Recipes
When you hear the word bouillon, perhaps what comes to mind are those dusty yellow cubes shoved in the recesses of your pantry, used only as a last-minute solution for soup stock. Bouillon paste, however, is an entirely different product so versatile and effective that it’s worth keeping a jar handy in the kitchen, flanked alongside your other all-star staples.
Better Than Bouillon, my go-to brand, is made from a concentrated mixture of cooked meat or vegetables, along with sugar, starches, and protein. I treat it as a flavor magnifier. Just as with Parmesan or soy sauce, adding a spoonful into pasta, rice, sautéed greens, and hot mashed potatoes amps up a dish’s umami richness. Mixed with spices or other seasonings like gochujang, bouillon paste becomes an instant, lusty glaze for chicken breasts, Halloumi cheese, or cross-hatched eggplants, ready to sear in a pan or char under the broiler. Dissolved in buttermilk or soda, it forms a powerful brine with more depth than plain salt alone (hello, chicken-brined fried chicken).
You get a ton of mileage out of a single 8-oz. jar, especially when you’re only using a dollop at a time. One container keeps for six months in the fridge, and a little goes a long way. I reach for mine often—and you’ll find lots of starting points below. For example, buttery, garlic-glazed broccoli gets its savory punch from a small scoop of chicken bouillon paste. And tofu marinated in vegetable bouillon transmutes a plain, mild protein into a craveable, intriguingly complex ingredient you can add to salads, stir-fries, or lunch boxes.
There are more than 20 Better Than Bouillon flavors available, like mushroom, roasted garlic, chicken, and vegetable. I opt for the latter two most, but if you become a convert like me, you may end up working your way through the whole lot.