Knowing how to season chicken is critical to the cooking
process. Whether you're looking for the best chicken breast recipe or other
savory chicken main dishes, here's a guide to chicken seasonings and tips for
experimenting with different seasoning combinations in chicken recipes.
What Is the Purpose of Seasoning Chicken?
Seasonings help to tenderize and flavor chicken. Although
salt and pepper are essential seasonings for chicken, you can add texture and
flavor to chicken dishes by combining spices, herbs, and acids (such as
vinegars, alcohols, and citrus juices). Cooking chicken with fats, such as
olive oil and butter, can also help it cook evenly while adding flavor at the
same time.
How to Season Chicken
Use the following seasonings to tenderize and flavor chicken
whether you rub, brine, baste, or marinate it. The following are the best
chicken seasonings:
Acids: Lemon juice, vinegar, yogurt, and other acids help to
tenderize and flavor the meat. Choose an acid that will complement the flavors
of the meal.
Fats: When cooking, rubbing chicken with olive oil or butter
adds moisture, flavor, and helps heat transfer.
Herbs: Dried herbs add a depth of flavor to the chicken.
Italian seasoning, a blend of rosemary, oregano, thyme, basil, and dried
parsley, complements chicken well.
Marinades: Tenderize the meat with a marinade, which will
also infuse flavor into the chicken before cooking. A chicken marinade is
traditionally made up of a combination of fat (such as oil), acid (such as
vinegar), and seasonings (like spices, herbs, and condiments). You can also
make a marinade with white or brown sugar, which will caramelize and add
sweetness.
Salt: Season the chicken with sea salt, kosher salt, or flavored
salts to help the chicken absorb flavors while cooking.
Spices: Garlic powder, black pepper, onion powder, and cumin
add flavor and savoriness to the chicken. Heat and smokiness are added to the
chicken with spices such as paprika, chili powder, cayenne pepper, and Cajun
seasoning.
6 Tips for Seasoning Chicken
Consider the following tips when seasoning chicken:
1. Allow marinades to sit. Allow the chicken to marinate for
at least thirty minutes and up to twenty-four hours before grilling or baking
it for the best flavor.
2. Take your measurements. For every pound of chicken, use
one tablespoon of seasoning. Before applying the seasonings to the chicken,
combine them in a small bowl.
3. Pat dry the chicken. If you're using a dry rub, pat the
chicken dry with paper towels before seasoning to ensure the dry rub adheres to
the meat properly. Rub olive oil or butter on the dry chicken first to help
seasonings adhere.
4. Season the skin of the chicken. Rub some seasoning on top
of the skin to flavor it and help it crisp up when cooking chicken with the
skin on, and then underneath the skin to flavor the meat.
5. To enhance the flavor of your ground spices, toast them.
Chef Wolfgang Puck offers a pro tip for getting the most out of your
seasonings, a practice he employs in the kitchens of his award-winning
restaurants: "If you can, toast your peppercorns a little bit in the oven
to release a little bit of the oil, and they will be even more fragrant."
That is something we do with all of our spices. If it's cumin or coriander
seed, we toast it to bring out the flavor because the oil is released."
6. Make a seasoning mixture. Combining spices to make a
premade spice blend or dry rub can help to speed up the cooking process and is
a great way to experiment with different flavor combinations. Spice blends can
be stored in an airtight container for later use.
9 Chicken Recipes with Seasonings
There are numerous ways to season and prepare chicken cuts,
ranging from roasting a whole chicken to searing chicken thighs. Consider
making one of the following chicken recipes with homemade chicken seasoning
mixes:
1. Baked chicken breast: To make this easy baked chicken
recipe, season boneless skinless chicken breasts with paprika, brown sugar,
onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Serve the juicy chicken breasts
in a baking dish with vegetables or mashed potatoes.
2. BBQ chicken rub: A homemade spice rub composed of salt,
sugar, and spices, a BBQ rub is applied to the chicken before smoking or
grilling it. Brown sugar, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, black
pepper, smoked paprika, kosher salt, cayenne pepper, and cumin make up this
barbecue chicken rub. Serve with classic barbecue side dishes such as potato
salad, coleslaw, cornbread, and mashed potatoes.
3. Chicken paillard: A boneless piece of meat that has been
pounded thin or butterflied to an even thickness is referred to as paillard in
French. To make tender chicken breasts, pound the thickest parts of a boneless
skinless chicken breast on a cutting board with a rolling pin or meat mallet.
Chef Thomas Keller's chicken paillard recipe, which uses only oil and kosher
salt and requires you to sear the chicken quickly on the stovetop, makes for an
easy chicken dinner.
4. Chicken souvlaki: This Greek dish of marinated meat
on skewers calls for marinating chicken breasts in lemon juice, garlic, and
herbs before grilling. In Greece, chicken souvlaki is typically served as a
main course with rice and tzatziki. In the United States, it is frequently a
pita bread sandwich, similar to a gyro or shawarma.
5. Chicken tacos: Combine ground cumin, paprika, black
pepper, garlic powder, chipotle chile powder, ancho chile powder, dried Mexican
oregano, and onion powder to make your own taco seasoning. To boneless skinless
chicken breasts, add the chicken seasoning blend. Sear the chicken on the
stovetop before slicing it and serving it with warm tortillas. Top your chicken
tacos with cilantro, avocado, lime wedges, and salsa.
6. Fried chicken: Seasoning is the most effective way
to make flavorful fried chicken. Brining the chicken with lemons, bay leaves,
parsley, thyme, honey, garlic, peppercorns, kosher salt, and water is part of
Chef Thomas Keller's fried chicken recipe. The chicken should then be dredged
in a mixture of flour, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, cayenne pepper,
kosher salt, and ground black pepper. The chicken can be fried in either oil or
an air fryer.
7. Jerk chicken tacos: Jerk sauce is a smooth blend of
chiles, spices, garlic, sugar, and soy sauce. Jerk chicken tacos are made with
grilled, jerk-seasoned chicken wrapped in a corn tortilla. The meat is
marinated, grilled until smoky and juicy, and served in warm tortillas. Simply
top Jamaican jerk chicken tacos with diced radishes, onions, and pineapple. A
cilantro sprinkle and a squeeze of fresh lime juice are popular finishing
touches.
8. Roast chicken: In Chef Thomas Keller's roast chicken
recipe, the chicken is marinated in a mixture of lemons, bay leaves, parsley,
thyme, honey, garlic, peppercorns, kosher salt, and water. The marinade could
also be used to make an oven-baked chicken breast recipe.
9. Tandoori chicken: Skinless chicken breasts or thighs
are marinated in yogurt and spices such as garam masala, chili powder, ginger,
and cumin in this Indian grilled chicken dish. While it is traditionally
roasted whole on skewers in a high-heat tandoor oven (a cylindrical clay oven
heated with wood or charcoal, primarily used in Northern India), it can also be
cooked in a conventional oven, rotisserie, or grill. For the best results, use
a meat thermometer (or even an instant-read thermometer).
