Have you browsed the supermarket shelves and seen all the dry rubs lately?  There are so many savory dry rubs!  With the emergence of celebrity chefs, each one having his or her own special blend of spices, no wonder deciding which one to buy becomes stressful!   A savory dry rub is not hard to make and the best part of it is that you can tweak it to the way you like it.  If you like it spicy, add more cayenne pepper or chili powder.  If you want it sweet, add some brown sugar.  This is a great rub for juicy BBQ Pork ribs.  Many guests ask me what I add to the meat because it is so flavorful.  Truth be told, there are some basic ingredients and proportions that I adhere to and the rest is whatever I'm in the mood for or what I have on hand in the spice cabinet.

The key to flavorful and tender grilled meat is 

1. Take the time to marinate it properly.

2. Add an acid to tenderize the meat.

3. Do not overcook the meat which means getting thicker cuts of meat will make the difference between whether you can actually achieve medium-rare doneness or not.

4.  Get good cuts of meat.

My family tries not to eat too much red meat so when we do buy red meat, I opt for a better quality and more expensive cut.

Tips.

This recipe is the building block for your special dry rub mix.  I would start with a small amount and after your first grilled meat, assess what changes you would make the next time.  Once you've figured out your own blend, you can make it in bulk and save it in a mason jar for future use.

Pepper.

For aesthetic reasons, I would use black pepper for red meats such as beef, lamb etc. and white pepper for white meats such as chicken, pork etc.  I also prefer to grind the black pepper coarse for a bolder taste.

Salt.

I prefer using salt that is not super fine.  Coarse sea salt is ideal.

Hot pepper.

Cayenne or chili pepper are great to add to the dry rubs depending on your taste.

Brown sugar.

Adding a little sweetness to pork is excellent.  The salt to sugar ratio when making a pork rub would be 2:1.

Try these recipes with your dry rub:

Juicy BBQ pork ribs

Grilled lamb kebabs

Let me know if you create your own savory dry rub and what was your magic secret ingredient in the Comment section.