Chicken Broth Sourdough Loaf
This savory sourdough loaf took off on social media when I posted it last month, and for good reason. Made with chicken broth in place of water, then layered with shredded butter, mozzarella, and fresh thyme, it bakes into a deeply flavorful loaf with a crisp, golden crust, a soft, cheesy interior, and delicate, croissant-inspired, buttery layers. Serve it alongside soup, toast it with salted butter, or use it to make an unforgettable grilled cheese.
This savory sourdough loaf took off on social media when I posted it last month, and for good reason. Made with chicken broth in place of water, then layered with shredded butter, mozzarella, and fresh thyme, it bakes into a deeply flavorful loaf with a crisp, golden crust, a soft, cheesy interior, and delicate, croissant-inspired, buttery layers. Serve it alongside soup, toast it with salted butter, or use it to make an unforgettable grilled cheese.
Prep Time:1 hour 15 minutes
Bake Time:45–50 minutes
Additional Time (Fermentation & Proofing):25–27 hours
Total Time:Approximately 27 hours 15 minutes
Ingredients:
330g cold chicken broth (I use my own homemade version)
150g active sourdough starter
500g bread flour
5-8g salt (this number depends on how salty your broth is, if it’s lightly salted go with 8g)
8 ounces mozzarella cheese
6-7 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 stick of shredded butter
Directions:
Taste your broth and determine how salty you want your loaf to be. Highly salted broth would cause me to go on the lighter side for balance.
Add your cold chicken broth, flour, and starter into a large bowl, and mix until well combined before adding your salt.
Once your main ingredients are mixed, knead for about 5 minutes with a mixer or 8 minutes by hand. Once kneaded, cover the dough and place it in the refrigerator for 12-14 hours.
Take your dough out of the fridge and check the usual signs you’d see that it’s ready for slap and fold. You should see a shiny top and even bubbling at the bottom.
Shred your butter and cheese; pull the leaves off the thyme sprigs.
Perform your first of four stretch and folds. Grab the edge of the dough, sprinkle in ¼ of each of the three inclusion items, and fold them into the dough. Place the dough and the inclusions back into your refrigerator for 30-45 minutes.
Note: We are keeping the dough and inclusions cold between stretch-and-folds so the butter doesn’t heat up and melt out of the dough when we bake it (think croissant-style). This will give us flavorful, flaky layers.
Repeat step 6 three more times.
On a clean surface, laminate the dough by stretching it into a rectangular shape and folding it into thirds (I add extra cheese here). Take the long rectangle-shaped dough and roll away from you into a tight ball. Push and pull the dough to create tension at the top, add to a floured banneton, stitch the bottom, cover, and place back into the fridge for 12 hours for the best flavor.
When you’re ready to bake, heat the oven with your Dutch oven inside to 450 degrees F and score the sides before placing the loaf into the Dutch oven to bake for 6 minutes.
Once the bread has baked for 6 minutes, pull the loaf out and do your deep expansion score. Place the bread, covered, back into the oven at 450 for 24 minutes.
Drop the temperature of your oven down to 425 degrees F and take the top off the Dutch oven and bake for another 15-20 minutes (I check the color at 15).
Pull the loaf from the oven and check that the internal temperature reaches at least 205 degrees F. Place the loaf on a cooling rack for 1 hour to 90 minutes.
Enjoy this bread with soups, plain with salted butter, or it also makes an insane grilled cheese!