Season/spice chicken breasts

[neviditelny]

I've recently finally started to use my vacuum sealer to seal my food before freezing it. I tend to eat quite a lot of chicken and someone told me that adding spices/seasoning on the chicken before freezing it gives it a much better taste.

Anyone of you that agrees with that? And if so, what seasoning/spicing would you suggest me to use?
I'm open for any suggestions as I always love to explore and try new stuff with food.

 

[Quinnaay]

Following.

That said, I like using nandos marinade or a cajun seasoning.

 

[Conzer]

Fajita seasoning for me.

 

[tom_nieto]

Cayenne pepper, cumin, chipotle chilli flakes (or smoked paprika) and garlic granules would be great for this purpose.

 

[RamboFB]

Not sure about adding spices before freezing. I would say that if you are talking about chicken breast then this will probably not do much. Chicken breast should benefits more from marinating or brining. Anyways getting off topic, good spice blends for chicken.

1) smoked paprika, mustard powder, salt, pepper. This will give a standard tasty chicken.
2) Try a good quality curry powder. This will give you more Indian style chicken.
3) Use herbs. Rosemary, fennel and thyme are all fantastic with chicken.

Hope this helps you out.

 

[neviditelny]

Not sure about adding spices before freezing. I would say that if you are talking about chicken breast then this will probably not do much. Chicken breast should benefits more from marinating or brining. Anyways getting off topic, good spice blends for chicken.

1) smoked paprika, mustard powder, salt, pepper. This will give a standard tasty chicken.
2) Try a good quality curry powder. This will give you more Indian style chicken.
3) Use herbs. Rosemary, fennel and thyme are all fantastic with chicken.

Hope this helps you out.

Those tips sounds good, would you suggest to add those spice blends just before cooking or letting them marinade in the spices for a while before?
What marinades would be good for chicken?

 

[RamboFB]

Those tips sounds good, would you suggest to add those spice blends just before cooking or letting them marinade in the spices for a while before?
What marinades would be good for chicken?

Me personally, I don't think spices make any difference in terms of marination.

Spices are "activated" by heat and oil. When spices are dried the aromatic oils are locked in and only released by heat and hot oil (not too hot, burnt spices are not nice). So If I was cooking up a couple of breasts for dinner I would take the chicken out of the fridge 2 hours before cooking, less if fine. Try to cook from room temp if you can be bothered. Two reasons.

1) The meat fibers will be more relaxed therefore less chance of tough dry meat.
2) If you are meat is at room temp the center of the chicken will cook quicker there again better chance of juicy succulent meat.

Then I would put the breasts in a sealable plastic tub. Then add desired spices. Just to add to taste. Ballpark? 1 tsp paprika, 1 tsp mustard, 1/4 tsp black pepper, say 1/2 tsp salt. Then add some oil, whatever you like but just be aware of smoke points in oil, google that one. Then seal the tub AND SHAKE!!!!!! Good exercise lol. I think banging the chicken around the tub tenderizes the chicken. I would do all this then leave for the two hours as explained above.

Its terms of marination, you are probably looking at slightly acidic products such as yoghurt, buttermilk and lemon juice. I can go into a bit more detail about this if you are interested?

Hope this helps you out.

 

[neviditelny]

Its terms of marination, you are probably looking at slightly acidic products such as yoghurt, buttermilk and lemon juice. I can go into a bit more detail about this if you are interested?

Hope this helps you out.

I would be more than happy to get more details and teaching about marination.

I definitely have something to try out now about the spices as well, sounds interesting (got a few more things for my shopping list now too haha)

 

[RamboFB]

I would be more than happy to get more details and teaching about marination.

I definitely have something to try out now about the spices as well, sounds interesting (got a few more things for my shopping list now too haha)

I suppose marinating is really only for fresh chicken that you don't intend to freeze. Generally speaking you will keep the meat in the marination for 24 hours to give it time to do its magic. I think the science behind its quite simple. Yoghurt is acidic PH of around 4.4. Exposing meat to this acidic environment for periods of time means the fibres of the meat start to break up resulting in the chicken being more tender and juicy. A classic recipe for this would be chicken tikka. Here is a recipe to try.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp Garlic/Ginger paste
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp coriander
1 tsp garam masala
2 tbsp yoghurt
2 tsp lemon juice
400g chicken breast
salt

1) cube the chicken into bite sized pieces, add salt to taste, all the spices, garlic/giner and the lemon juice. add this to a bowl, mix well and leave on the counter for say 30 mins.
2) add the yoghurt and refrigerate, 24h max - 1h min.
3) once marinated, skewer or just add to foil lined tray. Preheat your oven to gas mark 6.
4) cook until done, if you want you can baste with a little melted butter from time to time.
5) Enjoy

PS note on spices, get yourself down to a asian or indian grocery store and buy all your spices. You will get big massive bags the same price as the tiny jars you buy in supermarkets.

Hope this helps you out. Let me know if you try anything.

 

[D.P.]

Also buy whole spices when you can and grind fresh. Cumin and coriander are in a different league when freshly ground.

 

[RamboFB]

Also buy whole spices when you can and grind fresh. Cumin and coriander are in a different league when freshly ground.

Spot on advice there, freshly ground spices are always the best. I cook lots of Indian food and that's the two main spices I always grind fresh.

What kind of food do you like to cook?