What You Need to Know About Adding Spice to Chicken

If you’re looking to cut back on unnecessary fats and oils, seasoning your food with herbs and spices is a great change to make. The Dietary Guidelines state that we should limit calories from added sugars, fats and sodium. Using herbs and spices provides food with plenty of flavor while cutting down on calories. Plus, natural herbs offer health benefits like reduced inflammation, boosted immunity and improved memory.  Below is everything you need to know about adding spice to our favorite food - chicken!   

Find the Right Spice Combination for Your Chicken

First thing’s first - you need to find the right spices to complement your chicken dishes. There are so many, it’s hard to list them all! But here are some popular flavor combinations to start with: 

• Sweet and savory rub. Love what the BBQ restaurants in Staten Island serve up? A sweet and savory rub gives you that classic barbecue taste. Using brown sugar as the base, mix together salt, paprika, pepper, cumin, onion, garlic, pepper and cayenne pepper. 
• All-purpose rub. An all-purpose dry rub is great for creating flavorful chicken that pairs well with potatoes, rice and vegetables. Dry rubs combine paprika, black pepper, garlic and onion powder, oregano, salt, coriander and cayenne pepper. 
• Herbal rub. If you prefer a fresh, fragrant rotisserie chicken in Staten Island, you can bring these flavors home. Herbal rubs are best for Italian-inspired dishes and include salt, oregano, dried basil, dried parsley and brown sugar. 
• Citrus and spice. Prefer a citrusy chicken dish that pairs well with vegetables? Mix lemon pepper, salt, garlic and onion powder, basil, oregano, parsley and paprika to make this sour and spicy rub. 
• Spicy. If you like your chicken to have a kick, combine paprika, thyme, salt, onion powder and black pepper. This is a great rub for chicken tacos and chicken wings in Staten Island. 

Rub the Spices into the Chicken

Before adding a dry rub, the chicken should be fully defrosted. Place the protein in a baking pan to avoid the spread of bacteria and blot it with paper towels to absorb excess juices. Once dry, drizzle olive oil on the chicken to help the spices stick.  It’s recommended to use 1 tablespoon of dry rub for every 1 pound of chicken, but you can use more or less depending on your taste preferences. This rub can be applied to the chicken in advance or right before you cook it. Be sure to work the spices into the chicken so that the flavors are infused.  Once the chicken is fully covered in a dry rub, you can cook it the way you want! Toss it on the grill, roast it in the oven or shred it up for chicken tacos. Once you start experimenting with different spices, you’ll find that chicken is never boring!