4.86 11 Published Jul 24, 2019, Updated Sep 24, 2024 If you are frying, baking or grilling protein without marinating or seasoning first, you’re totally missing out. A little marinade or seasoning goes a long way and will really step up your cooking game. Once you start taking a little time to season your protein, you will be impressing your family and friends with delicious, flavorful food. Promise.
What is “Blackened Food”?
If your mind immediately goes to burnt food, get that out of your mind! Blackened food traditionally means coating food in melted butter and then a mixture of spices. The spices stick to the butter, darken in color and create an incredibly delicious crust to the food. If you want to make blackened food a little healthier (or dairy-free), you can use olive oil or avocado oil in place of the butter and it’s still super flavorful!
Ingredients in Blackened Seasoning
Blackened seasoning is just a spice blend – so everything you need for this recipe is in your spice cabinet.
paprika thyme dried onion powder dried garlic powder oregano pepper sea salt cayenne pepper
There’s a good chance you have all of these ingredients in your pantry, but if need blackened seasoning for a recipe and don’t have time to make this blend you can buy cajun seasoning at the store! It’s a premixed spice blend that includes a lot of the same ingredients in this blackened seasoning blend. This blend does have a little kick from the cayenne pepper. I LOVE the spicy flavor but if you don’t like spicy foods, you can omit the cayenne pepper from the blend.
How to Use Blackened Seasoning
One of the best things about blackened seasoning is that you don’t have to remember to prep it in advance like you do with marinating! If I want to pre-season a protein for grilling, I’ll typically measure out all of the spices into a ziplock baggie, coat my protein with olive oil, add the protein to the spice mixture and shake it up! If I’m cooking something in a pan (like shrimp), I’ll just add the butter or oil as well as the seasoning blend and toss to coat. It’s so easy and super flavorful.
Try these Blackened Recipes
Blackened Chicken Cobb Salad Blackened Tempeh Salad with Orange Tahini Dressing Blackened Salmon Cauliflower Grits with Blackened Shrimp
More EBF Staple Recipes
Healthy Salad Dressings Lemon Vinaigrette Roasted Garlic Quick Pickled Onions Apple Cider Vinegar Dressing
