Dry rub spices make grilled chicken a juicy delight.
In barbecuing or smoking meats there are essentially two forms of marinating and seasoning. A wet rub is a barbecue sauce, and a dry rub is composed entirely of dry spices. As the meat marinates, these dry rub spices should draw out some of the meat's moisture to form a sauce-like coating rich in flavor without adding ingredients such as barbecue sauce. There are dry rub spices for chicken, pork and steak.
Chicken Dry Rub
The purpose of using dry rub spices is to create a balance of salty, spicy, sweet and savory flavors to highlight the best flavor of the meat. Chicken dry rubs emphasize white and black pepper in the spice mix to bring out the flavor of the chicken.
Although chicken dry rub recipes vary, one dry rub recipe adds to the pepper dry mustard, ground cumin, garlic powder, ground oregano, chili powder and cayenne pepper. Common salt, white and brown sugar and celery salt are also added.
This mixture is rubbed on the raw chicken and left to marinate for at least seven hours before cooking or grilling.
Pork Dry Rub
Dry rub spices for pork ribs are similar to chicken dry rub spices, except red pepper is used instead of black and white pepper. Oregano and cumin are often excluded from the dry rub recipe to better bring out the flavor of the ribs.
The spices are rubbed on the ribs and left to marinate anywhere from an hour to overnight. When the ribs are barbecued, the dry rub leaves a tasty crust on the meat.
Changing just one or two ingredients of the dry rub can make a great difference in taste. Variants for pork dry rubs include lemon peel, white pepper, black pepper, bourbon, rosemary, dill weed, cinnamon, anise, sage, nutmeg, thyme, basil, curry and orange peel.
Steak Dry Rub
Thick slices of steak prepared for barbecue are made juicy and more flavorful by marinating with dry rub spices. After rubbing the steak, wrap the slices in plastic or aluminum foil and place them in the refrigerator overnight or, if really thick, for two days. If the time is shorter, the dry rub will flavor only the outer surface of the steak.
One steak recipe is a simple combination of dry rub spices that yield tasty barbecued steaks. Ground black pepper, cayenne pepper, chili powder, cumin and paprika are added to salt and brown sugar. Onion powder and garlic powder make interesting variations.
Tags: black pepper, barbecue sauce, bring flavor, brown sugar, cayenne pepper, chili powder