How to season chicken breast healthy?
Eating good and tasty chicken breast can create a good mood! People from all parts of the world cook chicken breasts in different ways. But the seasoning is an essential and integral part of any chicken breast recipe. The healthy ways to season chicken breast include many ingredients, from lemon to rosemary.
Seasoning chicken breast the right way can create deep flavors which enhance the overall taste. At the same time, modern cooks are increasingly becoming more health-conscious and for good reasons. Therefore, in this article, we discuss several healthy ways to season chicken breast.
Seasoning the chicken breasts with the right ingredients can create a perfect balance of all the flavors. Otherwise, it will taste just bland. While seasoning is essential, you need to keep in mind that health is also necessary.
With more people opting for a healthy lifestyle these days, this topic has become more critical. Hence, you must know about the best ways to season chicken breast the healthy way. Read on to learn more about these healthy seasoning mixes.
What is a healthy seasoning for chicken breast?
A healthy seasoning for chicken breast means including seasonings that are not harmful but rather beneficial for health reasons. At the same time, such seasoning must be suitable for everyday cooking use.
Here we describe several combinations of healthy seasoning for chicken breast, which will enhance and elevate cooked chicken breast while also benefiting your body and mind. Read on.
Though you can use chicken breasts in different recipes, the healthiest one is when you bake, boil, steam, or in rare cases, stir-fried. In all cases, the chicken breast’s seasoning using the beneficial methods will matter, and you must choose the healthiest seasoning options for this.
If you wonder how you can season chicken breasts in the healthiest way possible, let’s go. These are some of the ingredients that you can use for healthy seasoning of chicken breast:
- Salt, sea salt (but not too much)
- Black pepper (grounded)
- Paprika
- Lemon
- Cayenne pepper
- Onion powder
- Garlic powder
- Orange Peel
- Ginger
- Thyme
- Basil
- Rosemary
You can make different seasoning mixes from these ingredients to create a perfect seasoning for your chicken recipe. Above are just a few healthy seasoning options, and you can create some fantastic combinations based on your tastes and preferences.
Ways to create healthy seasoning for chicken breast
Healthy seasoning means something that can increase the chicken breast’s flavor while adding valuable benefits to the recipes. All the ingredients mentioned above and below in this article are great for healthy seasoning. Proper seasoning combined with appropriate ways of cooking can promote better health and lifestyle.
Please note that any herb or seasoning in large quantities is not healthy! Everything is good in moderation.
Here is a table of approximate amounts of seasoning you will need to season chicken breast.
Of course, you can experiment and vary the quantities to your liking.
Seasoning | Amount for Chicken Breast | Alleged Health Benefits Effect* |
Sea salt | ½ to 1 teaspoon per pound | Alkalizing digestive system; Table salt alternative |
Black pepper | ¼ to 1 teaspoon per pound | Immunity, sore throat |
Lemon | 1-3 tablespoon of squeezed lemon juice | Immunity, digestive, antibacterial |
Thyme | 1 tablespoon per breast | Cough, sore throat and more |
Orange Peel (peel or zest) | ½ teaspoon to 2 tablespoons | Vitamins, contain powerful polyphenols |
Basil | ½ teaspoon to 1 tablespoons | Digestive, circulatory, clears lungs |
Paprika | ¼ teaspoon to 2 tablespoons | Antioxidants, anti-inflammatory, anti-cholesterol, eye health, blood sugar stabilization |
Rosemary | 1 teaspoon to 3 tablespoons (about ½ tablespoon per pound) | helping the immune system, improving circulation, antiviral, improving memory and focus, Anti-inflammatory |
Garlic** | ¼ teaspoon to 2 tablespoons (up to 3 cloves) | Lowers blood pressure, anti-bacterial, clears respiratory system, |
Onion (powder) | ¼ teaspoon to 1 tablespoon | Lowers blood pressure, anti-viral, anti-bacterial, clears respiratory system, |
Oregano | ¼ teaspoon to 1 tablespoon | Anti-bacterial and antioxidant properties, lowers blood sugar and cholesterol, gut health |
Ginger | ¼ teaspoon to 2 teaspoons | anti-inflammatory, weight loss, respiratory organ cleansing |
Cayenne pepper | ¼ teaspoon to 1 teaspoon per pound | Against cold and congestion, boosts metabolism |
* None of these alleged benefits were independently verified for us by any medical professional. However, they are based on the research posted in the sources found on the internet.
** Allegedly, garlic contains sugars, and some recommend not to indulge too heavily in garlic.
Way #1: How to season chicken breast healthy with Sea Salt, Pepper & Lemon?
This is one of the most used seasonings mixes that you can use for chicken breasts. It adds the right amount of savory flavor with a tinge of lemon zest in the chicken breast. This is especially good when used for chicken salad and roasting. If you want to add minimal flavor to the chicken breast, this is the ideal combination of seasoning.
I usually opt for nutritional sea salt instead of regular salt. Sea salt seasoning for chicken breast adds a more tender flavor than ordinary table salt. Plus, sea salt is generally better for your health as it is evolutionary, something that is better for gentle alkaline vs. acid balancing in our digestive system.
Black pepper seasoning for chicken breast is better grounded as it will cover chicken breast more thoroughly. It is nice to add pepper seasoning while the chicken breast is still cooking. For example, add it to boiling water or spray it over the breast before baking.
If I steam it, I add pepper to the heated water below the steamed breast or season breast just after you finish cooking it.
A quick note about lemon as seasoning: there are different types of lemons. The common are Eureka and Meyer lemons. Eureka is the one you are more likely to get at the store, and it has a kind of solid sour flavor.
If you want something gentler, you can search-h for Meyer lemon. It will give a more gentle lemon flavor when seasoning chicken breast. Combine it with sea salt, and you have healthy and exquisite seasoning for chicken breast.
Way #2: Black pepper, Rosemary & Lemon
Do you want more flavors? Then this can also be an even more healthy and delicious seasoning mix for your chicken breast. Whether you want to roast, bake, or make steak out of the chicken breast, this seasoning mix is an excellent choice among different ways to season chicken breast healthy.
It adds the right amount of sourness as well as spiciness to your chicken breast recipe. As we all know, Rosemary is an aromatic herb that can add a bit of peppery and minty taste. This can leave a woody aftertaste, too, which is great for the taste buds.
By completely removing salt from the equation, you automatically make the chicken breast seasoning more healthy. Salt has sodium, after all.
Way #3: Thyme, Black pepper & Orange peel
Thyme has a very sharp and minty flavor with some hints of earthy and floral. It is sweet and peppery. When mixed with a bit of black pepper and orange peel, it can create an incredibly unique and delicious flavor. Thyme goes great with orange, and you can try out this healthy chicken breast seasoning mix next time.
A tinge of orange flavor along with the thyme and black pepper can create a healthy yet delicious seasoning mix for the chicken breasts. This seasoning is perfect when you are cooking the chicken breast in garlic sauce. It establishes a finger-licking flavor.
Orange peel can come in the form of orange zest or grated orange peel.
Way #4: Black pepper, Garlic, Sea Salt & Basil
This is a Holy Grail combination for your chicken breast seasoning. This seasoning not only tastes fantastic, but it is also beneficial for health due to the inherent properties of pepper, garlic, and basil.
Basil has a perfect balance of sweet and savory with a hint of pepper and mint. Hence, it goes great with garlic. When these two are mixed with salt and pepper for seasoning the chicken breast, it can offer you an unbelievably delicious dish. It can be the ultimate seasoning for chicken breast roasting and baking recipes.
I will not indulge in the beneficial property of basil, but it has vitamins and is suitable for digestive and circulatory systems and clearing lungs.
There are different types of basil for your chicken breast. There is cooking holy basil that is hard to get and has profound properties, Thai basil, and sweet basil, and mint basil, which are more common. Try all of them and see which of them works for you.
Way #5: Paprika & Rosemary
Want to know how to season chicken breast healthy but tenderly sharply without making it spicy? If you want to create a healthy and distinctively Mediterranean flavor for your chicken breast recipe, then paprika and rosemary are the ideal ingredients for seasoning.
You can add a bit of pepper into this seasoning mix to enhance the dish’s overall flavor. This is a healthy seasoning mix that can go quite well with the grilled chicken breasts, roasted chicken breasts, and more.
Paprika has different types. It can be hot and mild. The mild paprika will add a particular bright flavor to the food you are cooking, and it is sweeter and pepperish than spicy. Types of paprika you can use for healthy ways to season chicken breast include smokey paprika, sweet paprika, half-sharp paprika, and more. Using very spicy seasoning is not exactly the healthiest way to season chicken breast.
Rosemary adds a grounded taste to chicken and, in a way, counterbalances the sharp flavor of paprika. That is why you can use them together for an exciting flavor bomb. You can use either fresh or dried rosemary. Rosemary has a ton of properties beneficial to health, from helping the immune system to improving circulation. Allegedly, it also helps with being focused and alert and has some antiviral properties.
Some people complain that rosemary can inhibit the chicken flavor, but I think that depends on the amount of rosemary seasoning you put on chicken breast. Many others love this combination.
By the way, you can grill chicken breast on rosemary wood and get rosemary chicken flavor.
Way #6: Cayenne pepper, Onion powder & Lemon
One of the best healthy ways to the seasoning of chicken breast is cayenne pepper, lemon, and onion powder. This combination can create a fantastic taste for your roasted or grilled chicken breast. It can offer a perfect balance of flavors. You can add sea salt (according to your taste) into this mix if you want to enhance the flavor.
Cayenne pepper is often among favorite seasoning choices. Even sportspeople and bodybuilders on a special diet sometimes throw it on their chicken breast when they bake or grill it. So, you can safely sprinkle a little bit of cayenne pepper and still feel that you are sticking to your health regimen.
Onion powder is also another favorite. Onions themselves are pretty helpful. For example, onions may lower blood pressure just a little bit, plus they offer other valuable benefits to us. I am not sure if onion powder has the same effect, but it is a pretty popular choice because it is easier to handle powder than whole onions. Overall, ½ teaspoon of onion powder will make an excellent and healthy seasoning for cooking chicken breast for your next dinner.
We did talk about lemon earlier, so I will not indulge here. Lemon as seasoning goes well with black or cayenne pepper. Just the way it works. It is good with onions too. Lemon is a great and healthy seasoning for chicken breast, which goes well with most other seasoning types.
Way #7: Dried Oregano and Ginger
While this is a slightly unusual seasoning combination, it is something of exotic nature. Dried oregano by itself can go with many other chicken breast seasonings mentioned above. As one forum mentions – Oregano as seasoning elevates chicken breast. Quite many cooks consider that dried oregano is better seasoning than fresh herbs.
Allegedly, oregano has anti-bacterial and antioxidant properties. Therefore, one may logically assume that enough dried oregano seasoning mixed with chicken breast is not only healthy but probably helpful in reducing the speed of bacteria development. Please do not quote me here because I am only guessing. Sprinkle about ½ to 1-2 teaspoons of dried oregano over chicken breast before or during cooking.
You can add ginger to oregano in several different ways. One of my tricks is that I take a little bit of marinated ginger and press liquid out of it, and then sprinkle chicken breast with it like a lemon. Somehow, it adds a strange, exciting flavor to it. I never tried to combine it with lemon. Did you?
But otherwise, you can use dried ginger for seasoning chicken breast. Ginger has numerous beneficial properties, from anti-inflammatory to weight loss to simple respiratory system cleansing. Plus, it is excellent if you got sick and have a nose stuffed or other symptoms.
What is the healthiest seasoning for chicken breast?
As per our taste, we think that lemon and garlic or onions are probably the healthiest seasonings for chicken breast. It is also the most common healthy way to season chicken breast. But adding other ingredients like rosemary or oregano and other ones that we listed in this article is still quite suitable in this context.
All the ways mentioned above to season the chicken breast is supposed to be healthy. Choosing the healthiest options does not mean that you must compromise with the taste or flavor. The healthy ways mentioned above for seasoning the chicken breast can provide you with the best taste and flavors.
You can try out these healthy mixes for seasoning your chicken breasts. You will choose the right one based on your preferences and what your taste buds are craving. Choose organic and fresh ingredients to ensure that they are the freshest ones.
As you may already know, salt, pepper, herbs, lemon, and many more ingredients mentioned above are pretty healthy. They taste amazing and can enhance the overall flavor and taste of your chicken breast recipe.
Each of these ingredients comes with a distinctive taste and flavor, which can add to the recipe’s result. So, you can choose one of the above ways to season chicken breast healthy style and make your recipe.