Always browned meat first, until a soup recipe proved me wrong

For like 10 years I would brown ground beef or chicken before adding anything else. Just assumed that was the only way. Then last month I tried this tortellini soup where you dump raw chicken right into the broth and let it cook in there. I was so skeptical but it came out super tender and the broth had way more flavor. Now I'm wondering how many other things I've been overcomplicating. Anyone else have a cooking habit they stuck with forever until one recipe showed them the easier way?

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caleb_gibson18d ago

See I gotta disagree with you there... browning is about texture and flavor depth, not just cooking the meat through. I tried the dump it in raw thing once with a chicken soup and the chicken came out fine, sure, but it tasted washed out. Like it had been boiled instead of cooked, if that makes sense. The browning gives you those crispy bits on the bottom of the pot too, and that's where half the flavor lives for me. I'll keep taking the extra ten minutes, honestly.