Chicken stock

Used as a loosening liquid it does two jobs at once: it replaces water and it replaces added salt, because commercial bouillon runs heavily salted. Made up weak, it contributes glutamate and a little body without pushing the sodium of the finished dish further. Where a recipe calls for it weak, that is a seasoning decision rather than a thrift one. Real gelatinous stock behaves differently again, adding viscosity that powder cannot.