It’s almost turkey time, which means we’re looking at creative alternatives to the traditional Thanksgiving menu, starting with homemade poultry seasoning. Poultry seasoning is commonly used for roasting chicken or turkey, but you can find it called for in stuffing recipes and some soups as well. If you’re like me, your early encounters with poultry seasoning were pretty limited to McCormick. I assumed that all poultry seasoning tasted the same as the one I remember from my mother’s spice rack. While the taste profile of most poultry seasoning is savory, there’s so much variation, depending on the particular combination of herbs and spices. If you can’t find poultry seasoning and need some, or even if you just want to customize your own blend, here is the best way to proceed.
Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme (Yes Really)
If you’re going by the McCormick blend, the ingredients in poultry seasoning are some combination of sage, marjoram, rosemary, black pepper, and nutmeg. Poultry seasoning based on parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme is the most common variation (we’re pretty sure the Simon and Garfunkel rendition of “Scarborough Fair” is based entirely on a chicken). This is true especially for stuffing, but another big hitter that works really well for roasting is marjoram. We like marjoram because it has a similar flavor to oregano and even mint, but with a subtly different nuance of flavor.