Herbs are delicious and can really bring out the best in a recipe when properly added — but this can be surprisingly difficult to do. It's incredibly easy to add too many herbs to a dish, and it's even easier to add herbs at the wrong time and end up with burnt leaves on your baked rosemary chicken. And then there's the question of whether you can .
The answer? Sometimes, but only if you use a completely different amount. So, yeah — if the thought of cooking with herbs stresses you out, that's totally normal. We've all been there (and created an overly basil-laden pizza sauce or two).
But with a little knowledge, practice, and care, you can become a confident herb user. The best way to begin this journey? Reading this list. These are the most common mistakes people make when cooking with herbs.
1. Mistake: Not realizing there's a difference between dried and fresh herbs There are two main types of herbs used in recipes: fresh and dry. Fresh herbs are cut from plants and used pretty much as-is.
You can buy them at the store or you can grow them yourself. These have more of the oils that make herbs great, and tend to have a lighter, fresher flavor. Dried herbs are the dehydrated version of fresh herbs.
They don't have as much oil in them, but they often have a deeper, more intense flavor than their fresh counterparts. One exception to this rule is parsley, which loses much of its flavor when it's dried. While it's possible to replace fresh herbs with dry ones without issue .
