This BBQ rub is half a cup of packed brown sugar, three tablespoons of paprika, and two tablespoons of Diamond Crystal kosher salt, with chili powder, pepper, garlic, onion, mustard, and a half teaspoon of cayenne. It is the sweet jar for chicken, ribs, chops, and a weeknight steak. An all-day packer still wants the brisket rub, which leaves the sugar out, and an all-day butt wants the pork butt rub, which keeps the sugar to one tablespoon.
Recipe
BBQ rub
About 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons, enough for a chicken and two racks, with some left in the jar. Prep 5 minutes.
Ingredients
| Ingredient | Volume | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Packed light brown sugar | 1/2 cup | 110 g |
| Paprika | 3 tablespoons | 21 g |
| Chili powder | 1 tablespoon | 8 g |
| Coarse black pepper | 1 tablespoon | 7 g |
| Diamond Crystal kosher salt | 2 tablespoons | 17 g |
| Granulated garlic | 1 tablespoon | 9 g |
| Onion powder | 1 tablespoon | 8 g |
| Mustard powder | 1 teaspoon | 3 g |
| Cayenne pepper | 1/2 teaspoon | 1 g |
Steps
- Break up the brown sugar, then stir it with the paprika, chili powder, pepper, salt, garlic, onion powder, mustard powder, and cayenne until the color looks even.
- Pat the meat dry. Coat the surface in an even layer, so the meat still shows through in places.
- Cook the same day, or leave a rubbed chicken or rack uncovered in the fridge for a few hours so the surface dries.
- Keep the rest in a lidded jar. For an all-day brisket, use the brisket rub. For an all-day pork butt, use the pork butt rub.
Morton kosher salt is denser. Use 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon (about 18 g) of Morton in place of the Diamond Crystal. Leave the cayenne out if you want the rub mild. A packer wants the brisket rub, which has no sugar as a main ingredient. An all-day butt wants the pork butt rub, which uses one tablespoon of brown sugar.
Why each ingredient
Brown sugar is half a cup, packed, about 110 grams. That is the amount that shows up across the sweet all-purpose jars: Dinner at the Zoo's BBQ rub starts there, and so does Gabrick's sweet and spicy rub. The sugar is there to brown a cook that lasts a few hours. Gabrick's note on bark is the useful one. Brown sugar can crust, and on a hot grate it can go hard and dark. A low, steady pit lets it brown. A sear burns it. A packer gives that same half cup an entire day, which is why the sugar stays out of the brisket rub.
Paprika is three tablespoons, about 21 grams, for color and a soft pepper taste. Dinner at the Zoo splits the color between sweet paprika and a tablespoon of smoked paprika. This jar stays with sweet paprika, because the pit is already adding smoke. Smoked paprika on top of a heavy wood fire tastes like one note. If you want that campfire smell in the jar, swap one tablespoon of the sweet paprika for smoked, and keep the wood lighter.
Chili powder is one tablespoon, about 8 grams. It rounds the paprika and adds a little warmth before the cayenne does. Coarse black pepper is one tablespoon, about 7 grams. Fine table pepper packs tighter and tastes hot in a dusty way. A coarse grind stays visible on the meat.
Salt is the seasoning, and this jar uses less of it than the brisket rub on purpose. Two tablespoons of Diamond Crystal is about 17 grams. People put this rub on by the handful, and a half cup of kosher salt in a sweet jar oversalts chicken and chops. Morton in that same two-tablespoon scoop is too much. Use 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon of Morton, about 18 grams. The Grill Coach's rub notes separate a sweet pork rub from a peppery beef rub for this reason. Beef can take a louder salt-and-pepper crust. This jar is the sweet one, and the brisket rub is the peppery one.
Granulated garlic, one tablespoon, about 9 grams, and onion powder, one tablespoon, about 8 grams, are the savory base under the sugar. They bloom in the heat. Fresh garlic burns and leaves bitter bits on a long cook, so the jar stays with the dried stuff. Mustard powder, one teaspoon, about 3 grams, keeps the sugar from tasting flat. Skip it if you do not keep it. The rub still browns.
Cayenne is a half teaspoon, about 1 gram. Dinner at the Zoo uses a quarter teaspoon. Gabrick uses a full tablespoon and tells you to leave it out when you do not want the heat. This half teaspoon is the middle. You can taste it. It does not take over the pork.
Pros
- Half a cup of brown sugar browns chicken, ribs, and chops over a few hours.
- The salt is a small Diamond Crystal measure, so a heavy sprinkle still tastes like barbecue.
Cons
- That much sugar on a packer, or on an all-day butt, has hours to turn the bark bitter.
- On a hot spot the sugar darkens fast. This rub wants a steady grate, not a sear.
Directions
Break the brown sugar up with your fingers so the lumps do not hide in the paprika. Stir everything until the color looks even, with no pale streaks of salt and no dark pockets of chili. Taste a pinch if you swapped in Morton. It should taste seasoned and sweet, and it should not taste like a salt lick. If it does, you used the Diamond Crystal scoop for the denser salt.
Pat the meat dry, then coat it until the surface looks even and the meat still shows through. A thick paste falls off on the grate. A binder is optional. A thin film of water helps the spices stick. Mustard does the same thing and then mostly cooks off. The mustard you can taste is the teaspoon of powder already in the jar.
Twenty minutes while the pit settles is enough for the sugar to look wet as it pulls water out of the meat. A few hours uncovered in the fridge dries the surface. Overnight is fine on chicken and ribs. Cooking the same morning works too. The spices stay in the surface of a big roast either way.
Batch sizes
The card is one batch, about 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons. Salt and sugar are the lines that change the rub if you scoop them wrong, so the double and triple batches keep those on the scale.
| Batch | Brown sugar | Paprika | Diamond Crystal | Morton instead |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1x | 1/2 cup (110 g) | 3 tablespoons (21 g) | 2 tablespoons (17 g) | 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon (about 18 g) |
| 2x | 1 cup (220 g) | 6 tablespoons (42 g) | 1/4 cup (34 g) | 2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons (about 36 g) |
| 3x | 1 1/2 cups (330 g) | 9 tablespoons (63 g) | 6 tablespoons (51 g) | 1/4 cup (about 55 g) |
Chili powder, pepper, garlic, and onion powder scale with the batch: one, two, or three tablespoons. Mustard powder is one, two, or three teaspoons. Cayenne is 1/2 teaspoon, 1 teaspoon, or 1 1/2 teaspoons. A double batch covers a weekend. A triple batch is the jar you keep, and it is the one that goes stale first if the paprika sits all summer.
How to use it on pork
On chops, tenderloin, and a pork roast that finishes in a few hours, coat the whole surface and cook at a grate that lets the sugar brown. A thin chop takes less of the jar than a roast. The meat should still show through.
An all-day pork butt is a different cook. The pork butt rub keeps one tablespoon of brown sugar so the bark can brown without going bitter by the time the bone lets go. Use this jar on a butt only when you are willing to watch the color and pull it off a hot spot. The method for the shoulder is how to smoke pork butt. The hours are how long to smoke pork butt.
How to use it on chicken
Chicken is the cook this jar was mixed for, alongside ribs. Pat the skin dry. Coat the outside. A paste under the skin makes a gummy layer and does not season the way salt on the meat does. If you want the salt closer to the meat, loosen the skin and put a light pinch of the rub on the meat, then coat the skin with the rest.
Dinner at the Zoo uses this kind of rub on thighs, wings, and breasts, and warns that the sugar burns over high heat or under a broiler. Hold the grate where you can still see the skin turn mahogany, and move a piece that is going black. A whole bird takes more time than a thigh. The sugar still burns on the side closest to the fire. Start from the technique index, and keep this rub on a cook you can watch.
How to use it on ribs
Ribs are supposed to brown over a few hours, which is what the half cup of sugar is for. Pull the membrane off the bone side first. Rub sprinkled on that skin slides off, and the meat under it stays bare. Coat both sides of the rack until the surface looks even. About two tablespoons a side is plenty on a full spare. Baby backs are smaller, so they take less.
The rub written for racks, with a different salt measure and no cayenne, is the dry rub for ribs. Use that one when the cook is ribs and you want the formula that page is built around. Use this jar when one mix has to cover the chicken too. The cook is how to smoke ribs. Sauce, if you want it, goes on in the last minutes. Sauce plus this much sugar, left on for hours, is how a rack goes black before the meat bends.
How to use it on beef
A steak, a burger, or a roast that finishes in a short window can take a light coat. Press it on, and keep the grate out of the range that burns sugar before the crust is the color you want. The Grill Coach points beef at salt, pepper, garlic, and a little sweetness, because the meat is already loud. This jar is that little sweetness, plus paprika. It is a weeknight steak rub.
A packer is the other cook. It sits in the heat most of a day, and this much sugar darkens until the bark tastes bitter. Season that brisket with the brisket rub: half a cup of Diamond Crystal, half a cup of coarse pepper, and granulated garlic. The method is how to smoke a brisket.
Storage
Jar it the day you mix it. Salt and sugar keep. Paprika and garlic fade, so a batch you will use in a month or two still smells like the rub you mixed. Dinner at the Zoo keeps their jar for months in a cool, dry place. Humidity over the dishwasher, or a lid left off next to the pit, turns the brown sugar into a brick. Break a clump up before you sprinkle. If the jar smells flat, mix a new one. Old paprika will not brown its way back to fresh.
Label the jar with the month. A triple batch that sits until next summer is mostly sweet salt, and it will taste that way on the chicken.
Variations
Leave the cayenne out for a milder jar, or double it when you already know you want that heat in every bite. A tablespoon of cayenne is Gabrick's spicy version, and it is a different rub from the half teaspoon in the card. Swap one tablespoon of the paprika for smoked paprika when the fire will be light.
Skip the sugar and you are most of the way to the brisket rub. Cut the sugar to one tablespoon, add more paprika and pepper, and you are in the neighborhood of the pork butt rub. Keep the half cup of sugar and move the salt up for a rack, and the written version is the dry rub for ribs. Those pages are the formulas. This jar is the one you make when dinner might be chicken, ribs, or a chop, and the brisket is a different day.
The clocks next to the long cooks are the brisket calculator and the pork butt smoking time calculator. Season before the meat goes on. A probe goes in after the rub, so you are not dragging sugar into the hole. The thermometer notes are where to pick that probe.