When it comes to cooking a good chicken broth can make all the difference. Whether you’re making a cozy soup flavorful rice, or a rich sauce, the right broth can elevate your dish from ordinary to extraordinary. But with so many options lining grocery store shelves, how do you know which one to choose?
I’ve spent hours researching and analyzing multiple taste tests to bring you the definitive guide on the best chicken broths available today No more standing confused in the soup aisle – this article will help you make an informed choice for your next culinary creation.
Why Store-Bought Chicken Broth Matters
Let’s be real – while homemade chicken broth is amazing, who has time to simmer chicken bones for hours? Not me that’s for sure! Store-bought broths offer convenience without completely sacrificing flavor making them a pantry staple for busy home cooks.
The right broth can:
- Add depth to soups and stews
- Make grains like rice and couscous more flavorful
- Create delicious pan sauces
- Replace water in recipes for added richness
- Serve as a base for gravy and other sauces
Top Chicken Broth Brands: The Winners
After analyzing multiple taste tests and expert opinions, these brands consistently rose to the top:
1. Kettle & Fire Chicken Broth
Kettle & Fire earned the #1 spot in Tasting Table’s comprehensive ranking of 16 brands. What makes it special? This Austin, Texas-based product starts with a bone broth base that simmers for at least 20 hours, allowing collagen and amino acids to fully dissolve into the liquid.
Key features:
- Made with organic chicken bone broth
- Contains aromatics like onions, carrots, fennel, and shiitake mushrooms
- Includes herbs like thyme and bay leaf
- Contains apple cider vinegar and tamarind paste for depth
- Gluten-free, non-GMO, hormone-free
- Zero sugar
- Whole30 approved
- Up to two-year shelf life
The result is a broth with a rich, buttery texture and robust roasted chicken flavor that can transform even the simplest dishes.
2. Swanson Chicken Broth
Swanson earned top honors in Serious Eats’ taste test and placed high in multiple other rankings. This classic brand offers reliability and a familiar taste that many people associate with comfort food.
Key features:
- Stock from American chicken meat and bones
- Simmered for 12 hours with fresh vegetables
- Contains cane sugar, yeast extract, and chicken fat for richness
- Higher sodium content (570mg per cup)
- Familiar, nostalgic flavor profile
As Serious Eats’ tasters noted, Swanson has “body and is well-seasoned with salt.” One tester celebrated that she could “actually taste the chicken,” saying simply, “It has flavor!”
3. Imagine Low-Sodium Free-Range Chicken Broth
For those watching their sodium intake, Imagine’s low-sodium option was the clear winner in Serious Eats’ testing. This broth stands out for its minimal ingredient list and chicken-forward flavor.
Key features:
- Contains just chicken stock, chicken flavor, and sea salt
- Only 90mg of sodium per cup
- Pleasant golden color
- Pronounced chicken aroma
- Good body and thickness
Serious Eats’ editorial director described it as having “more aroma than almost any other” and being noticeably “chickeny” with a “hint of body.”
4. Kitchen Basics Original Chicken Stock
Kitchen Basics secured the #2 spot in Tasting Table’s ranking, impressing testers with its authentic chicken flavor and lower sodium content than many competitors.
Key features:
- Chicken bones simmered for at least six hours
- 440mg sodium per cup
- 4g protein per serving
- Includes caramelized mirepoix (onions, carrots, celery)
- Contains poultry seasoning
- Includes honey as a natural sweetener
Tasting Table described it as having a “nutritious, comforting roasted chicken flavor” that gives the taste of homemade stock without the hassle.
5. Bonafide Provisions Organic Chicken Broth
Coming in at #4 in Tasting Table’s ranking, Bonafide Provisions offers one of the most traditional and authentic broths available.
Key features:
- Made with filtered water
- Contains organic bones and meat
- Includes mirepoix, garlic, and herbs
- Contains apple cider vinegar to release collagen
- 480mg sodium per cup
- 3g protein per serving
- No sugar or artificial flavorings
- Gluten-free
Tasting Table praised its “refreshing, umami-rich taste with a healthful focus on overall wellness.”
Low-Sodium vs. Regular: Which Should You Choose?
This is a crucial distinction that affects how you’ll use your broth. The experts at Serious Eats make a compelling point: while full-sodium broths might taste better when sipped straight, they can become problematically salty when reduced for sauces or gravies.
Their editorial director warned that with standard broths, “You can’t reduce too much before it will overly concentrate.” This is why many professional chefs and recipe developers prefer using low-sodium broths – they allow you to control the seasoning of your final dish.
General guidelines:
- Low-sodium broths (like Imagine): Best for recipes where you’ll be reducing the liquid or adding other salty ingredients
- Regular broths (like Swanson): Good for drinking straight or using in recipes where you won’t be concentrating the flavors
What Makes a Great Chicken Broth?
When evaluating the best chicken broths, experts consider several factors:
1. Chicken Flavor
The broth should actually taste like chicken! This sounds obvious, but many broths have a weak or artificial poultry flavor.
2. Clarity and Body
A good broth should be relatively clear but have enough body to lightly coat your mouth without feeling greasy.
3. Aromatics Balance
Vegetables and herbs should complement the chicken flavor, not overwhelm it.
4. Sodium Level
The salt level should enhance flavors without dominating. This is especially important if you’ll be reducing the broth.
5. Ingredient Quality
The best broths use real chicken and vegetables rather than relying on additives and flavor enhancers.
How to Use Chicken Broth Creatively
Your broth can do so much more than make chicken noodle soup! Here are some ways I like to use it:
- Pasta game-changer: Try boiling pasta in diluted broth instead of water – you’ll never go back!
- Grain transformation: Use it to cook rice, quinoa, or couscous for instant flavor
- Mashed potato secret: Replace some of the cream and butter with broth for lighter, still-flavorful mashed potatoes
- Veggie enhancer: Add a splash when sautéing vegetables for extra depth
- Gravy base: The foundation for amazing holiday gravies
- Stuffing booster: Moisten your stuffing or dressing with flavorful broth
- Sauce starter: Begin pan sauces after cooking proteins
Brands to Skip
Not all chicken broths are created equal. Based on the taste tests, these brands ranked lower and might be worth avoiding:
- Tabatchnick Classic Wholesome Chicken Broth: Ranked last in Tasting Table’s test due to extreme saltiness (900mg sodium per cup!)
- Simple Truth Organic Free Range Chicken Broth: Contains questionable ingredients compared to its “free-range” labeling
- 365 Organic Chicken Broth: Described as watery and bland with more vegetable than chicken flavor
- Pacific Foods Organic Free Range Chicken Broth: Contains added dextrose (sugar) that some testers found unnecessary
Homemade vs. Store-Bought: A Reality Check
While nothing beats homemade broth simmered for hours with a whole chicken, vegetables, and herbs, let’s be honest – most of us don’t have time for that on a regular Tuesday night. The good news is that the top store-bought options provide a reasonable approximation of homemade flavor with none of the work.
If you do want to make your own occasionally (maybe on a lazy Sunday?), the basic formula is simple: chicken bones and/or meat, aromatic vegetables (onion, carrot, celery), herbs (parsley, thyme, bay leaf), and a long, slow simmer. Some folks add a splash of apple cider vinegar to help extract nutrients from the bones.
Price Considerations
Chicken broth prices vary widely, from budget options under $2 to premium selections approaching $5 or more. Here’s what I’ve found:
- Budget-friendly winners: Swanson, Kroger, Great Value
- Mid-range excellence: Kitchen Basics, Imagine
- Premium splurges: Kettle & Fire, Bonafide Provisions
Is the extra cost worth it? For everyday cooking where the broth is just one of many ingredients, a mid-range option is perfectly fine. For dishes where broth is the star (like a simple chicken soup), you might notice the difference with a premium product.
The Bottom Line: My Recommendations
After all this research, here’s what I keep in my pantry:
- For everyday cooking: Swanson Chicken Broth – reliable, flavorful, and widely available
- For sauce-making and reduction: Imagine Low-Sodium Free-Range Chicken Broth – allows control over final seasoning
- For special occasions: Kettle & Fire Chicken Broth – when I want that extra depth and richness
The best choice ultimately depends on your specific needs, dietary preferences, and the dish you’re preparing. But with these options in your arsenal, you’ll be well-equipped for whatever your recipe requires.
Other good chicken broths
If you want a lighter bone broth with greater ingredients transparency: Pacific Foods Organic Bone Broth Chicken Unsalted (about $5.50 per quart) is a respectable runner-up to the Good & Gather bone broth. Compared with that one, this bone broth is lighter in body and chicken flavor, and it’s more rounded out with vegetables, herbs, and spices. The Pacific Foods bone broth also stands apart from the competition in that the label fully spells out the ingredients, listing water, organic chicken, organic vegetables (onions, carrots, celery), and so on. On most of the broths and stocks we tasted, the labels listed only “chicken broth” or “chicken stock” as the first ingredient. The Pacific Foods bone broth is a good all-purpose choice for most recipes, and it would even make a fine soup base with additional carrots, onions, and fresh herbs.
For a decent and economical supermarket option: The College Inn Unsalted Chicken Stock (about $2.60 per quart) is a solid choice. It got different grades from the testers: I thought it was okay, and Winnie ranked it as her number-two pick. In her notes, Winnie wrote that this stock had “decent chicken flavor” that was “pleasant and clean.” She also found it “surprisingly rich” given the “fairly clear straw color.” I put the College Inn Unsalted Chicken Stock squarely in the middle.
For a supermarket brand with more intense, chicken-y flavor: Swanson Unsalted Chicken Cooking Stock (about $3.20 per quart) is inoffensive and was available at most of the supermarkets I shopped at while researching this guide. Winnie and I were split on the flavors we picked up in this one—she detected a charred onion flavor, whereas I thought it had a pleasant bit of gaminess, like a stock made from a more mature chicken. We think it’s one of the better-tasting big-brand chicken stocks that most folks can find at their local supermarket.
This is not a comprehensive list of everything we tested in previous iterations of this guide, just what’s still available.
Swanson Organic Low-Sodium Free-Range Chicken Broth (about $4 per quart) doesn’t taste terrible so much as it doesn’t taste like much of anything. Even though this broth had a “cleaner” flavor than most of the others we dismissed, it was insipid, thin, and described as “weaksauce” by our blind-taster.
The Pacific Foods Organic Free Range Chicken Broth Low Sodium (about $3.30 per quart) was too weak on chicken flavor and aroma for the price. An onion-powder flavor, while not overtly offensive, dominated and lingered on the palate.
Target’s Good & Gather Organic No Salt Added Chicken Broth (about $2 per quart) is very affordable for an organic product, and we think we know why: In our tests it was watery and barely tasted like anything, chicken or otherwise. If buying organic is a priority, you’re better off spending slightly more for a quart of the Imagine organic low-sodium broth.
“Milky white” and “bland” best describe Whole Foods 365 Organic Chicken Broth Low Sodium (about $2.50 per quart).This broth stood out for its lack of both flavor and color. We detected a faint chicken aroma, and that’s about it.
To paraphrase Winnie, our blind-taster, the Progresso Chicken Broth Unsalted (about $2.70 per quart) tasted like the plastic from the carton more than anything else. I also thought this one was plasticky, with a strong onion-powder and yeast aftertaste.
Intense onion flavor dominated Swanson Unsalted Chicken Broth (about $2.50 per quart). The chicken flavor was there, but the yeast extract in the ingredients took over and lingered on the palate for a while. If Swanson broths and stocks are the best option at your local supermarket, skip this one and grab either the Unsalted Chicken Cooking Stock or the Organic Low-Sodium Free Range Chicken Broth.
I don’t like to drag subpar products through the mud, but the Rachael Ray Stock-in-a-Box Low-Sodium Chicken Stock (about $3.00 per quart) was one of the worst we tasted. It had no discernible chicken flavor or aroma. Instead, it was watery and plasticky tasting, with an unidentifiable off-flavor that lingered way too long on the palate. The Rachael Ray stock is the only one we tested that’s made from watered-down chicken stock concentrate, not chicken stock or broth. And the difference was glaringly obvious.
We don’t know which ingredient made Kitchen Basics Unsalted Chicken Stock (about $3.30 per quart) taste so sour. The only clue we could gather from the ingredient list was “natural flavor.” In our tasting notes, we agreed that the strong acidic flavor was the most memorable characteristic. Winnie called it “thin” and mused that it “might be worse” than the Rachael Ray stock.
The Best and Worst Supermarket Chicken Broths | The Taste Test
FAQ
Which broth is healthiest?
The healthiest broth is a bone broth, particularly those made from non-GMO, grass-fed beef or chicken bones. Bone broth is a richer source of minerals, collagen, and amino acids than regular broth or stock due to the long simmering process used to make it. While chicken bone broth is better for electrolytes and hydration, beef bone broth offers more collagen and gelatin, making it superior for gut health and joint support. For maximum health benefits, choose organic or unsalted versions to control sodium intake.
What is the best chicken broth at America’s Test Kitchen?
The Best Chicken Broths: Swanson Chicken Stock and Better Than Bouillon Premium Roasted Chicken Base. Though adding flavor enhancers in lieu of sodium has become more common, our overall winning broth doesn’t contain flavor enhancers. Boxed, liquid Swanson Chicken Stock remains our favorite.
What brand of broth is best for chicken noodle soup?
1. Swanson Chicken Broth Vegetal, earthy and pleasantly onion-forward, I was downright shocked to place Swanson at No. 1.