Summer—a.k.a. barbecue season—is here. I would call any person that claims they don’t like barbecue a flat out liar to their face—I’m that adamant about how delicious the cuisine is. In my opinion, great barbecue starts with a good dry rub. I’ve shared a dry rub recipe before that I love to pieces, but below is another iteration with slightly fewer ingredients and a couple of variations. I came up with it partly to make use of some bulk spices I recently acquired, but I thought it would also make a great alternative to my previous dry rub spice mixture. The amounts below make enough to last you a little while. This simple barbecue spice rub works great generously rubbed on pork or sprinkled on chicken before thrown on the grill (or oven in my case). I even list a few additions for you to turn this barbecue dry rub into your own unique creation.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup pack (light) brown sugar
- 1/4 cup mustard powder
- 1/4 cup onion powder
- 1/4 cup paprika
- 1/4 cup ground black pepper
- 1/4 cup kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons ground cumin
Optional Additions: chili powder, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, ground ginger, etc.
Pictured above is the spice rub in action with some ribs. I rubbed the ribs all over with the dry rub, wrapped them in aluminum foil, placed them on a baking sheet, and baked them in the oven at its lowest temperature (260˚F for my oven) for about 3 hours. I then cranked up the oven to 500˚F and basted the ribs with barbecue sauce for an additional 15 to 20 minutes. Finger-lickin’ good!
[…] and pepper, which I tried doing for the first time back over the summer. As much as I love a good spice rub with brown sugar, paprika, onion powder, and such—which you can certainly use here—sometimes […]