Poultry Seasoning Substitute: Best Swaps

Out of poultry seasoning? Bring back the sage-and-thyme pair and you’re most of the way there. The blend has no fixed recipe. McCormick’s culinary blend lists thyme, sage, marjoram, rosemary, black pepper and nutmeg,¹ and Bell’s, the New England classic, is described as a salt-free mix of rosemary, oregano, sage, ginger, marjoram, thyme and pepper.² Sage and thyme are what they share, and everything else is detail. In a pinch, Italian seasoning already has sage in it.

Quick answer

What the poultry seasoning is doing	Best substitute	Starting amount, per 1 part poultry seasoning	Treatment
Flavoring stuffing, dressing or sausage	Your own mix of dried sage and thyme, plus marjoram and pepper	1 part	Disputed (proportions), Method (amount)
Seasoning roast turkey or chicken	Italian seasoning, which already contains sage	1 part	Method
Gravy, soup or pot pie, when Italian seasoning is out	Herbes de Provence plus a pinch of sage	3/4 part blend, 1/4 part sage	Method
You have fresh herbs, not dried	Fresh sage and thyme, chopped	3 parts fresh	Computed

How the ratios on this page are labeled

Every ratio carries one of four labels.

Computed: based on a measurable physical relationship.
Attributed: a named source publishes this ratio. We quote it as theirs.
Disputed: named sources give different answers to the same swap. You get each one, side by side.
Method: our starting point, based on how the two compare. Taste and adjust.

If it is flavoring stuffing, dressing or sausage

Stuffings and sausages are among sage’s main uses as a spice, and this is where poultry seasoning matters most. A sage-led herb mix is your closest match.

1. Your own blend

Two published recipes give you a base:

Source	Recipe
Food Network Kitchen (dried herbs)	1/4 cup dried sage, 1/4 cup dried thyme, 2 tbsp celery seed, 2 tbsp dried marjoram, 1 tsp black pepper, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, optional 1/4 tsp cayenne³
Saveur (fresh herbs)	3 tbsp each chopped fresh thyme, rosemary and sage; 1 tbsp fresh marjoram; 1/2 tbsp black pepper; 1 tsp each celery seed, nutmeg, ground ginger and smoked paprika; keeps refrigerated about 3 days⁴

Proportions (Disputed): Sources disagree on how much of the blend should be sage.

Source	How much sage
Food Network Kitchen	Equal amounts of sage and thyme³
Caitlin MacDougall, Food52	“at least two-thirds sage”⁵
McCormick Culinary label	Thyme listed before sage¹; US labels list ingredients by descending weight,⁶ so this blend has more thyme than sage

Starting point: Mix equal parts dried sage and thyme with a smaller amount of marjoram and a pinch of black pepper, then taste a pinch. If you want the sage-forward style Food52 describes, double the sage. Use the finished mix in the same amount as the poultry seasoning in your recipe.

2. Sage and thyme alone

If that’s all you’ve got, the pair still covers the core flavor of the blends above.¹²³ Add black pepper if you have it.

Ratio (Method): Use equal parts sage and thyme to make up the full amount of poultry seasoning, then adjust.

3. Fresh herbs

Ratio (Computed): Penn State Extension equates 1 tablespoon of fresh herbs with 1 teaspoon dried,⁷ a 3-to-1 ratio. America’s Test Kitchen tested the swap and found 1 part dried to 3 parts fresh came closest to equal flavor strength.⁸ So use about three times as much chopped fresh sage and thyme as the poultry seasoning called for. ATK also found that dried thyme, rosemary and sage hold up as well as fresh in dishes with more than 20 minutes of cooking and a good amount of liquid,⁸ which describes most stuffings and braises.

If it is seasoning roast turkey or chicken

1. Italian seasoning

This is the closest ready-made blend, and it already has sage in it. The USDA’s purchasing specification lists thyme, rosemary, sage, oregano and basil for Italian seasoning.⁹ McCormick’s version lists marjoram, basil, rosemary, thyme, oregano, savory and sage,¹⁰ and Simply Organic’s lists oregano, marjoram, thyme, rosemary, basil and sage.¹¹

The differences: oregano and basil, which none of the McCormick, Food Network or Saveur poultry blends list,¹³⁴ and sage sitting last on both retail labels, meaning there’s less of it than the herbs ahead of it.⁶¹⁰¹¹ Expect something more Mediterranean and less sage-heavy.

Ratio (Method): Start 1:1. For stuffing, add a pinch of extra sage.

2. Za’atar, for roast chicken only

UC Cooperative Extension Master Food Preservers describe za’atar at its simplest as sumac, thyme, oregano and sesame seeds, with marjoram often used with or in place of the oregano.¹² The thyme and marjoram overlap with poultry seasoning. The sumac doesn’t. Gernot Katzer describes it as tart and sour,¹³ and the sesame adds a nutty crunch. Some versions are salted. One ratio, published by Susan Belsinger in Fine Gardening, is 4 parts each za’atar herb and roasted sesame to 1 part each sumac and salt.¹⁴

Ratio (Method): Start with 3/4 the amount, check whether your jar has salt in it, and cut the recipe’s salt if it does. We’d skip it in a bread stuffing, where the sourness and sesame stick out.

If it is in gravy, soup or pot pie

Herbes de Provence plus sage

Herbes de Provence shares thyme and rosemary with poultry seasoning, but in its strictest form it has no sage. The French Label Rouge version made by Ducros is rosemary, savory and oregano at 27 percent each and thyme at 19 percent.¹⁵ The Takeout lists rosemary, fennel seeds, thyme, marjoram and savory as common in other blends, and some include lavender.¹⁶ Food52’s MacDougall says herbes de Provence “works beautifully in any poultry dish.”⁵

Ratio (Method): Use 3/4 of the amount as herbes de Provence and make up the last 1/4 with dried sage. If your jar lists lavender, use a little less. Its floral note is nothing like poultry seasoning.

What isn’t known

No poultry seasoning maker publishes its proportions, so there’s no way to show a homemade blend matches one.
Sources disagree on how sage-heavy the blend should be (above). We found no tasting or sensory study that settles it.
You’ll often read that poultry seasoning is “almost always” dominated by sage. McCormick’s label lists thyme first,¹ so that’s not true of every blend.

Poultry Seasoning, 12 oz, McCormick Culinary, McCormick & Company. mccormick.com · Merchant ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵
Aimee Tucker, “Bell’s Seasoning: A New England Thanksgiving Classic”, Yankee Magazine, 2021. newengland.com · Publication ↩ ↩²
Homemade Poultry Seasoning, Food Network Kitchen, Food Network. foodnetwork.com · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
Homemade Fresh Poultry Seasoning, Saveur, 2014. saveur.com · Publication ↩ ↩²
Caitlin MacDougall, “The best poultry seasoning substitutes”, Food52, via Salon, 2021. salon.com · Publication ↩ ↩²
21 CFR 101.4, Food; designation of ingredients, eCFR. ecfr.gov · Regulator ↩ ↩²
Stacy Reed, Preserving Herbs by Drying, Penn State Extension. extension.psu.edu · Reference work ↩
Science: Substituting Dried Herbs for Fresh, America’s Test Kitchen. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩ ↩²
Commercial Item Description A-A-20001C, Spices and Spice Blends, USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, 2023. ams.usda.gov · Regulator ↩
McCormick Italian Seasoning, ingredients, via Giant Food Stores. giantfoodstores.com · Merchant ↩ ↩²
Simply Organic Italian Seasoning, ingredients, via Giant Food Stores. giantfoodstores.com · Merchant ↩ ↩²
Za’atar Spice Blend, UC Cooperative Extension Master Food Preservers of El Dorado County. ccfruitandnuts.ucanr.edu · Reference work ↩
Gernot Katzer, Sumac, Gernot Katzer’s Spice Pages. gernot-katzers-spice-pages.com · Reference work ↩
Susan Belsinger, “Za’atar: An Exotic Herb Blend”, Fine Gardening, 2010. finegardening.com · Publication ↩
Provencal herbs red label, product specification, McCormick for Chefs (Ducros), 2025. mccormickforchefs.com · Merchant ↩
Leah Kaplan, “What Is Herbs De Provence, Really?”, The Takeout, 2025. thetakeout.com · Publication ↩

Also drawn on

Salvia officinalis (PROSEA), U.A. Dasuki, Plant Resources of South-East Asia, via Pl@ntUse. uses.plantnet-project.org

Poultry Seasoning Substitutes: Your Own Sage Blend, Italian Seasoning and More