How To Quickly Sear Meat For Any Soup (And Why You Should)

When it comes to making soup, getting the most flavor out of the meat you use is incredibly important, but that can be difficult to do when you're under time constraints. However, instead of marinating your stew meat ahead of time — which has very little lasting impact on your dish — your best bet to give your chicken or beef a boost by pre-cooking it in an efficient manner. 

Katie Vine, who's best known for being a highly experienced cook and recipe blogger at Dinners Done Quick, offered us a much-needed time-saving method for making stews. She explains that while browning your meat in some way before adding it to soup is critically important, it can be done partially if you're short on time. "You can [sear just one side] in the interest of time," Vine suggests. "The flavor is the same, but less intense overall." 

This advice can be very useful if you're using one large piece of beef or chicken, but can also help prevent cubed meat from drying out or being overcooked by the time the soup is finished.  However, Vine is firm in noting that this isn't the way to ensure you get the most amount of flavor in your soup. "If you're only making 25% of the browned goodness, then you're only getting 25% of the flavor — it's still there, just less," she explains.

When meat is browned, a chemical reaction known as the Maillard reaction leads to its natural proteins and sugars creating rich new flavors and aromas. This is why searing meat is absolutely crucial to many great recipes, including high-quality batches of soup, and also why it arguably isn't enough to only brown just one side. Partially searing your meat may be a time-saver, but it also comes at the expense of the residual flavors that meat produces as it browns for a longer period of time. "You miss out on being able to scrape up more of the browned bits when you add your liquid, which is pure flavor for your soup!" Vine adds. With this in mind, the best way to brown beef for stew when you aren't on a time crunch is by doing so within the pot you're planning on using for your eventual soup, which can ensure you get to enjoy every bit of flavor in your final product.

However, if you do need to sear your meat quickly before making your soup, there are ways to do so in addition to partial browning. Many people like to brown their soup meat in a stainless steel pan — which is known to get hotter and stay hotter for longer than other pans. You can also obtain better results by not overcrowding your pan and instead separating your meat into either two different pans or two different batches so it can all cook quickly and effectively.