It's About Time You Start Crusting Your Chicken In Everything Bagel Seasoning

From Southern fried chicken to kid-friendly dino nuggets and cold-curing soups, chicken dishes come in many shapes, sizes, and flavors. Without being dressed up, chicken has an inherently mild flavor, which means your options for jazzing it up are never limited. Whether it's a simple spritz of lemon, a thick layer of pesto, or a Greek yogurt marinade, if you can dream it, when it comes to chicken, you can achieve it — which is exactly why you should crust your chicken in everything bagel seasoning.

Everything bagel seasoning is typically made with dehydrated onion, garlic, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, and salt — seasonings and aromatics that individually work wonders on chicken. When you put them all together, however, the savory allium flair mingles with the toasty seeds while the salt bolsters the collective taste, giving your chicken all the seasonings you need in just one shake of a jar. 

The familiar, widely used, and highly adaptable ingredients that make up everything bagel seasoning marry seamlessly with many other herbs, sauces, and spices, ensuring that you'll never have to compromise on or omit your favorite chicken fixings when you introduce the spice blend to your go-to poultry recipes. Not only does everything bagel seasoning spruce up the mild-mannered flavor of chicken, but it also gives it a mouthwatering textural contrast. Between its juicy, succulent interior and crispy, flavorful exterior, everything bagel-crusted chicken is chicken like you've never tasted it before.

Everything bagel seasoning is widely available at supermarkets in the spices aisle. If you can't find it at your local grocery outlet, it's available for delivery via many different online retailers. But as accessible as the spice blend is, there may be times when you want to make everything bagel seasoning yourself. Dehydrated garlic and onion are the heart of everything bagel seasoning, and it's easier than you might think to dry out these tasty allium bulbs at home. In fact, you don't even need a proper dehydrator machine to accomplish it.

Take your onion and garlic and finely mince them with a knife or food processor before spreading them on two separate baking trays and oven-baking them at 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Because it has a higher water content, onion can take a bit longer to dehydrate than garlic, but you'll know they're ready when they develop a brittle, breakable texture. The entire process can take up to eight hours. 

From there, toast sesame and poppy seeds on the stove and combine them with the dehydrated allium and sea salt — et voila! Homemade everything bagel seasoning for zhuzhing up chicken. If you don't have sesame or poppy seeds, crust the chicken with only the dehydrated allium veggies and cook the meat with sesame oil to develop that nutty, seedy flavor. If it's still lacking that coveted crunch, consider mixing the dried onion and garlic into a batch of coarse, panko breadcrumbs before coating the chicken.

Chicken crusted with everything bagel seasoning is a powerhouse dish that can stand alone without other fixings. However, if you want to make a well-rounded meal out of this juicy, crunchy chicken recipe, there are plenty of crave-curbing complementary pairings that will make it that much tastier. Rest the savory chicken over basil-infused jasmine rice and pair it with creamy hummus, rich tzatziki, and spicy, charred broccoli for a Mediterranean-inspired meal that bolsters the cozy taste of the sesame seeds and brings together complementary textures.

Craving something creamy, rich, and luxurious? Remix a classic chicken fettuccine Alfredo recipe with everything bagel-crusted chicken. The decadent, dairy-forward flavor of the Parmesan cheese benefits from the bold shades of allium and the nutty essence of the sesame, culminating in an Alfredo dish with more dimension and texture. You can never go wrong by pairing chicken with roasted vegetables, and everything bagel-crusted chicken is no exception. 

A batch of honey-roasted carrots, Brussels sprouts, and onion is a simple yet satisfying amalgam of earthy veggies that will add a subtle, caramelized sweetness punctuated by pleasantly grassy hues that complete the tapestry of umami-driven flavors. Whichever sides you choose to pair it with, if any at all, chicken crusted with everything bagel seasoning is an easy way to shake up your chicken routine. Between the savory, buttery flavors and satisfying crunch, your tastebuds (and dinner guests) will thank you.