The Sweet Spice That Pairs Unexpectedly Well With Chicken

Across an assortment of recipes, chicken proves a blank, versatile canvas. It's a food that lends itself to a variety of flavors and ingredients, whether you want a meal that's all about mushrooms à la chicken marsala, or a dish that packs a little more heat. The spices you use with chicken, however, don't always have to fall on the savory side. Rather, cinnamon has proven to be a great addition across chicken recipes, as it adds both warmth and complexity of flavor.

Whether you use it as a stick or in ground form, cinnamon is, indeed, a worthwhile addition that acts just like any other spice. In the same way you'd add, say, cumin to a chicken curry, you can likewise incorporate cinnamon. The ingredient is known to add a spicy sweetness, particularly when paired with other ground spices. Its strength then, is not necessarily with itself, but in how it complements the likes of cumin, ginger, cayenne, and other spices.

Balancing cinnamon in recipes therefore comes down to preference; you can add anywhere from a fraction of a teaspoon to more than a teaspoon, depending on how strong you want the cinnamon flavor. When starting out with the spice, it may even be easier to add a cinnamon stick while simmering a chicken stew. With your cinnamon in tow, you'll have no shortage of cooking options. Yet if you're looking for a place to start, a few dishes present the best opportunities.

Cinnamon has long flavored the likes of apple oatmeal and other sweet dishes, but the spice is far from out of place in chicken recipes. It works wonders in nuanced, spice-heavy dishes such as curries and stews. For example, Tasting Table's creamy coronation chicken flavors chicken with just one cinnamon stick — and a slew of other, complementary spices. These include the likes of coriander, cardamom, black peppercorns, curry powder, and cayenne pepper, among additional ingredients that balance out the sweet cinnamon. Alternatively, you can try Tasting Table's fragrant chicken korma recipe. Curry dishes are an especially great use of cinnamon, as they give spices time to fuse and are all about warmth and depth of flavor.

Beyond any specific recipes, keep in mind that cinnamon generally works well across chicken dishes that use Middle Eastern and Asian flavors, such as Moroccan chicken, chicken shawarma, Indian butter chicken, and Lebanese chicken. You don't need a ton of the spice to taste its impact, which means you'll always have more cinnamon on deck for the next recipe.