I had a bit of a realisation recently.

I don’t always have the time (or the right circumstances) to make a proper chicken broth from scratch. Cooking bones for hours, skimming, reducing, I do it whenever I can, but it’s just not always possible. So quite often, especially when I wanted a quick broth for something like shōyu ramen, I just went with chicken stock.

Now, a lot of recipes I came across would mention “chicken powder.” For the longest time, I assumed it was basically the same thing and simply used German chicken stock powder from the supermarket.

At one point, though, I read that the chicken powder used in East Asia is very clear and extremely direct in taste. That got me to do some more research. I stumbled across the German concept of «Kraftbrühe»:

«A Kraftbrühe is a clarified, crystal-clear, and especially concentrated broth, refined to be served as a standalone soup.»

I tried using that for a while. It wasn’t bad, but the flavour profile wasn’t all that different from a standard German chicken stock powder, just a bit stronger.

Then recently I finally saw someone explain what “chicken powder” really is in a cooking video, and it hit me: it is not the same at all.

Over here, chicken stock (even the powdered type) always carries a whole bouquet of extras: carrots, leeks, celery, parsley, all that: so it becomes a standalone soup base. Meanwhile, chicken powder in East Asia is essentially just pure chicken essence. The one I bought from Ajinomoto has a touch of ginger and soy sauce, but they are way down the ingredient list. It tastes completely different.

Basically:

«Chicken Powder is designed to deliver a very direct chicken-meat taste, boosted with MSG and fat for umami and mouthfeel. Vegetables are rarely part of the profile. It’s more like a pure chicken essence seasoning rather than a full broth.»

So last night, I came home late, hungry, and decided to make a quick shōyu ramen with it for the first time. The broth base was a 50/50 mix of dashi and chicken powder, plus a strong aromatic tare.

And... goddamn. It’s like a completely different dish. Not even comparable to the quick versions I used to throw together with German chicken stock.

Insane. It was so good. Honestly, the difference between a fresh, long-simmered bone broth and Ajinomoto’s chicken powder is surprisingly small. From now on, I’ll be using chicken powder 90% of the time.