Chicken stock vs broth – do you know the difference? I’ve got the answer, and it may surprise you! Get my recipe for chicken broth too!

Chicken stock vs broth

While many people interchange the names, there are some significant differences between stock and broth.

Let’s say you want to make a pot of comforting chicken noodle soup. Or maybe the gravy for a pot pie, or to ladle over fluffy mashed potatoes.

If you want to make it yourself, do you need a chicken broth recipe or do you need to make stock? Using that scenario, the answer is, you may want both!

Technically, you can make soups and gravies using either stock or broth. However, most professional chefs make sauces and soups using stock, and they use broth to make gravy.

Difference between chicken broth and stock

Chicken stock is more pure and refined than chicken broth. The process of making it takes longer than a chicken broth recipe, but it has a much richer chicken flavor. Plus, it contains less fat than broth does. This is because stock doesn’t involve using chicken skin like broth does.

Additionally the process for making chicken stock involves oven roasting raw chicken bones first, which allows for extra flavor.

Making stock, whether it be chicken, beef, or another type, requires hours of simmering, too. As a result, the bone marrow cooks out of the roasted bones and is infused into the liquid.

On the other hand, making a chicken broth recipe is quicker, and much easier as well. This is because you make it with a cooked chicken carcass, any meat that is left on it, and usually the chicken skin as well.

Because the bones are already cooked, there isn’t as much nutritional value in them. As a result, making chicken broth only takes 90 minutes!

Making chicken broth

Here are the basic steps involved in the process.

Be sure to watch me make it the video below, and then grab the complete ingredient list and instructions from the recipe card.

I usually use a rotisserie chicken carcass to make homemade broth, but any cooked chicken parts and/or a carcass will work. You can leave the skin on, or remove it if you want to reduce some of the fat.

1. Clean and chop the vegetables – You’ll be using a “mirepoix”, which is a combination of 2 parts onion, 1 part carrots, and 1 part celery.
2. Place cooked chicken carcass/parts into a large, heavy bottomed pot. Add the vegetables, herbs, and spices. Add enough tap water to cover all the ingredients by one inch.
3. Bring contents to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 90 minutes.
4. Strain the broth to remove the bones, meat, skin, and herbs. Then allow it to cool before storing in the refrigerator.

Recipe video

Check out my video to see exactly how to make a batch of delicious, homemade chicken broth!