spices add a touch of color and spiciness to broths," she says. As a general rule, use fresh herbs at or near the end of cooking and dried herbs and spices early on. This helps you get the flavors you're looking for in the right balance.

Place chicken parts, onion, celery, carrot, salt, and cloves in a large soup pot or Dutch oven. Add 6 cups water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 1 hour.

Stock is generally made from bones, and broth is generally made from flesh. In both cases, they are often supported with aromatic vegetables, but in the case of stock, left unseasoned for maximum flexibility in recipes, whereas broth will usually contain at least salt and pepper.

You can use stock vs broth interchangeably. Stock will have more flavor and a stronger chicken taste than broth. It is also thicker and will require less water to use in recipes. If you are using it for soup, or want the flavor of stock without as much thickness, you can use broth.

Stock adds flavor, color, and richness to your cooking. But it's also time-consuming to make and expensive (well, more expensive than water, anyway). Water, on the other hand is free and readily available—but it doesn't do anything in the flavor department.

That minimum ratio—a pound of chicken per quart of water—was sufficient to extract enough gelatin from the wings to give me the loosely gelled stock above. If you can pack in even more chicken and aromatics, your stock will only get richer and more gelatinous.

Bring it up to a gentle simmer, which means little bubbles on the surface here and there, and keep it there. If you'd like, you can occasionally skim the scum that floats to the top, but it's also fine to skip the skimming. I've found that two hours is a good amount of time for simmering chicken stock.

The Stock or Broth. Once you've built up your soup's foundation with aromatics and seasonings, it's time to add a stock or broth. No single element in a soup wields as much influence on its taste as its liquid. You will want about a cup per serving: a little more for a brothy soup, a little less for a hearty one.

Information. Chicken broth can be refrigerated for 3-4 days and frozen (for best quality) for 2-3 months.

Which is healthier, stock or broth? ›

And the Winner Is..

Stock! Whether homemade or store-bought it has more protein and usually less sodium per serving as compared to broth. Plus, the flavor is just better which means you'll start with something tastier and will hopefully use less salt to taste at the end.

Stock is made from bones and meat, while broth is made from meat or cooked vegetables. Bouillon is dehydrated stock, and it's more concentrated. It can help flavor your dishes.

Chicken broth uses

Think of broth as savory-flavored water — it has the same consistency. As well as sipping it on its own for fast, warming sustenance, use broth for blanching, boiling, to thin out a sauce, or as the base (broth) for a soup that doesn't need much added texture or a super-rich flavor base.

But you may want to take a pause the next time: You can actually enhance the flavor of many dishes by swapping that plain ol' water out for broth — chicken, beef, or even vegetable.

Stock is thicker than broth due to the viscosity from collagen, it also contains more calories, fat, protein, vitamins and minerals than you will find in broth. Over the past few years, stock has gained popularity as a sipping drink, commonly known as bone broth, due to the rise of the Paleo, Whole30 and keto diets.

Just as when you're making stock for soups or stews, boiling will cause soluble proteins and rendered fat to emulsify into the cooking liquid. By simmering, you avoid emulsifying the fat and thus keep the stock clearer, and we found that the scum created simply settled to the bottom of the pot.