Chicken Broth Powder - Knorr versus Lee Kum Kee

When I ran out of Knorr Chicken Broth Mix and my local Walmart didn't have any (!) on the shelves, I contented myself with Lee Kum Kee Chicken Bouillon Powder, thinking they'd be approximately the same thing. Even the proportions to use (1 tsp per 1 cup of boiling water) were the same.

Well, it turned out I was wrong.

I normally use a whopping 2 tablespoons per 1 tablespoon of uncooked rice when I prepare the chicken soup version of my "TV dinner rice bowls" and the Knorr powder resulted in what tasted like instant noodle chicken soup.

Whereas the Lee Kum Kee powder tasted like... SALT.

Yes, it just tasted salty. Whatever flavour was flattened by the overwhelming amount of saltiness.

If you follow the instructions and use 2 tsp of Lee Kum Kee per 2 cups of boiling water and just make chicken stock, it's not super salty, but the flavor is weak. If you double it, the flavor improves a bit but you can tell the saltiness will overtake it if you put in even more powder.

According to the "Nutrition Facts", the Knorr product actually has more sodium, so is it in fact more salty, but just masked by some other ingredients? Corn syrup perhaps? Because if you do find something too salty, adding some sugar can in fact temper that saltiness. Obviously you're not removing any salt doing this, but you're not tasting as much saltiness either.

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Life in the Lower Mainland (BC, Canada)

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