ditto KW PNW

OK, I do use that brand for chicken and beef. Should be able to find it, or at least a version of it. It's become nearly impossible to find reduced sodium broth/stock at my Kroger. And fragrance free liquid hand soap has been completely dropped.

Better Than Bouillon. I only buy the Vegetable one anymore. It lends itself to any flavor of dish I am cooking and I don't have five different jars open in the refrigerator all the time.

Another vote for Better Than Bouillon. I love being able to control the intensity of flavor and the convenience, and Kroger does carry it (oops, at least all do in my area).

If you are near a Trader Joe's, I like theirs.

Generally, I make my own and freeze it...

My vote too. Better than Bouillon makes very good products.

Better Than Boullion. Its name should be Better Than You. Or Me. Great stuff.

Ah, Annie, no Trader Joes here. Very rural. Thanks for all the votes for Better Than Bouillon. Hope to find it next time I shop.

Guess where else you can get all of the flavors - Big ”A”!! Sometimes needs must!

Do you have freezer space to make your own? I make my own chicken/vegetable stock, but it could easily be vegetable only. I make it with NO salt.

Yes, I order far more than I would like to from Big A. But I don't pay for Prime.

I don’t either for anything from A. With a large enough order it ships for free anyway & I’m usually not in a hurry to receive my order - which often shows up before expected.

I have never trued the Better than Boullion. I find all the vegetable broths that i have are overwhelming.

Have you tried this brand?

I like the no chicken.

Okay, my stock.

Save in freezer, carrot peelings and tops. Onion ends and skin. Celery ends and leaves. Tiny garlic bulbs. Any other vegetable leavings. I save chicken skins and bones, omit for vegetable only.

I wash before peeling. When you have enough, add water and simmer. If not enough, add whole vegetables.

Dip out big stuff, and drain rest through strainer. Freeze in 2 cup, 1 cup, and half cup containers. It is no salt and no preservatives.

@Sherry8aNorthAL - Your stock sounds great & I have made my own stock for soups many times. But, for convenience, labor and space saving, and still great flavor, nothing beats those little jars of Better than Bullion! Call me a lazy cook - I’m okay with that too!

Yeah, I am cheap. Mine is from garbage and costs nothing but time. Bonus, No salt no preservatives.

If I run out I will look for the Better than Boullion.

I tried Better thsn Boullion years ago, when people were first touting it. Even the lower sodium kind is way way too salty for me!

I make two kinds, more or less the way Sherry does, except the peelings in the freezer. I don't use enough stock for all that. Two kinds of veggie stocks. One mostly roots, like I do for chicken stock. The other, mostly greens (called green stock", natch) with white onion, parsnip, turnip. Nothing to ungreen the color.

I just tried Pacific Foods chicken broth, and was very pleased with it. Not too salty, too. They make a vegetable broth, as well. https://www.pacificfoods.com/products/pacific-foods/organic-vegetable-broth/

I like and use Better than Bouillon veggie (and their chicken and beef), but I also love their Mushroom base. I do find their products very salty, so sometimes I'll use a low sodium boxed version of veggie broth and add some BTB to punch it up a bit - either the Veggie or the Mushroom or both.

The way I make, there is NO salt.,You add salt when you cook your food if wanted.

I do like & used to use the Pacific Foods chicken & veggie broth. But I discovered BtB & like the convenience of it as well as the better flavor. Given a choice between regular or reduced sodium I opt for the reduced sodium. I don’t add salt or use table salt ever. Well, hardly ever. I do love salted caramel flavor anything….

@Sherry8aNorthAL the op asked for recommendations on something she can buy at Kroger. Not everyone is interested in making their own broth.

Oly, That is why I asked if she was interested BEFORE I posted.

Just watched an episode of ATK rerun on PBS. Here's an AI review: America's Test Kitchen has found Swanson Chicken Stock to be the best overall boxed chicken broth and recommends Better Than Bouillon Premium Roasted Chicken Base as a top concentrate option, noting it is more economical and has a longer shelf life. For cooking applications where the liquid is reduced, they recommend using a "stock" rather than a "broth" for a more robust flavor, and conversely, a "broth" for soups, according to America's Test Kitchen.

The saltiness of the Better Than Bouillon was noted.

And my Kroger no longer carries stock. Only broth. And I always want Swanson's chicken stock, low sodium and they never have it. So I end up with broth, usually full salt.

Yeah overall BTB is a salt fix. I frequently use it for beef broth and I do have their chicken on hand but really that’s got that distinctive boullion cube or lipton soup flavor which resembles something other than chicken. I had their veg broth a long time ago, didn’t care for it much and haven’t tried it in a while. Depending on thr application I’d probably sub beef BTB or boxed chicken broth if I wasn’t making from scratch.

Timely discussion: I was just looking at a NYT adaptation of Thomas Keller’s butternut squash soup, The description says it ”should be approached as a labor of love; it requires several steps (including making vegetable stock) and four hours of cooking…” But then the ingredients list calls for 6 cups of vegetable stock and says no more. 🤷‍♀️

When I need a lot of chicken stock (broth if that's all I can get), like a quart, I use Swansons. I use BtB for small amounts, a cup or so.

Interesting to read that you distinguish between stock and broth. Here we talk about stock, sometimes bouillon. But the word broth is used to refer to certain finished soups, not an ingredient.

For vegetable stock, if I don't make my own, I use Marigold or Kallo. Both organic. Don't know if those are available in the USA. Both are available as reduced salt and/or gluten free.

floral, I think your computer had a stroke!

My post looks fine to me. Maybe the stroke is happening at your end?

This is what I see. "Interesting to read that you distinguish between stock and broth. Here we talk about stock, sometimes bouillon. But the word broth is used to refer to certain finished soups, not an ingredient.

For vegetable stock, if I don't make my own, I use Marigold or Kallo. Both organic. Don't know if those are available in the USA. Both are available as reduced salt and/or gluten free."

Floral, looks like that to me. By the way, I use broth and stock the same way you do. Stock is an ingredient. Broth is a thin soup, with no ”chunks”. As, ”When I am not feeling well, I like chicken broth and crackers.”.

So odd, now it looks fine! Here's what it looked like before: InteredtingIrnteresting y

Years ago I read a blog from a chef on how to make stock or broth, (can't remember) who said the mistake people do is using to much water. He said for one chicken use two cups of water, I wanted a quart so I doubled the water. He was right, because after 4 hours of cooking it turned out so weak I dumped it and pulled out the BTB.

So how much water do the home brewers of stock/broth here use for the bones and skin of one chickens and a pile of vegetables?

Pack the stock pot full of the stuff. Fill with water to almost cover. Bring to boil, reduce heat to simmer, cover and simmer for whatever. Dip out chunks, let them drain. Pour the rest through strainer. Freeze.

ETA: I understand why Lacey want a good store bought. It is a lot of time and a lot of washing. I do it because I want preservative free, salt free stock. I have plenty of freezer space.

ETA2: I would NEVER waste a chicken on just stock! I only use leftover parts, bones and skin.

I use the carcass of one of the pastured poultry birds* (the only ones I'll have in my kitchen) after roasting and eating the meat. It goes into a smallish, rather shallow pot and I cover it with water. If it's too weak, I just cook it down to concentrate it. I usually end up with a quart. But, and this is important, a young bird really isn't ideal for stock. Traditionally, you want a big, old bird, one that you used to be able to buy as "fowl", only edible after long simmering. The stock from that is rich and flavorful, and when I was growing up, we had one every Friday night, first the soup and always with white rice because my father loved rice. We had the meat afterwards with vegetables.

*Pastured poultry birds are raised in low pens, moved daily, in open pasture so birds have access to insects and grass and are always on clean ground. With a farmer friend, I raised and slaughtered those birds in the mid 90s to early 2000s, doing about 300-350 birds a weekend, once a month, June through Oct. At that time it was a new concept and we were the first in WV to raise them. Of course, we had a mechanical defeathering set up, but given water of the right temperature, I can still get a bird from the barnyard to ready for the pot in about 20 minutes, with an ax and my hands.

Lacyvail, there is a glitch with Houzz whereby when I put in the first word or two it refuses to continue. I then have to press submit, reenter and edit. Houzz often doubles the words I have already put in. Than I must delete them, add the rest of my post and resubmit. I imagine you looked at the post between my pressing submit the first time and my going back in to edit and save.

Lacey, I only have access to store chickens. I add lots of carrots, celery, garlic, parsley, and so forth. I am interested if you find a good store bought stock with no preservatives or salt.

Well, for chicken, I just use Swanson's. And BtB if I just need a small amount as I said. But buying vegetable stock was new to me which is why I asked for recommendations.

Floral, that's undoubtedly what happened with your post.

For me, stock is a base. The meat bits (if any) and veg are cooked down to solids that are no longer edible. As my mother said, "all the good has cooked out". Never any seasoning, nor anything shrap like garlic or ginger. Broth is what one makes from stock (though you can make the stock underbelly, in the same cook as your final broth), which does have seasoning, and the sharp veg if desired. It's soup without the lumps.

I save spines cut out before roasting chickens and giblets in the freezer for making stock, If I don't have enough, I'll buy whole chickens. My stock pot holds enough to make 8 quarts of rich stock. Two 4.5 lb. whole chickens, trimmed lightly of excess fat, or equivalent of fleshy parts, with giblets minus the kidneys (lest the house smell like urea), and minus livers if you want to save them for eating or don't care for the flavor. Add a large or two small each of turnip, rutabaga, onion, parsnip, celery root. Several large "horse" carrots, maybe two if they're especially big. All veg chunked. Cover with good tasting water and bring to a hard boil. Reduce to an active simmer. Stir up from the bottm now and then to prevent scorching, Add water if needed.

Simmer for about five hours, untill it seems done and all that's left standing is mooshy ick and bones. Stand a sieve or colander in a big, wide vessel, like a tall sided roaster, and put a handled strainer inside of it. Ladle all the solids, in batches, into the strainerand let them drip. When all the stock has run out, transfer to solids to the compost bound bucket. No animal I know of will eat wgat's left. When that's done, pour the liquid through the strainer and sieve. Ladle into containers to freeze. I like to do different sizes, but no bigger than two quart, and most in three cup. My father would freeze in bigger blocks and cut off pieces with a hacksaw in they were too big. But then, I make 8 quarts in my little stock pot more often. Mother used a giant enamelled kettle, which was meant to be fo canning or laundry, and only once per year.

All that said, if I'm going to use broth as an ingredient--which some recipes call for-- I might buy it, rather than having to prepare the broth first. In some recipes, however, stock plus some seasoning is all that's needed.

“So how much water do the home brewers of stock/broth here use for the bones and skin of one chickens and a pile of vegetables?”

I’ll use a quart of water but reduce it down to two cups. What matters is how much you end up with, not hope much you start with. That takes time and a higher simmer. If I’m in a hurry, I’ll use less water and do it in the pressure cooker.