True Lime: Lime, Garlic, & Cilantro Salt-Free Seasoning

I’ve been a big fan of True Lemon, True Lime, and True Orange for a long time. They have a bright citrus flavor that adds so much to so many dishes. They’re the next best thing to fresh juice and zest. So much better than the hard, dried citrus peel bits you find in grocery store spice sections. Or the juice in plastic squeeze bottles. They’re perfect for those times when you need citrus tang but don’t have any fresh fruit on hand. I use them a lot in dry rubs when I don’t want the extra liquid of juice. A few weeks ago I made pork chile verde using my usual recipe but adding two packets each of True Lime and True Orange. Wow! The citrus perfectly balanced the richness of the pork and complimented the bite of the Anaheim and poblano peppers.

I keep some packets right on my counter for summer time flavored iced water. I’m not much of a soda or juice drinker, and I also don’t care for sweetened drinks. So when I want something a bit different from my usual iced tea or iced coffee, the packets come in handy.

A few weeks ago when I was working on my recent post, Low/No Sodium Products - Amazon Wish List, I came across three new spice blends from the True Lemon company and just had to get them. One of them was a wonderful seasoning blend that combines the tang of lime with a hint of garlic and cilantro. I immediately decided to use it as a rub for roast chicken.

By the way, roasted (or grilled) chicken is an almost perfect salt-free main dish. Easy to fix and tastes great no matter what seasoning blend you use as a rub. By changing the seasonings, you get an entirely different meal - Indian curry, TexMex chili powder, classic poultry seasoning, lemon pepper, Cajun spices, Greek spices - the only limitation is your imagination. Plus you can usually get more than one meal from a chicken. Leftovers can be turned into chicken salad sandwiches, chicken pot pie, or hot chicken sandwiches with gravy and mashed potatoes.

Back to the seasoning blend. All I did was sprinkle the lime, garlic, & cilantro blend on the chicken, inside & out. Once roasted, we tore into it (as you can see in the picture). The combination made a delicious bird. My only regret was that I was a bit too timid with the blend. Next time I’ll sprinkle on a thicker coating.

As an additional benefit, when I simmered the chicken carcass to make stock, it tasted chickeny, of course, but also had delicious almost salty flavor that I attributed to the citrus tang of the seasoning blend. I bet this blend would be great with fish too.