Johnny's Grub Rub by Johnny

JP and I headed northeast this morning to the big town of Manhattan and their farmer's market.  We got some fabulous fresh fruits and veggies...Swiss chard, beets, strawberries, tomatoes, asparagus, cilantro, peanuts, sugar snap peas and gooseberries.  Have you ever tried a gooseberry??  The lady who sold them to us described them as tart.  She said they were a little bit more tart than Sour Airheads (a candy) or sour gummy candies.  Um, I don't know when she last ate sour candy, but gooseberries are a TAD more tart than sour candy.  Holy Moly Macaroni, they are tart!  Pure Pucker Power.

I spent this afternoon cooking.  I made roasted red pepper hummus, couscous salad, strawberry/gooseberry crunch and a superb BBQ rub.  I'll share other recipes later this week.  But for today, I'm all about the BBQ Rub.  I kind of stumbled upon this recipe.  Earlier this week, I found a BBQ rub recipe that was actually 2 recipes.  You made a spice mixture, and then used that in the Rub recipe, along with other ingredients.  I had it scribbled on 2 sticky notes and those sticky notes got stuck to something and never found it's way into the kitchen.  So I quickly looked up BBQ Rub on allrecipes.com, my go-to recipe website.  I sprinkled the Rub on boneless, skinless chicken breasts and let them sit for about 15 minutes before grilling.  Oh, it was delicious!

I used Penzeys Chili 3000 for the chili powder.  Penzeys says it's the Now Chili, and it is good...a little more spicy than traditional chili powder. 

Johnny's Grub Rub  by Johnny

• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 2 tablespoons ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon mustard powder
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 4 tablespoons ground paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

In a small, nonporous bowl, combine the garlic powder, ground black pepper, salt, mustard powder, chili powder, cumin, brown sugar, paprika and oregano. Mix well and apply to meat. 

Review:  I was a little worried about the amount of salt and pepper, but it worked well in the rub.  My chicken was tender and juicy with a little zing from the rub.  Some of the reviews on allrecipes.com said they thought there was too much cumin in the recipe,  However, I thought it was the right amount.  Next time, I'm going to use Penzys 4/S Special Smoky Seasoned Sea Salt
I think that will give it just a little bit more zing!  This rub would be great on pork chops, steaks, ribs and any other meat that is grilled.  I can't wait to experiment with other types of meat!  Enjoy~


By the way, if you're puzzled about who JP is...well, it's a funny story.  When Jacob was a toddler, we called his Jakey.  My niece thought we were calling him JP...and the name stuck.