Delicious All-Purpose Dry Rub Recipe for Grilling

Finding a good All Purpose Dry Rub can be challenging, but we have one that we use on a lot of our grilled foods. This is one to make ahead and have in your cupboard in a container so you can grab it and grill.

Several years ago, when we started to grill more frequently, we would look for lots of different dry rub recipes to try on our Big Green Egg. Some were hits and some were duds – but isn’t that just how it goes?

Around the same time, Jason began to experiment with making his own brisket rub. That led to us make our own BBQ rub for our favorite Beer Can Chicken on the Big Green Egg recipe . This rub would be amazing on the Plum Jam Ribs after you are doing the “cheater boiling” technique but before adding on the sauce.

We began researching and comparing rub recipes.  We aren’t big fans of the really spicy mixes, so we steered away from those recipes with scorch-your-tongue peppers and spices. You won’t find many (or ANY) ghost peppers in our recipes!

As we went through this process, we learned that we really liked the flavor of sweet paprika. Delicious! This recipe calls for a quarter cup.  It is a lot, but it really pumps up the flavor and the color to a whole new level. Don’t be afraid that it is going to be sticky sweet either. I have friends who love this type of rub and would substitute it when a recipe calls for a hot paprika.

We love loading up different rubs with sweet paprika.  They really do wonders on chicken wings!  Dab those with some sauce afterwards??? Oh my gosh, talk about delish!

🧑‍🍳 Ingredients

Sweet Paprika: We found that Homegoods, TJMaxx or Marshalls will sometimes sell a large container of sweet paprika in their food aisles.  It is hit-or-miss, but I am not a fan of spending the large chunk of change at the grocery store.  Even if you can find it in your local one.

Amazon is our most reliable source, though.  I can buy a large container of name brand spices for a fraction of the cost. We even buys celery seed in bulk from Amazon.  I stash those in the cabinet for immediate use, and the freezer for longer term storage. The cost savings are so large that you really can’t afford NOT to use Amazon.

Brown Sugar: This makes the rub have a little bit of sweetness and we love it. You can play with the amounts and adjust as you like. We love the sweetness counteracts and yet compliments the Sweet Paprika, if that makes sense.

🍽️ Instructions

The instructions on this one seem almost too easy to write. Rubs are so simple to make and that is why we encourage readers to play around with the spices they already have.

Step One: Combine all of the ingredients into a large bowl and stir.

Step Two: Store in individual jars with tight lids.

This recipe will make enough for two Beer Can Chickens or about four pounds of chicken breasts/thighs. I tend to double the quantities in the rub recipe, though.  I store the leftovers in a canning jar for later use.  

❗ Expert Tips

We chose Sweet Paprika. Paprika comes in 3 varieties: Sweet, Hot or Smoked. If it isn’t labeled, it is considered Sweet. Until people start making rubs, they generally don’t have ¼ cup sitting around which is why we talk about where to buy it above.

This is a great time to swap out a little bit of Smoked Paprika for the Sweet. I wouldn’t suggest doing 100% swap as that is a lot of smoke flavor in the mouth but you could change this rub simply by removing 2 tsp of Sweet and adding in 2 tsp of Smoked.

Make sure to store the extra in a sealed container. A good Ziploc even works great for this if you don’t have one. Once you start making rubs, be sure to label them as it will become hard to distinguish what they are.

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