Onion Soup Mix Gives Roast Chicken A Serious Umami Boost

If you're a frequent visitor of the soups aisle at your local grocery store, you've probably seen the boxes of soup mix packets lining the shelves. But these packets, often boasting of an "onion" flavor, are useful for far more than just making French onion soup. These soup mixes are full of dehydrated onions, onion powder, and a few other spices peppered in.

The dehydration concentrates the flavor especially well, making the onion soup mix a go-to ingredient to turn to when you want a blast of umami in a pinch. When rubbed over the skin of a roast chicken, the dehydrated spices mix encrusts the chicken, making your go-to roast chicken recipe result in an extra crispy chicken skin. So instead of agonizing over how to season your next roast chicken, turn to this handy onion soup mix packet. You can't go wrong with an onion flavor, the king of powerful aromatics.

These onion soup mix packets are a favorite ingredient for a classic crowd-pleasing onion dip. Onions have a high concentration of glutamate, which is essentially the chemical compound that give food the umami taste that keeps you coming back for more. The dehydrated onion soup mix takes this even further, deepening the glutamate concentration. While you can simply create a dry spice rub with the onion soup mix, you may want to combine it with a fat, such as your favorite cooking oil or butter, to help keep the meat juicy.

If you want to imbue the roast chicken with flavor, the onion soup mix can also be incorporated into a marinade. Mix the onion soup mix into your wet ingredients instead of chopping fresh onion or garlic. You can even incorporate the onion soup mix into mayo when roasting chicken thighs. 

For the mayo methods, chicken thighs are first browned in a pan before you add a combination of onion soup mix and mayo to coat the chicken. This method works because it imparts the seasoning of the soup, while also trapping in moisture under a layer of mayo. You can also find what works best with the onion soup mix for yourself. One thing to keep in mind — the onion soup mix has a high amount of sodium, so be careful if adding additional salt to the chicken, as it can easily turn too salty.

Now that you know how to use the delicious multi-purpose onion soup mix to elevate your roast chicken, you can discover other recipes that could use this problem-solving umami-packed seasoning. Onion soup mix makes for an incredible meatloaf, replacing the need to raid the spice cabinet for powdered, ground spices that bring the ground meat mixture to life. One packet of onion soup mix is sufficient to provide enough seasoning and salt for two pounds of ground meat.

While a packet of onion soup mix can umami boost a variety of meats, don't count it out when it comes to vegetables, either. The fragrant onion flavor works beautifully with a tender vegetable like green beans. Tossed in the onion soup mix and roasted with almonds, the green beans transform into a crispy, flavorful side dish that comes together in a flash with little mess, thanks to the onion soup mix. So try coating your next roast chicken in a packet of onion soup mix, and your spice cabinet will surely be stocked with boxes of onion soup mix from now on.