I love me some Cajun food and the essence of Cajun taste is in the spices. What I have for review here is Cajun Island Blackening Spice. I so rarely do any blackening of my foods (mainly because I lack a cast iron pan and I have a glass stove range) which makes this review all the more fun.

Cajun Island Blackening Spice Ingredients: Paprika, salt, black pepper, Cayenne pepper, oregano, thyme, onion powder, garlic powder.

I first have to comment on how large a container this is. A whopping 8 ounces of spice will sure tie me over for a long time. The label is pretty snazzy (or maybe Jazzy is the better word) as well. Nothing to special about the appearance of the spice mix, red, large pieces of thyme, etc etc.

We’ll do the taste rundown of the mix right out of the jar first and then get to my thoughts on how it tasted after the blackening process. The black pepper jumps right out and lingers for quite a bit, followed by the Paprika, then a large salt presence. The Cayenne comes in next with the thyme and oregano, and then the onion and garlic powder finish it off. The heat isn’t anything to really shake a stick at, a high end mild with a center of the tongue bite consistent with Cayenne.

It was a dark and cold night in Cleveland when I fired up my grill for this little guy. I got the heat roaring off the charcoal for blackening takes some high heat for a short period of time if you are going to do it right. The chicken wings and thighs I had purchased earlier were heavily coated with the mix and went right over the fire. After they were blackened to perfection, I moved them to the outside ring of the fire, closed the lid, and dialed down the heat.

The result? Perfection! The Cayenne comes right out front, the thyme was there in flavor, black pepper with a hint of salt, garlicy…uh! Soooo good! It tasted spot on Cajun! Could have used a little more heat, but then again, everything could.

My only real complaint on this product is a little invalid of sorts. When used as a regular dry rub (not a blackening spice) the thyme is too “woody/stemy”, but with the high heat of blackening it is no longer is a problem. See, this is designed for blackening, so to use it for something other than blackening and have a complaint that it doesn’t work as well as others is a bit of nitpicking on my part. While it is nitpicking, I wanted to bring it up because it’s still relevant.

If you are looking for true Cajun flavor, look no further. Cajun Island Blackening Spice has it in spades. Now where’s that catfish……

Taste: 8, Heat: 3.748