[US] I require chicken salt

[exmadscientist]

Reliable sources inform me that fries chips all my cooking will become significantly better if I learn to wield the majesty and power of chicken salt. Unreliable sources fail to inform me how to actually acquire the stuff in the US, where it is sufficiently uncommon that even the international markets around here don't have it.

I see various brands and options on eBay and a few direct-from-Oz options with huge shipping charges. Are there any brands I should be seeking out in particular or sources that have good shipping rates or good add-ons (I'm not averse to making a big order if it's full of the good stuff)?

Or even anyone who carries the real stuff here in the US?

[jpanhalt]

That's a new term for me.  My original thought was a variation of KFC's "secret" recipe.  Most American versions seem to have thyme.  The Aussie versions I saw didn't have thyme.

Amazon sells several brands for $8 to $12, which is probably reasonable the cost of spices.  Even Home Deport advertises it. Sorry to be Captain Obvious.

[tooki]

Not the same thing, but something that perhaps fits a similar role, of being a umami-boosting delicious powder that goes well on almost anything: McCormick Umami Seasoning

https://www.mccormick.com/spices-and-flavors/herbs-and-spices/blends/all-purpose-seasoning-unami-with-mushroom-and-onion

The dominant flavor is actually mushroom, and I absolutely love the stuff on red meats in particular. It’s also fantastic for gravies, and it’s also tasty sprinkled onto fresh tomatoes. I am quite sad that I have used up my last jar of it, so I need to go back to USA and get some more…


As for chicken salt: also not the same thing, but have you ever used Chinese-style chicken bouillon powder? (They often call it simply “chicken powder”.) Unlike western bouillon powder/cubes, whose seasonings make it incompatible with most Asian dishes, the Chinese-style chicken powder doesn’t really contain any herbs or spices, so its flavor profile is “uncommitted” and can work in any cuisine. But it’s also yummy sprinkled on fries.

And what about just plain high quality chicken bouillon powder?

[I wanted a rude username]

Amazon sells several brands for $8 to $12

Yeah, just get the Mitani one, that's the original.

Use it like you'd use normal salt. It works better on bland foods, which might be why it suits chicken so well. Really adds life to chips (French fries) too.

[Halcyon]

There are plenty of brands available, obviously that will depend on where in the world you are. Amazon is a good start.

There isn't an exact recipe and brands vary a lot. The main ingredients you're looking for are usually typically regular sea salt, with some having a blend of salt and MSG and some kind of chicken flavouring. The "regular" variety will include some kind of non-descript chicken "flavour", while the vegetarian versions rely more on the herbs/spices etc...

The blend of herbs/spices also vary a lot, some include very few (garlic and/or onion powder is common) while some add things like bell pepper powder and soy sauce powder. Curcumin/Turmeric is sometimes added for that distinct yellow colour.

Many commercial kitchens will probably use the "Masterfoods" brand (owned by Mars Foodservices). They list their ingredients as:
Salt 73%, Natural Flavours (Chicken) 20%, Rice Flour, Garlic, Onion, Colour (Turmeric Oleoresin). Saxa also do one.

You might even try making your own:

https://www.instructables.com/How-Make-Chicken-Salt-Australias-Best-Kept-Secret/

And what about just plain high quality chicken bouillon powder?

That would make for a good approximation, however I would avoid some of the cubes as I suspect they might be a little too concentrated. Those are designed to go into liquids to make stock, as opposed to be consumed as a condiment. You might try something like the Vegeta stock powders. I find them to be less intense.

[jpanhalt]

I was intrigued by the descriptions, so I bought some supposedly "authentic" chicken salt though Amazon .  Mitani brand, made in Australia, $12.00 for 200 g.  It arrived today.  It's main ingredient is "sea salt."  My taste is not sophisticated enough to tell the difference between that and Morton's iodized salt or salt mined from under Lake Erie from ancient seas.

It was a nice blended spice with maybe a little thyme.  I tried it on a grilled pork chop.  It was good, but not worth $0.06g compare to other blended spices.  I'll try it on some grilled sole later.    I would probably buy it, if it were available at a reasonable price.  Its one attraction for me is no artificial smoke flavor.  It also doesn't seem to have rosemary as one of my other favorite blended Mediterranean/Greek spice has.

[Bryn]

As what Jpanhalt said, it does sound like part of KFC's secret recipe. If it was, Colonel Sanders would be too happy

Anyway, they're also available in the UK (and mostly the Mitani brand, but there's also Goat too).

[digger]

as a home cook who is as skilled as he is opinionated, i can tell you that this is misguided. there is no need to seek this out.

but if you must... first of all, what is "chicken salt"? it appears to just be umami-rich seasoned salt. if you really want to experiment with it, just import it. why deny your curiosity by trying to replicate an ultraprocessed treat when you can just import it? pay whatever it costs and just get it to try. how much could that possibly cost you in this globalized economy? why waste keystrokes when you can just spend $50 at most and get some. will that seriously ruin your finances? of course not.

if you don't want to do that for some weird reason, i suggest mixing something like an instant bouillon with salt. for example, you could take maggi brand chicken bouillon (solid cubes or powder packets) and add that to salt.

Reliable sources inform me that fries chips all my cooking will become significantly better if I learn to wield the majesty and power of chicken salt.

i suggest not doing this. if you put it in everything, you'll probably just get sick of it, and worse, your culinary sense can be warped for a long time. people easily develop persistent flavor associations. as an aside, you can also associate flavors with mental or physical health states. for example, it's common to not want anything to do with the liquor that gave you a violent hangover or the dish that gave you food poisoning.

umami is a great tool, but it's shortsighted to abuse it. not every flavor or dish needs to be enhanced with it. it's a cheap trick. you will enjoy your cooking more if only some dishes are umami rich. flavor heterogeneity is great. similarly, resist the urge to over-salt, over-sweeten, or over-acidify everything. try letting other components of the flavors shine.

i suggest instead judiciously using products like instant bouillon when it actually makes sense. i can recommend this product:
https://www.betterthanbouillon.com/products/roasted-chicken-base-reduced-sodium/

also, flavored salts are stupid. salt control is critical. you should use plain, old salt independently from other ingredients to build flavor. that's why i suggested the reduced sodium version of the product above.

never buy flavored salts or seasoning blends that contain salt. do you know why companies try to sell spice blends with salt? salt's heavy and dirt cheap, that's why. further, i strongly feel that you're better off buying individual spices and not bothering with blends at all (i.e. don't even bother with salt-free spice blends).

store your spices away from heat, moisture, and light. never dispense directly from the container over a hot pot or pan – moisture will get in and degrade them. promptly re-cap the containers. never be afraid of throwing out old spices and replacing them with fresh specimens.

what salt should you use? get a 0.5–1kg cardboard cylinder (with metal, fold-out pour spout) of cheap salt from your grocery store. if your palate is refined enough to tell the difference (mine isn't), then experiment with iodized vs non-iodized, with or without flow agents, sea salt vs mined, etc. with practice, it is easy to dispense from the metal pour spout in a controlled manner without over dispesing. shake the package back and forth with your hand (it's in the flick of the wrist) to get even flowrate as you dispense.

here is my everyday salt. the only ingredient is salt. no iodine or flow agents:
https://www.mortonsalt.com/home-product/morton-natural-sea-salt/

this salt is suitable for any recipe where the salt is to be dissolved.

for a finishing salt (intended for applications where the salt is NOT to be dissolved), i suggest a cardboard box of maldon flakes:
https://maldonsalt.com/us/our-salt/

it is a very attractive salt that also tastes good. it has a good texture and density for most baked goods. i used to use various sel gris, but now this is my favorite.

forget kosher salt. forget dispensing salt by grabbing it with your fingers. foolish.

my final unsolicited cooking tip for this post is to formulate your own recipes and to cook gravimetrically. that's right, weigh your ingredients. take detailed notes every time you cook a dish and follow up with a brief comment after you consume it. this is how you improve on the next attempt. as your recipe approaches your concept of perfection, make a spreadsheet out of it so that you can easily change the value of one cell to scale the recipe up or down.

[jpanhalt]

umami is a great tool, but it's shortsighted to abuse it. not every flavor or dish needs to be enhanced with it. it's a cheap trick. you will enjoy your cooking more if only some dishes are umami rich. flavor heterogeneity is great. similarly, resist the urge to over-salt, over-sweeten, or over-acidify everything. try letting other components of the flavors shine.

Mccormick has a mixed seasoning simply called Umami.  It's about $5 at Meijers for a large jar.  I compared it to the chicken salt.  Of course, both were salty, but the taste was quite different.  Umami has a definite mushroom taste.

forget kosher salt. forget dispensing salt by grabbing it with your fingers. foolish.

There are very few seasonings I dispense with my fingers, rosemary is one.  Salt is not.  However, Kosher salt is essential in my area if one wants a nice coarse salt for encrusting roasts such as pork and fish.  Two or three cups of Kosher salt plus a few TBS of water make a nice poultice for doing that. 

[tooki]

Mccormick has a mixed seasoning simply called Umami.  It's about $5 at Meijers for a large jar.  I compared it to the chicken salt.  Of course, both were salty, but the taste was quite different.  Umami has a definite mushroom taste.

I mentioned that a few weeks ago. It’s a fantastic product!

[digger]

Kosher salt is essential in my area if one wants a nice coarse salt for encrusting roasts such as pork and fish.  Two or three cups of Kosher salt plus a few TBS of water make a nice poultice for doing that.

i applaud you for using it in its (more or less) intended application.

however, i have no adhesion issues with granulated salt and feel it is superior here. the smaller particle size promotes faster dissolving than kosher salt and therefore faster and deeper absorption into the meat.

still, if you salt as far ahead of time as possible (especially for larger meats like roasts), which i am a big proponent of, then it becomes less important. kosher vs granulated makes no difference here.

really i just dislike stocking what i view as redundant ingredients.

on something like a brisket, i salt days in advance and leave uncovered on a tray or cambro in the fridge. salting days in advace even works great for chicken thighs that you intend to oven roast. a salty pellicle is a beautiful thing.

[tooki]

also, flavored salts are stupid. salt control is critical. you should use plain, old salt independently from other ingredients to build flavor. that's why i suggested the reduced sodium version of the product above.

never buy flavored salts or seasoning blends that contain salt. do you know why companies try to sell spice blends with salt? salt's heavy and dirt cheap, that's why. further, i strongly feel that you're better off buying individual spices and not bothering with blends at all (i.e. don't even bother with salt-free spice blends).

store your spices away from heat, moisture, and light. never dispense directly from the container over a hot pot or pan – moisture will get in and degrade them. promptly re-cap the containers. never be afraid of throwing out old spices and replacing them with fresh specimens.

what salt should you use? get a 0.5–1kg cardboard cylinder (with metal, fold-out pour spout) of cheap salt from your grocery store. if your palate is refined enough to tell the difference (mine isn't), then experiment with iodized vs non-iodized, with or without flow agents, sea salt vs mined, etc. with practice, it is easy to dispense from the metal pour spout in a controlled manner without over dispesing. shake the package back and forth with your hand (it's in the flick of the wrist) to get even flowrate as you dispense.

here is my everyday salt. the only ingredient is salt. no iodine or flow agents:
https://www.mortonsalt.com/home-product/morton-natural-sea-salt/

this salt is suitable for any recipe where the salt is to be dissolved.

for a finishing salt (intended for applications where the salt is NOT to be dissolved), i suggest a cardboard box of maldon flakes:
https://maldonsalt.com/us/our-salt/

it is a very attractive salt that also tastes good. it has a good texture and density for most baked goods. i used to use various sel gris, but now this is my favorite.

forget kosher salt. forget dispensing salt by grabbing it with your fingers. foolish.

my final unsolicited cooking tip for this post is to formulate your own recipes and to cook gravimetrically. that's right, weigh your ingredients. take detailed notes every time you cook a dish and follow up with a brief comment after you consume it. this is how you improve on the next attempt. as your recipe approaches your concept of perfection, make a spreadsheet out of it so that you can easily change the value of one cell to scale the recipe up or down.

IMHO, this type of prescriptivist nonsense is the sign of someone who may be a great scientist, but is not a great cook.

(Note for the rest of this comment: I am an accomplished cook, but not much of a bread/pastry baker — it just doesn’t interest me much. Baking is much, much more of a science than cooking is, insofar as you cannot adjust the recipe once it’s in the oven. So bear in mind that the rest of this reply is really addressing cooking, and not the baking of breads, pastries, etc.)

Cooking is about understanding ingredients and methods and how they interact. “Gravimetric” cooking only works for highly-standardized ingredients like industrial-scale food processing uses, and/or with robust laboratory characterization of raw ingredients. Food manufacturers do that so they can adjust accordingly. Restaurant chefs, and especially home cooks don’t have either of those benefits, so you have to learn to get a feel for things, to listen to the feedback the food is giving you as you cook it.

I’ve always loved cooking and have been doing it since I was a little kid. But it was when I first moved out and got my own place that my cooking skills went from “decent” to “really good” as I got more and more practice. I remember vividly, as a kid, asking my grandma to explain some dish she was cooking, and asking her “well, how much?” of some ingredient. She responded simply: “you just add enough!” Back then that confused me. But later, as an accomplished cook, I get it: you have to adjust for the ingredients at hand. Your flour’s moisture content varies, as does that of rice. Different granulations of salt and sugar have different densities. (Including within a package, as the stuff at the bottom is where the small particles settle in between the bigger ones.) Potatoes’ sugar content varies seasonally and with the age of the potato. Different manufacturers of a given product make them slightly differently. Ambient temperature and humidity affect how some dishes behave. And so on and so forth. Becoming a good cook means learning the ways that your dish is giving you feedback (texture, flavor, smell, sound, etc) as you work with it, learning through experience how those signals should be for a given dish, and how to adjust accordingly.

By having a really good feel for these signals, I can cook almost anything. If I’m trying something new, I will usually research a bunch of recipes for it, until a sort of “average” or quintessential version crystallizes in my mind, and then I start with that mental version. I then refine from there, tasting as I go. This method has served me really well, since it gives you a good feel for what the essence of a dish is, as well as saving you from slavishly following a recipe that has errors in it (which is really common, even in cookbooks).

In contrast, cooking by exact measurements (using normal grocery store ingredients) will almost always get you in the ballpark if the recipe is good, but will result in variation in the outcome of many batches.  I know people who cook this way, and while they’re certainly successful at cooking, they aren’t flexible cooks, and struggle to correct things when something isn’t cooperating.

Your spreadsheet approach works for tracking batch-to-batch differences in formulation or process if you can control all the environmental factors and identical ingredients. That’s what food scientists and chain restaurant test kitchens do. But it doesn’t help you learn how to cook at home using grocery store ingredients, IMHO. (I do agree with adding notes to recipes to keep track of “gotchas”, signals to watch for, etc.)



There is nothing wrong with salted seasoning mixes as long as you understand how their salt content works in cooking. Now, I actually do prefer no-salt or low-salt seasoning mixes when they’re available, both for cost reasons like you say, and to be able to add spices without adding more salt — that’s important when other ingredients already add salt.

There is nothing “foolish” about using kosher salt with your fingers. That gives you control in sprinkling. It’s also a much cheaper alternative to expensive finishing salts (like Maldon, fleur de sel, etc.).

[tooki]

Kosher salt is essential in my area if one wants a nice coarse salt for encrusting roasts such as pork and fish.  Two or three cups of Kosher salt plus a few TBS of water make a nice poultice for doing that.

i applaud you for using it in its (more or less) intended application.

however, i have no adhesion issues with granulated salt and feel it is superior here. the smaller particle size promotes faster dissolving than kosher salt and therefore faster and deeper absorption into the meat.

Do you know what salt encrusting is? It’s not a marinade. You don’t want it to dissolve fast. And the shape of kosher salt is critical to getting a nice crust, since granulated salt tends to just collapse.

[digger]

Do you know what salt encrusting is? It’s not a marinade. You don’t want it to dissolve fast. And the shape of kosher salt is critical to getting a nice crust, since granulated salt tends to just collapse.

if you want good chunks of undissolved salt to remain on the surface for cooking, then sure, sounds good to me.

what's a good example of that though? i personally favor a pellicle over a solid-salt-bearing crust for anything i can think of really.

[digger]

IMHO, this type of prescriptivist nonsense is the sign of someone who may be a great scientist, but is not a great cook.

i would say that the best way to get good at cooking is practice (experience).

i find a strong attention to detail, taking detailed notes (and making recommendations for yourself for next time after the meal is done), gravimetric measurement, etc are very valuable as a home cook.

you're right that some inputs are a moving target, but that doesn't negate the value of my approach. why would i do (and champion) something useless? that's uncharitable of you, lol.

if you extend your argument to a logical extreme, it would seem to suggest that any recipe measurements are unhelpful to a home cook. it should be easy to see that more accurate, reproducible measurements can only help with recipe reproduction and communication despite variances in inputs and environmental conditions. after all, no one has claimed that a goal of home cooking is maximum fidelity reproduction of every dish every time, but i really hope you don't think there is no value in recipes.

i also do not think that it makes me inflexible. it's not smart to assume someone like me can't just wing it

having an eye/feel for things and being able to document/communicate things are complementary skills. you need both to go from good to great.

believe it or not, having an eye/feel for things is actually critical in science. having an intuitive feel for how materials and chemicals are behaving in a process you're observing is how you troubleshoot. papers, patents, and research notes are not all you need to reproduce a result. any chemist or researcher can tell you that. science is just like cooking in that sense.

She responded simply: “you just add enough!” Back then that confused me.

this is a sign of an experienced cook that lacks documentation/communication skill.

I know people who cook this way, and while they’re certainly successful at cooking, they aren’t flexible cooks, and struggle to correct things when something isn’t cooperating.

this is a sign of an inexperienced cook (or lacking recent experience) who is attempting to compensate by relying on his or her documentation skills.

my approach advises building up to a spreadsheet-worthy recipe. the experience of cooking dishes over and over (and the notes you take along the way) is what confers the eye/feel skill, and those skills you gained were also needed to formulate the recipe in the first place. again, cooking skill comes from practice and experience. good results (much less good recipes) do not just materialize out of thin air.

finally, you say it's prescriptive nonsense, but look at it this way. i do it and know from experience that it's helpful. to say otherwise and lay down your own approach (which i mostly agree with, mind you) is itself prescriptive and hypocritical.

[wraper]

Isn't it something like bouillon cubes, just in loose form? https://www.walmart.com/ip/Knorr-Chicken-Bouillon-Cubes-9-3-oz-24-Pack/10291771

[jpanhalt]

@tooki

We both enjoy chemistry; although, it seems neither of us did/does that strictly for a living.  I may have mentioned a book I refer to often on food chemistry:  "Food Chemistry, 3rd Ed." H.-D. Belitz, W. Grosch, and P. Schieberle, Springer, Germany, 2004.*  That's the English version.  I am sure there are other books.  The sections I refer to mostly are the spices. 

*https://www.amazon.com/Food-Chemistry-H-D-Belitz/dp/3540408185