Clever Home Cook Makes Homemade Chicken Bouillon Cubes — Goodbye Mystery Ingredients

Clean eating has been a steady trend among wellness influencers and foodies for several years. Many people are searching for the best ways to cut down on ultra-processed foods and unfamiliar ingredients in their store-bought finds. Even straightforward food items, such as condiments, salad dressings, and gravies, aren't exempt from including high fructose corn syrup and added sugars. To bypass all the unnecessary ingredients, one home cook has put her focus on making at-home chicken bouillon cubes with only whole foods and simple seasonings.

Shenandoah Shular shared a recipe for bouillon cubes on her TikTok, @shenandoah423, that uses chicken legs, assorted vegetables, water, and spices and herbs, including ginger, salt, thyme, rosemary, garlic, and parsley. The chicken and seasoned vegetables are cooked separately using the same pan. Then the veggies, broth, and deboned chicken are blended with an immersion blender and frozen on a baking sheet to create a flavorful layer that's easy to portion into cubes.

Shular emphasizes using organic chicken in this recipe, which you can do by following tips on picking the best chicken at the grocery store. She uses veggies, including kohlrabi, carrots, shallots, and celery, but you can swap in some of your favorites to customize your bouillon cubes. Keep the finished cubes in a zip-top bag or airtight container, and pull them out of the freezer whenever you cook up a savory meal. While this is a great homemade alternative, it's also helpful to know what ingredients are in store-bought cubes to see if making this recipe is worth it.

Knorr is the brand many know for bouillon cubes and stocks, though competitors such as Wyler's, Maggi, and Herb-Ox also occupy this market. Knorr's chicken bouillon cubes contain hydrogenated palm oil, xanthan gum, sugar, disodium inosinate and guanylate, and monosodium glutamate (MSG) — the last of which actually deserves a spot in your kitchen cabinet and isn't the scary ingredient it's been portrayed as. The other bouillon cube brands contain several of the same ingredients — such as disodium inosinate and guanylate and MSG — though some add anti-caking agents, such as silicone dioxide.

Consumer concerns around palm oil center on its impact on rainforests, though it does have a high level of saturated fats compared to other oils. Disodium inosinate and guanylate are umami enhancers when combined with MSG. Xanthan gum is a double-edged sword that might lower blood sugar but also create digestive inflammation when consumed in excess. The presence of a sugar like dextrose might initially raise eyebrows, but it's made from wheat and corn and promotes shelf stability.

As for chicken content, Knorr's cubes only list chicken fat on the ingredient list, while Wyler's Instant Bouillon Chicken Flavored Cubes has chicken fat and dried cooked chicken. Maggi and Herb-Ox cubes both contain dehydrated chicken, though chicken is lower on the ingredient list for all four brands — meaning there's less of it compared to ingredients such as corn protein and corn starch. Though not every ingredient mentioned here is cause for concern, making bouillon cubes at home ensures you know what's in your food and that you're actually consuming chicken.