Sunday, 7 August 2011

Schwartz review #5 : Perfect Shake Chicken spice mix review


How's this for a lovely roast chicken, on a bed of potatoes, carrots, onions and mushrooms, ready to go in the oven for Sunday lunch ? Yummm !


Since they sent me through a lovely selection of their herbs and spices (which I told you about here), I've taken to drizzling oil across the top of the chicken then shaking a generous quantity of Schwartz's Perfect Shake Chicken mix all over it.


A couple of hours later, your whole kitchen will smell delicious. As you pull it out of the oven, you'll probably panic the first time because the spices will have gone all black and burnt-looking but stay calm ! It still tastes fine and gives you gorgeous, mildly spiced, crispy chicken skin.

The spicy flavouring also drips down into the vegetables and the pan juices as it all cooks, infusing everything with a nice savoury kick. I also pour the pan juices into a saucepan, bring them to the boil and add boiling water and gravy granules to make a deliciously rich gravy so the spices add extra flavour to that too. Even the kids, who aren't keen on spicy food, think it adds a lovely flavour to the gravy.

It can also be used on chicken fillets, which is especially good news if you're counting the calories, because a shake or two of spices can replace heavy, fat-laden sauces. I also add a quick shake to mashed potato if I want to jazz it up a bit too, which is especially good if you're using it to make cottage pie.



The chicken seasoning is one of a whole range of Perfect Shake spice mixes, including blends for fish, steak, pork, lamb and salmon. The ingredients list for the chicken variety is : Salt, Paprika (32%), Dried Onion (10%), Flavourings, Black Pepper, Parsley, Cayenne Pepper, Anti-caking Agent (Silicon Dioxide). It actually reminds me very much of the Turkish chicken seasoning we bought in a local market on holiday last year, which we brought back with us and which I use as a general all-purpose seasoning.

It can be bought as a 56g glass jar or an 8g single-use sachet, which is great if you want to give it a try to see if you like it before buying a bigger jar or if you don't use spices very often and don't want it to go stale before you can use it.

star rating : 5/5

RRP : £1.63 for a 56 jar, 45p for an 8g sachet


Other reviews you may be interested in :

4 comments:

  1. Looks nice - i never think to use something like this on a whole chicken - great idea!

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  2. Any help I can get on cooking a delicious roast chicken is most welcome. Must look into this

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  3. This sounds geat and really tasty, I will have to give it a whirl!

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  4. This sounds fab. My attempts in the kitchen are pretty bad sometimes but it sounds as if you can't go wrong using this Perfect Shake for chicken.

    maggieleung222@aol.com

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