It's Saturday night, im bored......I need to know if you always season your chicken.....

[MobyDicksTinyCanoe]

Ive been sat scrolling through recipe videos on TikTok (( don't judge me)) and cant help but notice the amount of screechy hysteria in the comments section over ' unsesoned chicken'.

But to me it is seasoned, for example a normal roast chicken with salt and pepper rubbed into the skin.... Which is exactly what I do. I might rub some garlic butter under the skin and stick an onion or lemon up its backside but that's as good as it gets.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy peri peri chicken or whatever as much as anyone but it just doesnt always need it...... One poor woman was being mocked for not seasoning chicken in a heavy cream / garlic /cheesey potatoes dish. And again id argue it doesnt need it. The chicken should hold onto the other flavours.

My cack handed research has seen that most these comments seem to come from Americans..... Are there chickens less tasty? Or am I just Belinda from Blandtown?

So Yabu, and your food is shite and a waste of calories

Or yanbu. There's no need to empty the contents of your spice rack everytime you cook a damn chicken.

I thank you.

Well I really don't like the sound of 'unseasoned chicken'! Same as you I use lots of salt and pepper- lemon/onion up its ass and rubbed in oil and butter.

Absolutely not!! Sometimes, sometimes, we would season the chicken but generally no. I love chicken so don't need its natural deliciousness covered up by burnty spices. I do often season it with a hint of ketchup though.

I'm not British, and i find the "normal roast" super bland and boring. Come on, its not 1950. I'm sure you can find something more than just salt and pepper.

I never put anything on my food when o cook it

I don’t season a roast, I enjoy the flavour of the meat & I don’t think it needs it as it’ll be eaten with gravy & stuffing so lots of flavour there.

If I’m doing chicken legs to cut up for wraps then I do use a rub, usually fajita spices. But if I was using unseasoned chicken then I’d use a sauce like peri-peri mayo so again it’s not like I’m just eating plain chicken on its own.

I'm black British of Caribbean stock. Its cultural. I know no other way. I also wash my chicken with lemon before seasoning it....

It was only when I met DP, I realised how bland my food had been all of my life.

DP is Nigerian heritage - EVERYTHING is seasoned and it's wonderful.

We recently went away with friends. The husband was Egyptian, and again, every meal he made was just like a taste explosion in my mouth.

We Brits do eat a lot of bland and boring food.

Fresh, good quality ingredients don't always need lots of seasonings on them. Just because it doesn't have multiple spices on it doesn't make it bland. But food really is just all about personal preferences.

I can't stand overly salty food. Vile. Just get a decent chicken not a cheap one pumped with water or whatever. Even if you can only have it once or twice a year

In the American videos it's very heavy seasoning (think tonnes of garlic powder, onion powder, paprika etc lots of dried powders added) rather than more natural seasonings (e.g an actual onion or actual garlic) so I think it's definitely cultural! I watched a video, a roast chicken where it was stuffed with lemon, a herb bundle, some onions - the skin was rubbed with butter, salt, pepper and garlic, so IMO perfectly seasoned for a quality chicken, and the Americans in the comments were going mad! Similar videos with garlic and onion powder had been praised 🤷🏻‍♀️ very confusing!

There's also a big divide in the USA about preparing / seasoning chicken, it's quite funny to watch the comments sometimes 😂

Having lived in the US, I was shocked at the poor quality of most meat and had to make considerable effort to buy from farmers markets / organic. I think lots of chicken recipes called for considerable seasoning because there was little flavour to the meat itself.

Cats a decent chicken is fine just tasting like the chicken that it is. Especially with a well made gravy on top and sides of cheesey leeks made with strong cheeses and garlic roasted potatoes. Its ignorant to suggest that food has to be overly seasoned to taste good.

I'm fine with gnawing on an unseasonal roasted chicken leg.
I know the skin isn't good for you but it's really tasty.
The more seasoning you use, particularly salt, the more you need.

To me, 'seasoned' means with salt and pepper unless you are referring to other specific types of seasoning. And under-seasoned chicken (i.e. with not enough s&p) is bland.

If I were making normal roast chicken then I would season with s&p and lemon, as you describe. That doesn't mean I don't use other seasonings if I'm making, say, tandoori chicken or Chinese style chicken etc.

I’m have a Joey T moment. 😉

It’s seasoned. It’s hot on TikTok to point out white people don’t season their food, chicken especially. I’d says it’s blandly seasoned but still seasoned!

I watched that video tonight too. She did season it! She just seasoned it with flavours that would compliment it not change the overall taste.

We season with garlic, rosemary, thyme, salt, pepper etc as a standard Sunday roast. If we’re having chicken with wedges or something different we’ll ad paprika, Cajun etc

I’m Indian and always aghast and the very white and bland looking chicken I see in supermarkets, etc. even if not cooking with Indian spices, at a bare minimum there would be onion, garlic, salt, pepper. But this to me would still taste very bland. Usually would go in with some spices, chilli/paprika, lemon, cumin, ginger. Doesn’t have to be spicy but no way would I eat a chicken “seasoned with salt and pepper”

About once a month I buy a roast chicken from our local butchers, I know the farm it comes from, have probably seen pictures of it growing up on FB in luxury and it would be a travesty to over season it. They are pricey but so worth it for the absolutely chickenly chickeness of the flavour, to add spices etc would be wasting the money spent on the quality bird. Butter under skin, salt on top to make crispness and that is ALL.

Lots of other chicken dishes to bust out the flavour moves.

I don’t know why “seasoned in salt and pepper” is in quotes like it’s not a real thing! Seasoning is also salt and pepper, it’s just down to taste.

Seasoned meat is just the norm in my culture.. Couldn't eat a single thing that wasn't seasoned.. Bland food isn't appetising at all.

Sorry, I mean a chicken TO roast, not a ready roasted one if I didn't make that clear wine

If I'm cooking a roast chicken I'll usually put garlic, lemon zest, thyme and butter under the skin and then a lemon in the cavity and some salt, oil and butter on the skin. Sometimes I like a paprika rubbed chicken too.

I think in America the great seasoning divide is between African Americans who like well seasoned food and white Americans who are less into seasoning. But sometimes I'll see someone pour hot sauce and garlic powder over some chicken and think 'that probably won't taste great' but at the same time I see someone put a plain chicken into the oven and my taste buds weep a bit at the blandness!

So I do season, but I don't feel the need to add loads of random salts and powders and sauces.

Because to me that’s not seasoned. I do notice it’s very much western culture. As others have pointed out, food from Africa, Asia, etc tends to be more flavorful due to the richness of spices added in.

It's just part of the tiktok trends I think. White people seasoning their chicken with mayo, you're invited to the cookout, etc. People tend to make the exact same comments under every video so it becomes something of an echo chamber.