Cheating Chicken Stock

By Braeden

One of the biggest frustrations I've had with cooking for myself at home is that every seemingly tastey recipe calls for one thing: chicken stock.

Hmmm....let's see. I need to add chicken stock if I want to make risotto. But do I have time to roast an entire chicken, gut it, roast the the bones, prep and add in vegetables, reduce the hell out of if, chill it, and skim off the fat? Once I'm finished doing that I'll only be 1/10 of the way done with the original risotto recipe I was attempting. Screw this.



Is the only alternative then to sacrifice flavour and just add water? I don't want to put all this effort into making my own food only to have it taste like watered down shit.

I've got it! Bouillon Cubes!

Wait. You mean those MSG preservative ridden freakazoid flavor blocks that we'll be surviving off of when the nuclear apocalypse comes?

Enter ORGANIC Bouillon Cubes. 

Available for a low price at your neighborhood health food store. Now we're talkin'. . .

So here's what I ended up doing:

I added two organic bouillon to roughly 8 cups of boiling water (if you're averse to measuring, just a potful of water will do).
I stirred the mixture until the cubes dissolved.
I then set aside the amount of "stock" I needed for the recipe I was working from.
Finally, I poured whatever liquid I had left into an ice cube tray and threw it in the freezer.
    

In the words of Emeril, BAM! I now have a hefty supply of homemade flavor cubes for upcoming meals.

With your frozen "stock" cubes you can now beef (or veg) up the flavor of any meal. Even if you're just making plain ol' pasta, throw in a cube or two, salt, pepper, oil, and you'll be amazed by how much better your food will taste.

I have to admit that nothing tastes better than homemade chicken stock. But that doesn't mean that you need to spend hours slaving over a stove to make good food. A few cheap tricks can go a long way in improving the taste of your home-cooked meals, so stock up!