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Chicken broth is a background ingredient doing foreground work: salt, savoury depth, and body. Water will technically fill the volume, but the dish will taste like it is missing something, because it is.
Best for: Almost everything, and it makes the dish vegetarian
Lighter and sweeter. A splash of soy sauce restores the savoury edge.
Best for: The pantry answer
Usually very high in sodium. Cut added salt elsewhere in the recipe.
Best for: When you have 20 minutes
A quick aromatic infusion beats plain water by a wide margin.
Best for: Depth in soups and braises
Dried shiitake soaked in hot water is intensely savoury and vegan.
Broth is the biggest hidden sodium source in most recipes, so if you are cooking low-sodium, start here rather than with the salt shaker. If you use bouillon, taste before adding any of the salt the recipe calls for. And check the label if you are cooking gluten-free, since some brands use wheat as a thickener.
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You can, but the dish will taste noticeably thinner. Simmer the water for 15 to 20 minutes with an onion, a couple of garlic cloves, a bay leaf, and some peppercorns and you recover most of the difference.
Vegetable stock with a splash of soy sauce or a little miso for savoury depth, or mushroom stock made from dried shiitake, which is the most intensely savoury of the plant options.
Broadly they are used interchangeably in home cooking. Traditionally stock is made from bones and is richer in gelatin, so it gives more body, while broth is made from meat and is lighter and more seasoned.
Vegetable stock is the closest match, at 1:1. Almost everything, and it makes the dish vegetarian. Lighter and sweeter. A splash of soy sauce restores the savoury edge.
Vegetable stock (1:1) if you want the closest result, or Bouillon cube or paste + water (1 cube or 1 tsp paste per 1 cup water) for the pantry answer. Which one is right depends on what the chicken broth was doing in the dish.
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