The 2-For-1 Trick To Upgrade Store-Bought Chicken Broth And Get Ahead On Meal Prep

Though we'd love to spend every night whipping up a new meal, hardly anyone's schedule permits that. Instead, we're resigned to meal prepping with store-bought items in lieu of homemade ones. While it is a time-saver, you can taste the difference, especially when it comes to broth. Thankfully, you can kill two birds with one stone by cooking chicken in store-bought broth.

Broth from the store is watery at best and devoid of flavor at worst. Even if you purchase the best boxed chicken broth, the taste is incomparable to its homemade counterpart. If you cook the chicken in the broth, however, it'll rise in quality and you can walk away with poached chicken for meal prepping. The method is an easy way to add more flavor to store-bought chicken broth without embarking on the hours-long journey to make it from scratch.

All you need to do is add your poultry to the broth and simmer at medium-low heat. Add in celery and carrots, along with peppercorns, garlic, and onions. While you want the broth and chicken to be savory, they also need to be simple enough to mesh with every recipe you prep for the week. The time it takes to cook the chicken depends on what type it is and its thickness. The breast wraps up in under 30 minutes. A whole chicken may take almost two hours, but the bones give the broth more flavor and the size is perfect for meal prepping.

With an entire poached chicken, you can easily work protein into practically any meal. To prevent yourself from getting tired of eating chicken, you'll need to whip up meals with completely different flavors so they don't taste monotonous. Leftover makeover shredded chicken tacos is a quick, yet delicious meal to make with poached chicken. It comes together fairly easily, with the bulk of the flavor coming from the bright mango salsa.

A chicken, pear, and walnut chopped salad is another perfect meal for poached chicken. With most of the work already done by cooking the chicken earlier, all you need to do is chop up the ingredients before tossing them together. The chicken bulks up the salad, making it a filling, yet refreshing option for lunch that you'll want to eat throughout the week.

Keeping a batch of elevated store-bought chicken broth is the best way to infuse standard meals with a delightfully homemade flavor. It comes in handy when making meal prep-friendly ramen jars. Rather than using boiling water, the broth adds an extra layer of umami to the noodles. The broth also works well when giving shortcut chicken and dumplings a boost, making the dish taste as if it were labored over for hours.