The Best Supermarket Broth



Ingredient expert Jack Bishop explores the world of broths to pick out our winning choices for chicken, vegetarian, and beef categories.

Buy our winning Swanson stock:
Buy our winning Better than Bouillon base:
Buy our winning Orrington Farms Vegetarian base:
Make our recipe for Quick Homemade Chicken Stock:

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31 Comments

  1. I watched an episode of ATK years ago in which they did this same test and Rachel Ray's stocks &/or broths came out on top. At the time they really didn't like Swanson. Is Rachel Ray's no longer available? What changed?

  2. I won’t buy Swanson anymore because Tucker Carlson is not getting any of my money. Love Better than Bullion. I’ve bought a bunch of silicone trays to store homemade bone broth and stock. I have found the boxed chicken stock from Costco tastes pretty good, too.

  3. Hm. Personally my go-to broth is Kitchen Basics. Their regular chicken stock has less sodium than most national brands low sodium version, and the no salt added version only has the minimal amount of sodium contained in the bit of tomato paste they add (it's like 20 mg per cup). I think the flavor is crisp and clean and I'm really shocked it's not a recommendation here. I've tried Swanson, I didn't like it.

  4. Reading the ingredient list of the vegan base he says, "There are a lot of things that aren't vegetables here." LOL People are willing to ingest chemicals that taste like animal products instead of natural animal products. Amazing.

  5. Are you really touting Hydrolyzed soy! Are you aware of what that is. I really really really wanted to like those Better Than products but they are horrible in ingredients. Soy is EXACTLY why men are more estrogenic these days not to mention the GMO. Women also need to stay away from it. I’m just saying. You need to do some research.

  6. I usually use Swanson if I am using the liquid broth. When it comes to the bouillon types, I prefer the LB Jamison soup base for chicken or beef.
    I tried the BTB chicken base and I thought it had odd/off flavors. All I am after is the broth flavor, I will add my own seasoning.
    I do like the turkey BTB to stretch the made from scratch Thanksgiving gravy a little.

  7. Better Than Bullion: bought it at Costco. It spoiled before I could use a whole jar (of three). Yet, it's so salty that I didn't want to use it. I love salt, my friends have commented over the years about it. I keep a salt shaker on my desk and refill it every couple of months. It's not better than bullion, not to me, my wife or anyone we know. I read a comment below that Costco has a reduced salt version. I will try that.

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