Chicken stock is a liquid used in cooking, made by boiling chicken with herbs and vegetables. Low-sodium chicken broth is a healthier option, with less than 6% of the recommended daily intake of sodium. Commercial versions can have high sodium content, so it’s important to check labels. Homemade broth can be made low-sodium by controlling the ingredients.
Chicken stock is a liquid used to make soups or add flavor to roasts and vegetables when cooked. One prepares chicken broth by boiling a whole chicken or parts of chicken with selected herbs, vegetables, salt and pepper. Low-sodium chicken broth is a healthier alternative to regular chicken broth. This type of chicken soup has 6 percent or less of the recommended daily intake of sodium for adults.
Based on a standard 2,000-calorie diet, the US government recommends a total daily sodium intake of less than 2,300 milligrams from all sources for healthy adults. A low-sodium food has less than 140 milligrams of sodium per standard serving. Ultra-low sodium products have 35 mg or less per standard serving.
Convenient to use, chicken broth is often available in cans or tetra packs. Depending on the brand, commercial versions of regular chicken soup can contain an unhealthy amount of sodium in each serving. On average, the retail versions have more than 30 percent of the recommended daily amount of sodium for adults in 1 cup (250 milliliters), the standard serving. The reduced-sodium versions have less sodium than the manufacturer typically uses in a product, or less sodium than competing brands. Fat-free versions often have a higher sodium content to counteract the loss of flavor from fat reduction.
Before purchasing low-sodium chicken soup, you should compare serving size and sodium content with government guidelines. To avoid confusing different versions of chicken broth, you can review the nutrition labeling on product packaging. US government labeling laws, for example, require food manufacturers to provide details about the amount of sodium in products. These laws also ban packaging that implies a product meets the government’s definition of low sodium when it doesn’t.
Making your own chicken broth helps ensure that the sodium content meets guidelines for low-sodium products. The main ingredient in Low Sodium Chicken Stock is chicken. Like most proteins, a chicken contains a small amount of naturally occurring sodium, but not enough to push the content of a homemade stock above government guidelines.
Controlling the additions to your homemade chicken stocks allows you to make tasty, low-sodium chicken stocks. Carrots, celery, onions, pepper and herbs are the basic components of an artfully homemade low-sodium chicken broth. Instead of salt, sage, thyme, marjoram or other herbs can be added that complement the poultry. Judicious use of garlic and lemon juice helps make up for the lack of salt in a low-sodium chicken broth recipe.
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