Trader Joe’s Chicken and Vegetable Broth

Trader Joe’s Organic Free Range Chicken Broth. It’s time to gear up for the holidays! One staple that we go through a lot at the holidays is Chicken Broth and of course Trader Joe’s steps up and has a ton of it and there is a wide selection. I grabbed three of the most popular broths that Trader Joe’s carries and had a little taste off!

Trader Joe’s carries many different broths including, chicken, vegetable, beef and turkey. They even have variations on the chicken broth. I count 4 different variations on Chicken broth alone! I figured since the holidays were coming up and we are going to do a lot of cooking and seem to go through gallons of chicken broth that I would finally sit down and go through a few of them to honestly taste test the different broths. I am also doing this for myself because I can never remember which tastes like which one and when I go to buy broth at Trader Joe’s I can never remember how it tasted.

So, I have a selection of three broths. The first is Organic Free Range Chicken Broth, then the Free Range Chicken Broth and then the Organic Hearty Vegetable broth. All three very different flavor profiles. The funny thing on the chicken broths is that the only difference between them is supposed that one is “organic” and one is not. But there is a whole lot more difference than that. The hearty vegetable broth is a completely different type of broth, but one I think is a good substitute for chicken broth if you want to stay vegetarian.

First off is the Trader Joe’s Organic Free Chicken broth. Right up front, I’ll say that this is probably my favorite of the three broths. If you look at the pictures of the broths I took this one is the one on the left. It is lighter in color and is kind of milky, cloudy. Don’t let that deter you though. This one has the best, most robust flavors out of the three. It’s made with organic vegetables like onions, carrots and celery. I’m not sure why it’s so cloudy, because when I make my own broth from chicken bones it’s never cloudy like that. Nevertheless, if you want something that tastes the most like chicken stock should then this is for you. If you need a broth that is clear, go to the next one.

The second one on the list is the Trader Joe’s Chicken Broth. There is a big difference between this one and the first one in the fact that this one is mainly just water and chicken with a dash of onion powder (according to the ingredients list). This broth taste more like stripped down chicken stock without that chicken soup like flavor that gives it the more full bodied flavor. I would use this more as a starting point and if you want to add your own flair to it by doctoring it up your own way, this would be a good choice for that. This one is NOT Organic though, if that bugs you.

The third and last one for this review is the Trader Joe’s Organic Vegetable Broth. I liked this one the least out of the three. For some reason I expected a more robust veggie flavor. Maybe compared to the chicken based broths, the vegetable one wasn’t as full bodied. In the end, these are usually just the base for a dish that you are adding more ingredients to build up a flavor profile and that’s what you need is something that is not going to overpower your dish.

The problem is that none of these tastes anywhere as good as making your own homemade chicken stock or vegetable stock. I would only use these in a pinch or if you need to use a lot of stock. I suggest that you get Mark Bittman’s book [amazon_link id=”0470528060″ target=”_blank” ]How to Cook Everything The Basics: All You Need to Make Great Food — With 1,000 Photos[/amazon_link] for some great broth/stock recipes. BUT, these Trader Joe’s broths are pretty darn good for what they are!

We are all crunched for time and many times can’t make our own stock at home and these are good alternatives to homemade. I liked the Trader Joe’s Organic Chicken Broth the best and will give it 8 Bells. The Free Range Chicken Broth I liked 2nd best and will give it 7 Bells. The Organic Hearty Vegetable Broth I’ll also give 7 bells! Enjoy!

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