Spice up Your Cooking with This Blackening Spice Recipe

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Cooking With Anadi

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Welcome! Here is another spice blend recipe for you!

Working at JOEY Restaurants is when I was first introduced to this spice. Not to be sharing restaurant secrets here, but we used it in quite a lot of dishes! We often got custom orders from diners with requests for blackened proteins to add to dishes. For example, we would get many orders for Pan-Seared Blackened Salmon. This is how I first learned about the magic of blackening seasoning! It’s also used for shrimp, chicken, steak, and veggies! Learning about how the rub was used in the restaurant kitchen, I was so eager to take this knowledge home and make my own spice blend and using it in a variety of dishes!

What I like about making my own spices is that you can adjust the quantity of the herbs and spices used, depending on your preference!

Peppers

As I mentioned, paprika is the most prominent spice in Blackening Seasoning. You can use smoked paprika or regular paprika. I didn’t have smoked paprika, so regular did the trick! Note that the flavors will differ slightly depending on which type of paprika you use. I’m also using ground cayenne pepper. If you want a stronger blackening spice, then use more cayenne. Reduce it if you don’t like too much heat! This recipe will not be very mild but not too strong.

Dried Herbs

For this recipe, I’m using dried thyme, basil, oregano. Other great herb options include parsley and cilantro, so feel free to experiment! I have to say I spent almost a day deciding if I wanted to use parsley in this. Maybe next time!

Spices

Finally, we’ll be adding garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and black pepper. The garlic powder and onion powder add excellent flavor to the spice! Of course, some salt is essential to bring out all the incredible flavors from the peppers and the dried herbs!

Tools Needed

• Spice jar

How to Make Homemade Blackening Spice

To make homemade Blackening Spice, simply mix all the ingredients together in a small bowl or plate. Transfer to an airtight glass jar or mason jar.

Blackening Spice Versus Cajun Seasoning

I’ve been tossed between distinguishing Blackening Spice versus Cajun Seasoning, so I don’t blame you if you’re confused as well! I tend to use them interchangeably, and I know I’m not the only one. However, it turns out that the difference between the two is that Cajun seasoning is spicier than blackening spice, with a stronger emphasis on the cayenne pepper. Additionally, Blackening Spice uses more dried herbs to balance out the spice compared to Cajun seasoning.

Storing This Blackening Seasoning Recipe

Store the homemade spice blend in an airtight container or jar for 3 months, but I would recommend no longer than 6 months. Of course the spice blend will be the most flavorful the fresher it is, so I’d recommend you get on planning some meals where you blacken your food! Check out the next section for some ideas!

I believe this spice blend will become one of your new staples, so I don’t think you’ll have to worry about its shelf life! Let me know how quickly you went through the spice blend in the comments below!

How to Actually Blacken Something

Blackening is a technique, not a burn. It came out of Creole cooking in New Orleans, where chef Paul Prudhomme popularized blackened redfish in the early 1980s, and the method has barely changed since. Pat the fish or the meat dry, brush it generously with melted butter, then press it into the seasoning blend so it is coated all over - do not just sprinkle it on. Lay it into a dry cast iron skillet that has been sitting over high heat until it is genuinely smoking. The butter and the spices hit that hot metal and build a dark, savory crust in a couple of minutes a side. That crust is the entire point.

Redfish is the original and catfish is the everyday version, but the blend works just as well on chicken, shrimp, pork chops and beef. It is not only for meat either - firm tofu, pressed and patted dry, takes a beautiful crust the same way. A teaspoon or two rubbed over vegetables before roasting carries the same bold flavor into your favorite dishes with none of the skillet drama.

Two warnings. Open a window, because blackening properly makes smoke and there is no way around that. And since the pan is that hot, thin cuts work best - anything thick will build its crust long before the middle is done, so finish those in a moderate oven rather than pushing the heat higher.

The Blend, Measured Out - and How to Adjust It

The whole homemade blackened seasoning is ten things and takes about two minutes to put together. In tablespoons: 1 tablespoon of cayenne pepper and 1 tablespoon of paprika. In teaspoons: 1 1/2 teaspoons of thyme, 1 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, 1 1/2 teaspoon onion powder, 1 teaspoon of dried oregano, 1 teaspoon of white pepper, 1 teaspoon of black pepper, 2 teaspoons of salt and half a teaspoon of dried basil. That makes half a cup.

A few notes on the individual ingredients. The paprika should be sweet paprika rather than smoked - the smoke comes from the pan, not from the jar. There is no brown sugar in this blend, which is what separates it from a barbecue rub; it tastes of heat, pepper and dried herbs rather than sweetness, and that is what your taste buds should be picking up. On the salt, 2 teaspoons assumes coarse kosher salt, so if you are measuring fine table salt into the jar, scale it back or the blend will read salty against everything you put it on.