The Hirshon Australian “Chicken Salt”

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Chicken Salt Image Used Under Creative Commons License From reddit.com

Citizens, I give you my personal recipe for the great seasoning sensation from Down Under – Chicken salt! Chicken salt is a seasoned salt made with herbs and spices and sold in supermarkets throughout the region. It is most commonly associated wit fish and chip shops and other take-away food shops.

For the record, chicken salt, as sold in Australia and New Zealand, generally does contain chicken extracts, which are typically listed as the second ingredient after salt. It is therefore not suitable for vegetarians and it is not related to the chicken flavoring or seasoning that is found on potato crisps, although it can be similar in appearance (both have a slight yellow coloring).

Chicken salt is pretty much fantastic on anything where you want a savory, salty flavor – I’ve upped the umami flavor with two different kinds of mushroom powders as well as some ground-up chicken bouillon cube. That said, the majority of the chicken flavor does indeed come from ground-up roasted chicken skins cooked down in real chicken stock. The slight yellow color is from the bouillon cube and turmeric and is traditional for this salt blend.

Basically, chicken salt will become the new “secret weapon” in your flavor arsenal, provided to you courtesy of TFD! 🙂

Battle on – The Generalissimo

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½ pound chicken skin, trimmed
1 ¼ cups chicken stock
⅓ cup shiitake mushroom powder
¼ cup porcini mushroom powder
¾ cup kosher salt
2 tsp. white pepper
7 tsp. ground chicken bouillon cube
2 tsp. garlic powder
2 tsp. onion powder
2 tsp. thyme
2 tsp. sage
2 tsp. turmeric
1 tsp. nutmeg

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Heat the oven to 350° F. Place the chicken skins in a hotel pan and roast until golden, about 25 minutes. Strain off the rendered chicken fat and reserve for another delicious use.

Place the roasted chicken skins in a pot with the chicken stock and simmer until all the stock is reduced, about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Remove the skins from the pot and place in dehydrator overnight, or in an oven heated to 150ºF for 4 hours.

Place the mushroom powders in a food processor and blitz until it becomes super fine—it should resemble fine table salt. Remove the powder from the food processor and reserve in a bowl.

Place half of the kosher salt and half of the chicken skin in the food processor and blitz until fine. Repeat with the second half of the kosher salt and the chicken skin, as well as the ground chicken bouillon and turmeric.

Combine all of the powders, herbs and spices in a medium bowl, and mix well. Store in an airtight container.