Best Seasoning for Chicken
Easy Chicken Seasoning Recipe – These are our top choices for the 3 best homemade spice blends to make grilled or oven baked chicken taste amazingly good, with barely any effort! Everyone in the family is bound to love this delicious way to season chicken!
Why We Love This Spice Blend Recipe
Well, first of all, we love all things chicken! BBQ chicken, chicken thighs, fried, stewed, shredded, and spatchcocked … If it involves fowl, we are fans. So it seemed only fitting that we feature a simple Best Seasonings for Chicken recipe, too!
Recently we posted a chicken cooking tutorial called Cooked Chicken 101. In this post we outline all the different ways to cook chicken, both boneless and bone-in, and what temperature to set them at, and how long to cook them. That way, you can cook perfect chicken each and every time no matter your cooking method.
As a followup, today we’re sharing a post on our favorite 3 spice blends for chicken. Of course, you can put just about any seasoning on chicken and it will taste good, yet we do have some favorite herb and spice blends we’d like to share. These are my go-to seasonings for chicken that my family absolutely loves!
Our all-purpose chicken seasoning is great on all sorts of chicken-focused meals and can be used in a multitude of dishes. However, we’re also sharing our favorite all-purpose Mexican and Italian blends for when you’re cooking more of a specific style of chicken to go with a meal.
We hope you enjoy these 3 simple chicken seasoning blends and they make your midweek dinners much more tasty!
Pro Tip: Don’t have time to create your own blend? No worries! When in a hurry, consider adding just lemon pepper, Mrs. Dash, Tajin seasoning, everything bagel seasoning, or Old Bay seasoning.
What Ingredients You Need for 3 Flavorful Spice Dry Rubs
All-Purpose Chicken Seasoning
- Lemon pepper seasoning (or combine lemon zest, black pepper, and salt)
- Salt
- Garlic powder
- Onion powder
- Paprika
- Dried dill
Get the Complete (Printable) Recipe with Homemade Chicken Seasoning Blends Ingredients and Quantities Below. Enjoy!
Mexican Chicken Seasoning
- Ancho chile powder
- Salt
- Garlic powder
- Onion powder
- Ground cumin
- Dried oregano
- Cayenne pepper
Italian Chicken Seasoning
- Homemade Italian seasoning (combine rosemary, thyme, basil, and oregano)
- Salt
- Garlic powder
- Onion powder
- Crushed red pepper flakes
How to Make and Apply Chicken Seasoning
Set out a small bowl. Measure and add the herbs and spices.
Mix well.
Sprinkle the spices over boneless chicken pieces or bone-in chicken pieces.
Ways to Cook Seasoned Chicken
We love to grill chicken, particularly during the spring and summer. There is just nothing quite like that extra bit of smoky flavor and lightly charred grill marks!
For perfectly grilled chicken, first preheat the grill to medium heat, about 350-400°F.
- Cook boneless and skinless breast and thigh pieces for approximately 4-6 minutes on each side, depending on the thickness.
- Bone-in skinless thigh and breast pieces need to cook for 12-15 minutes per side.
No grill? No problem! If you don’t have a grill – or simply don’t want to use one – nothing else beats juicy and tender oven-baked chicken. Bonus: You don’t even need to flip the chicken! Simply place the seasoned pieces on a lined baking sheet or baking dish, and pop them into the oven.
First, preheat the oven to 400°F for boneless or 425°F for bone-in chicken breasts or thighs.
- Cook thighs or breasts for 20-25 minutes, depending on meat thickness.
- Bake bone-in chicken breasts or thighs for approximately 40-45 minutes.
For more cooking details and recipe ideas, check out our complete Temperature for Chicken (Chicken 101) Cooking Guide!
Frequently Asked Questions
The key to making the most perfectly flavorful, moist, and tender chicken is to a) season thoroughly and b) cook properly.
Chicken meat is rather mild on its own. So you want to be very generous with adding spices, and coat the meat evenly and entirely.
The internal temperature of chicken breast and thigh pieces needs to be 165 degrees F to safely eat. Any lower than that and you run the risk of raw chicken, which is of course both icky tasting and potentially harmful. However, overcooking results in dry and tough meat. Not so icky but definitely unpleasant. So cook according to recipe instructions, and always use a meat thermometer to check the temp on the low end of the cooking time.
Yes, you always want to liberally apply spices to the meat before cooking chicken.
Store each batch of spice blend in an airtight container with a lid. Keep them at room temperature in a cool, dry place. They’ll last about as long as any other dried seasonings, and are freshest when used within 6 months or so.
Looking for More Brilliant 5 Minute Fixes? Be Sure to Also Try:
- Best Steak Seasoning
- Homemade Creamy Pesto Sauce
- Best Easy Remoulade Sauce
- Easy Adobo Seasoning
- Best Greek Salad Dressing
Best Seasoning for Chicken
Ingredients
All-Purpose Chicken Seasoning –
- 1 tablespoon lemon pepper seasoning
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon dried dill
Mexican Chicken Seasoning –
- 1 tablespoon ancho chile powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
Italian Chicken Seasoning –
- 1 ½ tablespoons Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
Instructions
- Set out a small bowl. Measure and mix the herbs and spices together.
- Sprinkle over boneless chicken pieces or bone in chicken pieces.
- Cook chicken as desired. See links below for suggestions!
thank you for each of these, was running around the other day trying to find Mexican marinaded chicken but a dry rub would have worked just as well, and can use the other 2 as well, so much appreciated
I tried this with some of the chicken I was making and it turned out to be the best I have ever made.
This is perfect!! Thank you so much for sharing this!! We cook a lot of chicken & these make the chicken so tasty!! Love the variations!!
This is such a good recipe to have on hand! I love how versatile this chicken is for everything.