Stock versus broth. Which is better? What’s the right way? Are you doing it wrong? Anne and Catherine allow all the flavorful answers to bubble up in this episode. Making homemade chicken or vegetable stock has the reputation of being a long, arduous task. Oh, and bone broth? Who has time for that? While Anne certainly can relate to busy schedules, she does encourage cooks to carve out a few hours to make stocks and broths because it is oh, so worth it.
Find out Anne’s go-to method for making a big batch of chicken or vegetable stock. (Hint: get your slow cooker ready.) Listen as Anne describes why quick poached chicken breast can pay your forward for several meals. Learn why the multiple boil-roast-simmer steps in making bone broth really are necessary.
After Anne and Catherine extract all they can from the subject, Anne heads to the Red Stick Spice Company test kitchen with store staffer Madeline to cook up Curried Tomato Bisquewith Slab Grilled Cheese.
Here’s a list of the links we mentioned in the podcast:
- Be sure to check out our recipes for Vegetable Stock, Chicken Stock and Shrimp Stock with step-by-step photos.
- Madeline and Anne cook up feed-a-crowd Curried Tomato Bisque made with homemade vegetable stock. Customize the heat and flavor profile by choosing the Red Stick Spice Curry Powder that suits you. Anne loves Garlic Curry. If you’re looking for a little extra heat, grab our Vindaloo Curry. For a hit of citrus with extra cinnamon, Madras Curryis the answer.
- While the soup cooked, Anne and Madeline popped Slab Grilled Cheese in the oven. We deviate from the traditional butter-bread-cheese formula and take this sandwich in a new direction by incorporating our House Blendalong with some Smoked Peppercorns. We achieve crispy, golden browned grilled cheesiness with one of our favorite kitchen tools: the sheet pan. If you haven’t already, be sure to give our Sheet Pan episodea listen—this is the Smidgen podcast episode with the most listens to date!
- During Anne and Catherine’s chat, Anne talks about her quick method for chicken broth. This method gleans both a flavorful cooking liquid plus delicious poached chicken. We use this technique to make our Curried Chicken Salad. We poach the chicken with a big handful of spices including Tellicherry Peppercorns and Cardamom. Give it a try and be sure to hold on to the poaching liquid. It’s excellent for sipping or for creating soups, stews or curries!
- We also cover Bone Broth in this episode. Anne goes over the totally-worth-it technique for making bone broth, but we also understand that busy schedules exist. If you’re in the market to purchase bone broth, we encourage seeking out bone broth made by artisans in your community. Check with your local butcher shops and farmers market. In Baton Rouge, you can find bone broth made from locally-pastured cows at Iverstine Farms Butcher. The shop’s freezer case is stocked with handy quarts of bone broth ready for you to take home and sip. Pro tip: Iverstine’s Butcher Bundles—the “meat subscription” Anne loves so much—often includes a quart of bone broth.
- What about Shrimp Stock? Well, if you have a handful of shrimp peelings and 15 minutes, you’ve got yourself stock! We employ this method in our Sweet Corn and Shrimp Soup with Smoky Bacon. This soup is a show stopper with tons of flavor from our Salt Free BBQ Shrimp Seasoning, summertime corn and a sweet, smoky bacon garnish.
- One final note: don’t let dwindling stock stop you from cooking at home from whole ingredients. Stock your pantry with high-quality stocks and broths. Anne chooses cartons of stock with zero sodium and looks for the ingredient list to be a short as possible. Check out her favorite store-bought stock option here. Oh, and give our Smidgen Bonus Episode Scratch vs Store Boughta listen. Anne covers all her choices for pantry staples in this fun, rapid-fire episode.
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