A Versatile Spice Rub
Thursday, November 5, 2009 at 5:02PM Since the purpose of this blog is to share our recipes and cooking discovers, I suppose I should share the best ever spice rub for meat. I love meat! I love to grill it, bake it, saute it, fry it and occasionally eat it raw (well seared really). However for some reason this country has this need to coat every piece of meat with A1 Barbeque sauce, which is gross. Not to mention some guys also seem to think that because they spend $500 bucks on a grill they are experts, but that's a different show. How you cook the meat is almost as important as what you add to the meat, if anything. Adding spices to a cut of meat can set your dish apart from the others.
We came across a recipe for a spice rub in The Complete Meat Cookbook and have since tweaked it to our taste. This spice rub is sweet, spicy and tangy all rolled into one. We like to liberally coat the meat with it a few hours (or overnight) before either grilling or otherwise cooking it. Adding a homemade barbeque sauce to give it a wet marinade or during cooking can round out the flavors, but the rub by itself is fine too. The recipe makes quite a bit so we use an old spice container with a label. Keeping this rub on hand ensures that you always have a way to add a little flavor without reaching to the steak sauce. It works great on beef, pork, chicken, and even lamb if my wife would let me buy it (lamb is on Tara's not allowed in the house list). We use it for grilling, roasting, and ribs.
Spice Rub
Adapted from The Complete Meat Cookbook
2 Tbsp Paprika
2 Tbsp Chile Powder
1 Tsp Cayenne Powder
2 Tbsp Garlic Powder
2 Tbsp Brown Sugar
1 Tsp Ground Cumin Seeds
1 Tbsp Dry Mustard
1 Tsp Ground Sage
1 Tsp Dried Oregano
1/4 cup Kosher Salt
1 Tbsp Ground Pepper
Enjoy!
Reader Comments (2)
Sounds perfect, I'm tiring of the old Cajun spice rub. Thanks.
We hope you enjoy it! It definitely is nice to have some variety on hand for spice rubs.