This is a great mix and is our go-to blackening season. It is based on the recipe at NolaCuisine.com with fennel added per comments at that site and our preference for a lower salt level.
- 1 tablespoon sweet [smoky] paprika*
- 2-1/2 teaspoons salt – This makes it too salty when used on pork chops so use 1/2 as much.
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon cayenne
- 3/4 teaspoon white pepper
- 3/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
- 1 teaspoon fennel crushed — see notes below*
Quantities for 4x that makes about 1 cup with salt adjustment.
- 1/4 C sweet paprika
- 2 Tbsp in the 2/15/2021 mix instead of the original 1/4C minus 2 teaspoons kosher salt as that was too salty.
- 1 T rounded onion powder
- 1 T rounded garlic powder
- 1 T rounded cayenne
- 1 T white pepper
- 1 T black pepper
- 2 tsp dried thyme leaves
- 2 tsp dried oregano leaves
- 1 T rounded of fennel ground in the coffee grinder
From http://www.food.com/recipe/blackening-seasoning-mix-paul-prudhomme-297404?photo=221109.
1/17/2017 – Made it per above recipe using smoky sweet paprika and 1/2 tsp of fennel that was rubbed hard in the palm of my hand. The fennel was cited as part of Paul Prudhomme’s mix in the comments to the recipe and copied below. Shook the mix on three catfish fillets (8-10″ long) fairly heavy. Fried them in about 4T butter and about the same EVOO in a no. 10 CI skillet. Very good. Much better than the Zatarians premix. Great color but would be too hot for the granddaughters. Next time roughly grind the fennel with the mortar/pestle as rubbing in the palm of my hand did not seem to do much. Adding the thyme and oregano at the end of that grinding would help release their oils.
2/15/2021 – Used only 2 Tbsp of Kosher Salt and Mary ground the fennel seeds in the coffee grinder.
* A comment to his post was: “Very Good! I think it’s just missing a couple of things to make it perfect: 1/2 the paprika should be the hot, smoky variety, add about 1 tsp fennel seed, and before you put in the thyme, oregano, and fennel you should break it down with either a mortar & pestle or use your fingers and the palm of your hand. DONT use a food processor – all that does is cut it into smaller pieces – you want to break down the husks and fiber to release all the potency. Do that, and it’s 5 star!”
Another comment was: “I have eaten at Paul Prudhomme’s restaurant, K-Paul’s in New Orleans, with my sweetie many times since 1979, including his delicious blackened steak. I have also bought many of the 24-oz containers (not the little 2-oz bottles) of the Blackened Steak Magic through the years. The recipe here cannot be authentic since one of the primary ingredients is fennel. Not sure what else is missing but fennel is a major source of the real flavor.”
