Spicy 🌶️ Dry Rub

Who needs another dry rub recipe?

There are a thousand dry rubs out there, so why do we need one more recipe? Yeah! I hear you, but we wanted to have a heart-healthy diet, and so many rubs contain high levels of sodium.

In order to reduce the sodium in our daily diet, I started to look into the spices and sauces we were using. How could I make foods with reduced sodium still taste good? It took some time, but I managed to tweak our favorite recipes. Eventually, I came up with this ZERO sodium dry rub that I use on absolutely everything!

Can you say versatile? I use this on everything! Not really, but almost! Here are a few of my favorite ways to spice it up.

Taco Tuesday: Mix rub with 1 pound of ground beef/turkey, 1 can of petite diced tomatoes, and 3 tablespoons of dry rub. Add more if you like it hot!

Ribs/Brisket: Rub the outside of the brisket with olive oil or honey, then push the rub into the meat, ensuring that it coats the ribs/brisket. Slow-cook the ribs/brisket based on your favorite method. I know it depends on where you are in the country!

Chili: I never make chili the same way twice. It all depends on what I have in the cupboard for beans. That said, this little secret ingredient adds the spice to however I decide to mix it up. If I am making it in the Crockpot, I generally add 3 to 4 tablespoons to the mix, depending on how spicy I want it to be.

Taco Chicken: I love this spicy chicken dish; it is so simple to make. Dredge a couple of pounds of chicken breasts in the dry rub, add 1 can of diced tomatoes and about 4 ounces of peach preserves or peach salsa, and you have yourself an easy meal. Depending on my mood, I might cut the chicken into small bites and fry it or leave the chicken breasts whole and bake.

Get Ready! Get Set! Gather!

Well, if you are going to follow along, head into your kitchen and gather some Ingredients!

Brown sugar, 1 cup

Ground black pepper, 1 tablespoon

Onion powder, 1 tablespoon

Garlic powder, 2 tablespoons

Paprika, 1 tablespoon

Chili powder, 1 tablespoon

Cayenne pepper, 1 tablespoon

Mustard powder, 1 tablespoon

Chives, 1 tablespoon

Dried shallots, 2 tablespoons

Parsley, 1 tablespoon

Cumin, 1 tablespoon

Nutritional Yeast (optional), 1 tablespoon

The Formula!

Alright, so I am an engineer by trade, thereby a geek! I love math and chemistry and turning my recipes into formulas. So, here goes!

1-part brown sugar: 1 part (all other spices)

Could it really be this easy? Yep!

I like to make 2 cups at a time.

Are you ready to mix?

Grab your favorite bowl and some measuring spoons. You are about to open all of those spices and blend them together!

In a large mixing bowl, add 1 cup of brown sugar. Add the remaining spices to the bowl, and the volume should equal 1 cup. Mix the spices together and store the mix in a container, keeping the mixture dry.

Before each use, mix the spices to avoid segregation.

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Thanks so much for following along. I hope you really enjoyed this recipe and meal ideas. If you make it, please leave comments to let me know your thoughts. For more of my heart-healthy recipes (and maybe some that break all of the rules, please subscribe to my page to catch the latest.)

In the meantime, check out my Stuffed Peppers and Starburst Fruit Salad.

If you want to check out my other stories, feel free to click on this link.