Happy thursday everyone and welcome to part 2 of our Beginning of BBQ Season blog event. In case you missed part 1, we felt like it would be a perfect time to ease ourselves back into grilling season with a really easy to make recipe that you can still use to impress so grilled scampi was our go to. You can find that blog post by clicking here! Next up in part 2, we are going to be looking at some ways to up your grill game but rather than trying to make any specific kind of protein or full recipe we thought this would be an amazing time to talk about spices and seasonings. So let’s get started shall we?
First up, let’s make our very own Homemade Dry Rib Rub but first a little bit of background. The ribs that we know and love are typically back ribs which are typically sold to us in restaurants absolutely drenched in amazing BBQ sauce whether they are grilled, smoked or oven baked. There is another way to make ribs and the result is equally as delicious which is by using a dry rub. Now, dry rubs are a blend of seasonings and spices that you rub directly onto the meat before you begin the cooking process. Dry rubs are more commonly found on side ribs though it is worth mentioning that side ribs are way less common to find.
Homemade Rib Dry Rub:
- ¼ cup of brown sugar
- 2 tsp of kosher salt
- 2 tsp of black pepper
- 2 tsp of paprika
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp ground mustard seed
- ½ celery salt
- ¼ cayenne pepper
Simply combine all of these together into a small container, an empty spice shaker or even a mason jar. You can keep this mixture for about a month in storage, any longer you may need to break up clumps of brown sugar before you use it. When using your dry rub on your ribs, do not be afraid to mix things up a little bit meaning that it is perfectly okay to start off with a dry rub and then apply sauce at the end to get the best of both worlds.
Next up, we are going to be making Homemade Steak Spice! Now, there are plenty of different types of steak spice out there but the most commonly available of them all is Montreal Steak Spice. So what makes Montreal Steak Spice so popular? Well Montreal Steak Spice is extremely popular because of the other Montreal specialty that uses an almost identical spice blend, Montreal Smoked Meat. Now, that we know a little more about why it is so popular, let’s make it!
Homemade Montreal Steak Spice:
- 3 tbsp of onion powder
- 3 tbsp of ground black pepper
- 3 tbsp of garlic powder
- 2 tbsp of smoked (or regular) paprika
- 3 tbsp Kosher salt
- 2 tbsp of cayenne pepper
- 3 tbsp of ground mustard seed
- 2 tbsp of cracked coriander
This is the base of making Montreal Steak Spice. Now, a fair warning is that this will definitely be a little different to the steak spices available from the grocery store and this is due to the amount of salt. In grocery store mixes, salt is a really cheap filler and so in order to pump out a lot of steak spice, a whole lot of salt is added. Extremely high levels of salt are not good for you and especially not very inclusive for those who have high blood pressure so the benefits of making your own steak spice are not only cost effective but you can control how much salt you’d like to include into your spice mix.
Finally, we are going to make a Homemade Chicken Seasoning mix that is absolutely perfect for grilling, baking or even slow cooking. So let’s take a look a what you will need:
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked (or regular) paprika
- 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
- 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
- 1/4 teaspoon dried parsley
You can keep this mixture in a container or mason jar for up to about 6 months. This mixture is absolutely perfect for everything from whole chickens to individual grilled breasts and once again you can decide just how much or how little salt you want to use to match your dietary needs.
Thank you for reading another one of our blog events and we hope that this has been making you get the itch to get outside and grill once again and for those of you who are already outside grilling, hopefully you’ll be looking to make all kinds of your favorite BBQ meals and will try some of these amazing spice mixes out for yourself! From all of us here at Bonaventure, Happy Grilling!