Brines, rubs, marinades, mops and sauces are the best ways to add flavor to meats and vegetables that you plan to grill. Even in today's busy world - there's time to add some great taste back into fast-cooking meats like chicken breasts and pork chops. Barbecue never has to be boring!
We keep one or two of these rubs in our pantry - sealed in shaker jars we bought at Target - but you can punch holes in the top of a small Ball or Mason jar lid, then put ANOTHER lid on top of that one, and then the sealing ring. Shake some rub on your chicken pieces, heat up the grill, and dinner's done!
Brines and marinades add a lot of flavor, but they take more time - brines can remain on large cuts of beef or pork for days, while marinades can take anywhere from 30 mins for fish or vegetables - to 12 hours or more for steaks and chops.
Remember that brines, rubs and marinades go on the food BEFORE you cook it, mops go on DURING cooking, and the sauce goes on AFTER. That's because sauces usually contain sweeteners such as sugar, corn syrup, or honey, that will burn long before the meat is cooked.
We recommend using the strongest flavors on beef and pork, milder flavors on seafood and vegetables. Chicken falls somewhere in the middle. Here are a few of our favorites.
OK - we don't really have a secret ingredient. The one thing we do have is fresh, home-grown habanero hybrid peppers. We each have one plant, which keeps us in enough peppers for our Pepper Sauce for a whole year, and provides enough "extras" for one of our famous Barbequed Briskets every now and then.
Rubs and sauces are a great way to add a lot of flavor without adding fat or a lot of sugar. These recipes provide multiple servings - our barbecue sauce makes 2 quarts - so the small amount of sugar in it is divided between 50 servings.
Even better news! Our rubs contain absolutely no fat, so there's never any guilt!