What's The Difference Between Chicken Powder And Bouillon?

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Like tomato paste and buttermilk, chicken broth is just one of those food items that you end up buying, using once for a recipe, then inevitably throwing out after you let it sit for too long in the back of your fridge. If you don't cook with chicken broth frequently enough to utilize the entire carton or can, chicken bouillon is the obvious alternative. You still get the same chicken flavor, but it's shelf stable, so you can use as little as you want at a time without the rest going bad before you have the chance to use it.

To use chicken bouillon in place of chicken broth, you simply add water because as Foods Guy explains, it's simply concentrated chicken broth with added seasoning. The most common form of chicken bouillon, Bake It With Love shares, is dehydrated and cubed, but you can also find it in loose granules and paste. You might also see another product labeled as chicken powder, but despite its similar appearance, it's actually something else entirely.

Unless you buy the paste, chicken bouillon is almost always sold in powdered form, and that's why you might assume it's the same thing as chicken powder. But while both can be reconstituted as chicken broth with the addition of water, they're comprised of a different mix of ingredients that result in a noticeably different taste.

According to Jolion Foods and Epicurious, chicken powder is primarily a Chinese product that doesn't have mirepoix (a mix of onions, carrots, and celery) or any herbs commonly used in Western cooking. Chicken, therefore, is the main flavor component in chicken powder, whereas for chicken bouillon, if you look at the ingredients list (via Amazon) you'll find onion, garlic, celery, and parsley are listed before the chicken. Poultry is such a secondary flavor in chicken bouillon that per Maple and Mango, you can actually make a fine substitute with just nutritional yeast, salt, turmeric, dried onion, garlic, parsley, oregano, thyme, and basil.

There are plenty of recipes that call for a chicken broth with vegetables and aromatics, and that's where chicken bouillon can work well. Per Bake It With Love, all you need to do if that's the case is add one teaspoon of chicken bouillon for every cup of water. However, if you're thinking of adding more than a teaspoon of chicken bouillon for a more intense chicken flavor, consider using chicken powder instead — otherwise, you could very well end up with a much saltier broth.

Chicken powder, due to the fact that it contains no extra herbs and spices, has a more chicken-forward flavor compared to chicken bouillon, Epicurious explains. Even though the ratio to make broth is still the same — 1 teaspoon of chicken powder per 1 cup of water (via Lee Kum Kee) — it's still more of a blank slate. Therefore if you want to build your own flavors, chicken powder is ideal, but if you plan to add herbs like parsley, oregano, and thyme anyway, chicken bouillon may be the better choice.