Gelatin and MSG in my stocks. Theres a wholly unjustified, unnatural fear of “artifical” stuff in our foods. Chefs are perfectly happy to boil calves feet and parmesan rinds in their stock to give it that extra oomph yet are unwilling to use the purified form of those substances.
Veggie Pepper. Mostly in sandwiches.
I make my own spice mix (involving mostly hot stuff) that gives a lot of heat and flavor without overpowering your tongue and setting your lips on fire.
Oh, and cumin. It’s amazing how it can totally change the whole nature of a dish. (It’s in my mix, too.)
I do a lot of things with Ranch Dressing…
One of the favorites is to mix it into the hamburger, along with seasoned bread crumbs and some crumbled Ritz crackers. And using a lite Ranch is just as tasty as the regular so you can save two or three calories.
Another one is to cook chicken strips with a touch of oil to start and then add Ranch Dressing. When it’s done, pour the whole mixture over a cold salad and add just a swirl of Ranch for color. The hot chicken on the cold salad is quite tasty.
My son uses Ranch dressing like a dip or like ketchup. He’ll use it with just about anything and it helps get him to eat his veggies. The other night he poured his peas into a pile of Ranch and ate them all. Hot dogs, broccoli, chicken, pork…just about anything on his plate gets the Ranch treatment.
Add the word meatloaf in there somewhere. At some point I was making meatloaf and then…I wasn’t.
IMHO almost any bread can be improved by substituting beer for water.
Oat meal in meatloaf. For me, it’s so much better than bread crumbs. Tony Cacheret’s cajun seasoning on poultry, beef and pork. I rub it all over each. MMMMMMMM. A touch of honey in deviled eggs. Ok, that started out as a mistake when I reached up into a cabinet to grab some paprika and knocked the honey bear over which did a swan dive into the deviled egg mixture in the bowl directly under it. The lid on honey bear was not on tight so a little tiny bit of honey got in the mixture. Turns out the deviled eggs were a hit. Klutziness led to my one great chef moment. How me! 
If I told you what I put vanilla extract in, I’d be forced to kill you.
Alright, in all seriousness, I put a dollop in my spaghetti sauce. Not enough to taste it outright, but it adds something in the background of the sauce.
I have found that a dry gin martini, a double, should be added to the cook as part of preparing virtually any dish.
Really? Interesting…
Ranch dressing in twice backed potatoes (sometimes I substitute blue cheese dressing.)
That’s also my “secret ingrediant”.
It goes in mashed potatoes, tuna salad, many “invented” pasta dishes (mayo, tomato pasta sauce, ranch, cheese, mixed altogether… it’s all good), mixed into/poured onto meats, in some cream soups, etc, etc, etc…
Pour a little of that on my spelling to jazz it right up. There. Ingredient.
Using real butter instead of all that artifical crap. NOTHING is better than real butter.
Nopalitos. Thay’re the meat from prickly pear cactus. I use them in fajitas, chili, scrambled eggs, taco salad, queso or saute them and serve 'em on a ribeye.
With meats or meat based sauces, Frank’s Red Hot, the un-hot hot sauce.
For anything sweet, Vanilla Butter Nut flavor, especially baked goods.
I always seem to go back to balsamic vinegar, which is just as delicious over strawberries as it is with Italian cuisine, in marinades, or on salads. I’m also a sucker for Tabasco’s Chipotle sauce in sauces and marinades and on meat.
And I ALWAYS use sweet Vidalia onions in place of regular white or yellow onions. They make a HUGE taste difference.
Splenda in the water when boiling corn on the cob. Works especially well when the corn isn’t honest-to-og sweet corn from up nawth!
Not so much a secret ingredient as a tip. I love the McCormack’s garlic and pepper grinder for grilling meat but for some reason after I open the seal, the darn garlic gets gooey and hard to grind if it’s at room temp. So, I experimented with putting the grinder in the freezer. Now it works like a charm.
I use seasoned salt, garlic powder, and a smidgen of dill in scrambled eggs. Not so much of any of these that the eggs taste like pickle, but it’s pretty good.
::runs to the kitchen to fix scrambled eggs::
Robin
Lessee…
Use sour cream in your mashed potatoes instead of milk/cream. You’ll thank me.
Sour cream swirled into stewed tomatoes (any flavor/brand you like - pour into a saucepan and heat through) makes a mean tomato soup. Much better than you can buy, and simple to boot!
I use chili powder in a lot of things - boosts my tetrazini, adds some spice to breadings, etc. Give it a go.
A teaspoonful of vanilla extract in Coke/Pepsi gives you a much better vanilla coke than what they sell.