Things We Love: Zoup! Good, Really Good Chicken Broth

Truth: The lackluster chicken broth you’ll find on major grocery-store shelves tends more toward salty water than anything resembling actual poultry, at least until recently. The popular Michigan-based restaurant chain Zoup! now distributes its small-batch Zoup! Good, Really Good Broth via supermarket behemoths like Kroger, Albertsons, and Wegmans – making it possible to enjoy homemade stock flavor in summer, minus the time standing over a hot stove.

Mind you, the golden liquid ain’t cheap – $6.95 for a 31-ounce jar – but the time saved by believable from-scratch flavor should help soften the blow. Packaged in glass jars, the savory broth makes it simple to whip up pastas, risottos, or fast one-pot meals, like the Tuscan Chicken Soup below, which takes less than 10 minutes from start to finish. (A 31-oz. jar is $6.95 at supermarkets; four jars cost $27.80, plus shipping, at zoupbroth.com) – Monica Michael Willis, Contributing Editor

Quick & Easy Tuscan Chicken Soup

8 servings

Ingredients

2 jars Zoup! Good, Really Good Chicken Broth

3 cups fresh baby spinach

2 cups shredded rotisserie chicken, skin removed

2 cans great Northern beans

1/3 cup favorite homemade or store-bought pesto

Salt and fresh ground black pepper

Roasted red pepper strips, optional

Crumbled feta, optional

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. In a large soup pot over medium heat, add broth, spinach, chicken, and beans; cover and cook just until soup simmers.
2. Stir in pesto. Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer for two minutes more minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
3. Ladle into bowls and garnish with roasted red peppers and feta, if desired.