Seasonings for Successful Chicken
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By: Jack Mancuso
Chicken. Where to even begin? If you watch my pieces on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, you already know I love cooking with chicken. There are fairly straight-up recipes like smoked chicken breast. Or we can dive deeper into the grill and smoker a little more with perhaps my favorite part of the chicken, the wings, baby!
Chicken The Ultimate Multi-Tasker
People will talk about cooking high-end cuts of meat like Wagyu. Don’t let all that bravado fool you. Chicken is a multi-tasking meat. You can grill it, bake it, fry, barbecue it, or boil it. Once the meat is done, what you do with it depends on your creativity (or current craving). It is no wonder that chicken is the most common protein in the world, a distinction that’s remained since the Middle Ages.
How to Use Chicken
There could well be volumes of books exploring chicken recipes. Some of the ways of using chicken include:
- Braised
- Chicken salad
- Fajitas
- One pan wonders
- Poached
- Salad topper
- Sandwiches
- Shish kabob
- Stir fry
Well, you get the idea. The question remains, how do you season chicken? The answer depends heavily on how you prepare the meat, the flavor profile you hope for, cultural influences, and your own little twists.
Herbs & Spices that Pair with Chicken
If you walk to your pantry right now, you’ll probably find a lot of spices commonly used for chicken, like basil, celery salt, dill, sage, thyme, and rosemary. Truth is, there’s probably nothing you couldn’t try with chicken; understanding the results could go either way. Also, if you ask 100 people how to season chicken, you’re going to get 100 (or more) responses. Everyone chimes in with an opinion and stories of what Mama used to do.
Let’s just look at a few:
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Cayenne: Spicy, smoky, and fruity. Of course, you see it in rub recipes, but it also goes into stew.
- Chili Powder: Brings depth and warmth to your dish. Think roast chicken or Mexican soup, for example.
- Garlic Powder or Granulated Garlic: When you want that garlicky background without too much salt or heat, garlic powder is your friend. It pairs well with nearly every other spice.
- Lemon Zest: Pairs well with chives, lemon verbena, parsley, rosemary sage, and basil.
- Onion Powder or Granules: Where you see garlic, you can nearly bet onion powder is in the recipe too. They’re a magnificent pair.
- Paprika: pairs well with ginger, allspice, cumin, parsley, rosemary, and basil, just to name a few.
- Pepper: The King of Spices works particularly well with lovage, dry mustard, ginger, cardamom, and cloves (just to name a few).
- Salt: If pepper is the King, then salt is the Queen. Pairs with lemongrass, chives, chili powder, cloves, nutmeg, onion powder, and mind (again, this is only the beginning)
This is a very abbreviated list. There are so many more herbs and spices you can use on chicken. As you read recipes, you’ll find more.
Mix and Mingle:
It is a rare discovery to find just one herb or spice on chicken. People mix and match with flavors they like and ones with which they’ve had success. At Cuso, we’ve created a line of 10 scrumptious seasonings, each one of which has more than one application. Sometimes, those get mingled, too! If you’d like to play with all ten, we have a variety pack just for you. These seasonings fill your pantry with possibilities.
PitMaster’s Memo: Chicken Dressed Down
I would be remiss to mention you don’t have to go crazy every time you cook chicken. Sometimes “casual day” is best. Bake the skin (all over) with salt and pepper. This chicken not only tastes lovely, but because it’s “plain,” you can use it in many other preparations like chunky chicken salad.
Some Side Dishes for Chicken
Farro salad
Fettuccini alfredo
Lemon garlic spinach
Maple roasted carrots
Parmesan Brussels Sprouts
Roasted green beans
Salt & pepper vinegar crispy potato
Scalloped potatoes
Some Drinks that Pair with Chicken
Brown ale
Orange Old Fashioned
Pale ale
Shiraz
Sparkling grape juice
Sweet tea
Whisky
White Wine
