The local neighborhood butcher is a distant memory, a relic of yesteryear for most Americans. In a country dominated by fast food, online shopping, mega - supermarkets, warehouse superstores and smart phones, the typical consumer can hardly be bothered to make a separate trip just to buy meat. The result is the number of butcher shops in America is continuing to shrink.

We're big fans of supporting our local small food related businesses from the farmer's markets, wine shops and bakeries to the small family run butcher shop. We especially like the quality of chicken we get there. So when we created our most recent chicken rub I knew that we had to pay homage to the local butcher.

One of the most frequent questions we get is how can I spice up my chicken dinners? It's no wonder as a recent national survey showed that Americans eat chicken three times per week and on average consume more than 60 pounds every year.

Our Butcher's Best Chicken Rub was created as a way to tip our hat to the neighborhood butcher shop who plays a key role in the local economy by sourcing meat from local ranchers. Without much thought many of us are willing to pay a bit more for either locally grown produce or even organic produce. We carefully read the label on the boxes and meticulously calculate the total calories, sugar, sodium and fat content.  But our meat? We generally just go to the meat section of the grocery store and choose the best we can from what's available.

Our Butcher's Best Chicken Rub has a bit of smoky flavor with a hint of sweetness and sports a delightful, but perfectly balanced, amount of heat. We're sure that this is going to quickly become one of our top 5 chicken seasonings.

We especially love this on grilled chicken! We like to score our chicken breasts so that the rub can get even deeper into the meat and add 1-2 teaspoons of rub per breast (ok I tend to add even more but I'm addicted to the stuff). For best results we like to season our chicken and then let the flavors work their way into the meat by placing back in the refrigerator for 8-24 hours. Remove and let the chicken warm up to room temperature before cooking on a preheated grill.

We've also had good success with this chicken seasoning in oven roasting chicken breasts and also in making a quick, spicy stir fry.

Hand blended from chipotle flakes, California paprika, chipotle powder, fenugreek, clove, ginger, cumin, cardamom, coriander, black pepper, turmeric, sea salt, cinnamon and allspice.

If you're looking for other great ideas for chicken rubs and seasonings be sure to see some of my favorites - Flippin' The Bird, Habanero Mango and 18 Spice Chicken Rub.

And be sure to visit your local butcher where his extensive knowledge of the meat he supplies, from what cuts are best to where the meat comes from and combined with his support of local ranchers is well worth the extra drive and the couple cents more per pound you may have to pay?