One underutilized technique for cooking with fresh herbs is a rub. Most fans of grilling and barbecue know about dry rubs, in which a mixture of dried herbs and spices are sprinkled onto your meat, fish or poultry and gently rubbed into the surface with your fingertips. I don’t know if it’s still technically a dry rub, when you are using fresh, moist herbs, but it sure works great.

A fairly fine chop helps to prevent your herbs from flaking off the meat. There are plenty of kitchen gadgets for mincing herbs, or you can use a food processor, but if you are comfortable with knives, you can get a pretty fine mince without the gadget cleanup. I’ll clump my fresh herb mix into a compact bunch on the cutting board with one hand and chop along as I feed the compressed pile to the blade. After the initial chop, a rock (holding one end of your large knife or cleaver stationary on the board and rapidly chopping along with the other) or a roll (one hand on each end of the blade alternating pressure as the curve of the blade meets the board) will soon yield a lovely mince of herbs.

For tonight’s boneless chicken thighs, I’m thinking thyme, oregano, rosemary and tarragon, with maybe just a bit of dill. After incorporating the rub into every nook and cranny of the meat (also works with some vegetables) you can grill, roast, bake or even microwave until tinder. If using a larger cut that will require prolonged dry heat, a generous coating of olive oil before applying the rub will help keep your food from drying out. A fresh herb rub is pretty much foolproof, allows endless variations in your mix of herbs, and lets you play with your food before you cook it.