This easy homemade BBQ spice rub is my go-to all-purpose seasoning for grilling, smoking, roasting, or even the air fryer. It adds bold, smoky-sweet flavor to chicken, pork, ribs, fish, and veggies-whatever you're cooking. Made from pantry spices, it's easy to mix, easy to love, and far better than store-bought. Plus, you control the ingredients-no preservatives or mystery additives.
I developed this BBQ spice rub (also called a dry rub) over a decade ago and finally published it for friends who love to grill, and now it's yours too. It truly is all-purpose: sprinkle or rub it generously onto whatever's headed for the grill, smoker, oven, or air fryer. If you're someone who likes to make your own "stuff" and control what goes into your food (like I do), this homemade BBQ spice rub is easy to whip up easily and customizable.
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Why You'll Love This BBQ Spice Rub
- You control the flavor - Adjust the salt, heat, and sweetness to suit your needs.
- Versatile and all-purpose - Great on chicken, pork, seafood, veggies. Use it for grilling, roasting, smoking, or air frying.
- Clean ingredients - No fillers, preservatives, MSG, or artificial flavors-just pure spices.
For another homemade spice blend, try my homemade taco seasoning to make ground beef taco filling.
What You'll Need
Here is what you need to make this BBQ spice rub. Find spices at most grocery stores and from online spice stores.
- Smoked paprika: For an earthy, savory, smoky flavor.
- Granulated garlic: Granulated is coarser in texture than garlic powder, but both are made from pure, dehydrated garlic. For great flavor. Look at the bottle to see what the texture is because the names vary.
- Brown sugar: For a little caramelization and sweetness. Use either light brown sugar, dark brown sugar, or a coarse brown sugar like turbinado.
- Ground cumin: For it's earthy, slightly spiced flavor common in spice blends.
- Ground coriander: A great partner for cumin, with a lightly lemony flavor.
- Onion powder: Another savory flavor builder.
- Ancho chili powder: This is pure chili powder, not the blend called chili powder.
- Ground black pepper: For some heat. Smoked black pepper is good too.
- Chipotle pepper: For more heat! Made from smoked jalapeno peppers, it adds to the smoky flavor along with the smoked paprika.
But what about the salt? See my notes below, and please see the recipe card for measurements.
Instead of plain paprika on top of creamy deviled eggs, use this BBQ spice rub. It's a flavorful garnish.
Chef's Tip: What's a BBQ Rub?
A BBQ rub is a dry blend of spices, herbs, and sugar that adds flavor and helps create that crave-worthy crust (or bark) on grilled or smoked meats. A wet rub is simply a dry rub with added moisture-think olive oil, vinegar, beer, bourbon, mustard, mayo, or citrus juice.
Substitutions and Variations
- If you prefer salt in your BBQ spice rub, add 1-2 tablespoons of kosher salt; 1 for a balanced flavor and 2 for a more salt-forward rub.
- Substitute regular sweet paprika for smoked paprika.
- Use a smoked salt, either in the rub recipe or when you salt your meat.
- To substitute garlic powder (which is finer) for granulated garlic, use ¾ as much.
- Substitute cayenne pepper for chipotle pepper, and for more heat, add more to your liking but be careful.
- Add dried herbs such as dried thyme or dried oregano, try 2-3 teaspoons and crush it in your hands before adding.
- No coriander? Skip it and use a little more cumin.
- Switch coconut sugar or golden monk fruit blend for the brown sugar.
- Want it sweeter? Add a little more brown sugar.
Use this dry rub in place of plain paprika in this easy, creamy smoked salmon dip.
What About Salt?
The first ingredient in most dry rubs is salt, and they can be up to 50% salt! And you don't know what kind of salt, the quality or where it came from.
While salt is critical for flavor in cooking, I leave the salt out of my BBQ spice rub. Why? For more control. I prefer to salt my meat separately or whatever it is I am preparing. I can also use different kinds of salt. For smoking and my pellet grill, I often use a smoked salt blend.
Another reason I skip the salt in the dry rub is that many folks are salt-sensitive or on a medically restrictive diet, so this gives them a great, versatile dry rub option.
What kind of salt should I add if I want to? Most people use kosher salt for it's coarse and crunchy texture in dry rubs or BBQ spice rubs. You can also use fine pink sea salt BUT please read on...
My Preferred Salts and Why
You will find three primary salts in my kitchen: coarse kosher sea salt, fine pink salt, and a coarse or kosher pink seal salt.
The first is a Mediterranean coarse kosher sea salt for it's texture and clean flavor. It's also what I use for brining and salting water for blanching, boiling, and sometimes salting meat. Another great kosher salt is this mined pink kosher salt.
The other salt I use is this fine, clean, pink mined ancient sea salt. These are my workhorse salts.
My favorite recipes to use BBQ spice rub on? Smoked 3-2-1 baby back ribs and my rotisserie chicken.
How to Make BBQ Spice Rub
Add all of the spices to a jar and shake well, label and store in a cool, dry, dark place for up to 6 months.
Chef's tip: Where not to store spices? In full light, on top of your stove, beside the stove, or above the range. Heat and light makes the flavors and strength of the spices degrade more quickly.
How to Use This Spice Rub
Use BBQ spice rub recipe on raw proteins, such as chicken, turkey, ribs, pork tenderloin and chops, seafood, burgers and beef. Use them as a finishing seasoning for vegetables, potatoes, and flavoring vinaigrettes, dressings, and marinades. They are multi-purpose and versatile. Try out these recipes!
- Baby back ribs. Rub the ribs both top and under sides with a generous amount of dry rub. I start the night before to allow the flavors to develop (but you don't have to).
- Grilled shrimp tacos.
- Baked bone-in chicken breasts (or pellet grill).
- Air fryer roasted red potatoes.
- It's wonderful on buttered popcorn!
- Use it just about any where you would use paprika.
- Add it to a marinade with olive oil and citrus juices.
- Use BBQ spice rub for rotisserie chicken.
- A jar makes a great gift for your grilling and pellet grill friends!
The photo below is a dry rub coated whole chicken I put on the rotisserie. Comes out fantastic! The trick to getting the rub to stick is smearing the bird with just a little mayonnaise to start, then coating well with the dry rub.
Recipe FAQs
A dry rub is a blend of dry spices, herbs, sugar, and usually salt used to flavor foods. There is no liquids and no oil like marinades and sauces. You can leave out the salt to control the amount of salt used in a recipe and instead, salt the meat or seafood separately. Dry rubs are super versatile, fun to use, easy to create at home, and give recipes lots of flavor.
One of the main concern with purchased dry rubs is the level of salt. Many are mostly salt with little else. You've got to read labels. The first few ingredients listed are what the rub is mainly made of, and it often starts with salt. Another concern is preservatives, gluten or other allergens, and ingredients to make rubs flow and not clump. Making dry rubs at home eliminates these challenges.
You can use dry rubs on vegetables too. Use them to season the vegetables after cooking as you would salt or toss, spray, or lightly coat the vegetables with a little oil and toss with the dry rub before cooking. Be careful with high heat as you don't want to burn the spices.
Watch the salt levels in rubs so your food is not overly salty. Making dry rubs at home allows you to control or eliminate the amount salt. Also, spices can burn with too high heat. Watch your cooking and grilling temperatures and timing so dry rubbed food does not burn, especially with a direct contact method of cooking.
Recipes To Try With Dry Rub
Dry rubs are fun to play with to bring a new dimension of flavors to recipes. Wherever you use a spice blend, experiment with a dry rub.
⭐️Did You Make This Recipe?
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📖 Recipe
BBQ Spice Rub
Ingredients
- 4 ½ tablespoons smoked paprika
- 3 tablespoons granulated garlic or 1 ½ T. of garlic powder
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar or coconut sugar or golden monk fruit blend
- 1 ½ tablespoons ground cumin
- 1 ½ tablespoons ground coriander
- 1 tablespoon ancho chili powder
- 1 tablespoon ground black pepper or smoked black pepper
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- ¼-1/2 teaspoon chipotle powder or cayenne pepper
Optional: Salt
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
Instructions
- Measure all ingredients into a jar with a tight lid and shake hard until well combined. Label and date when you made it and store in a cool dark pantry or cabinet. Will last 4-6 months.
Notes
- Like it spicier? Add more chipotle powder, cayenne pepper, or some sharp (hot) paprika.
- If you use garlic powder instead of granulated garlic, start with half the amount as it is finer.
Nutrition
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