Spice Victory

This past summer, I randomly purchased a seasoned salt, not knowing it would totally rock my world. All summer long, Lawry’s Fire Roasted Chile & Garlic made plain chicken breast actually palatable. And since it was my new favorite seasoning, as it got lower, I kept my eye out to buy some more. I couldn’t recall which store I’d bought it from, but since I shop at three stores, I always figured “must’ve been one of the other ones.”

Until finally I had to admit, I just wasn’t seeing it anymore. Fine. That’s what Amazon is for.

Except it was out of stock there too. And everywhere else. And then I went to the McCormac site and discovered it had been DISCONTINUED.

Swear to god…it’s like TV shows where my favorite character always dies.

Anyhow, I realized the ingredients were listed on the label, and I had all of them (except the vague two at the end), so I had nothing to lose by trying to make it myself. Here were the ingredients:

Salt, Sugar, Smoked Paprika, Chipotle Chili Pepper, Garlic, Red Pepper,Parsley, Extractives of Paprika, and Natural Flavor.

I figured I’d start at the top and halve the subsequent ingredients (except the chipotle which seemed like it was high in the flavor profile and the parsley which is so bland), then taste test side by side with the Lawry’s.

4 t salt

2 t sugar

1 t smoked paprika

1 t chipotle

1/2 t garlic powder

dash cayenne

1/2 t dried parsley

I ground it up in a mortar and pestle and tasted them side by side. I was really close, but the Lawry’s seemed to have more oomph. So I added:

1/2 t hungarian paprika

dash granulated citric acid

Success! Not quite exact but really damn close. And what a relief. Now, if I could only bring Wash back on Firefly.