Name: Barbecue Spice Rub
Prep time: 10 min
Total time: 10 min
Yield: 1 cup
Ingredients: 1/3 cup sea salt; 1/3 cup brown sugar or maple sugar; 1/4 cup paprika; 2 tablespoons black pepper; 2 tablespoons dried oregano; 1 tablespoon garlic powder; 2 teaspoons dried thyme; 1 teaspoon dried mustard; 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

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Recipe At-A-Glance

This Barbecue Spice Rub is easy to throw together and adds wonderful flavor to everything. It makes a perfect gift for people who love to cook or grill!

Vegan, Gluten-Free

Ready in 10 minutes

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This recipe was originally published in December 2012. It was retested with reader feedback, rephotographed, rewritten, and republished for your enjoyment in December 2017.

This spice rub is an amazing little stocking stuffer for anyone who loves to grill, and it would also work perfectly in a nice little jar as a small gift for a co-worker or acquaintance. I mean, who doesn’t like flavor? Everyone likes flavor! Give the gift of flavor, friends.

I love this spice mix. Love, love, love it. I’ve been using it on everything from salmon to veggies! I’d consider this a pretty all-purpose spice rub. I mean, I wouldn’t recommend sprinkling it on top of your morning Wheaties, but anything savory is a go. It really does make a ho-hum dinner like baked salmon into something spectacular. In fact, I like this spice mix so much that it’s been living on our kitchen windowsill because I want it close by at all times.

It comes together very quickly and uses spices you probably already have stashed in your spice rack, making this an excellent last-minute gift for when that person who you “accidentally” left off your list gives you a call to say they’re coming over in 10 minutes to give you your gift.

Whoops. I know! Give the gift of flavor!

And even if you don’t use this as a last-minute rescue gift, it would work beautifully done in bulk ahead of time. Head to the bulk section of your local health food store and fill up on all the spices, come home and mix it in a big bowl, dole it out into cute little jars, label it, and put a bow on it, and you’ve got a great little gift.

Of course, this recipe is highly adaptable. Add more red pepper if you want more of a kick. Cut back on the garlic powder if your recipients are garlic-phobes (do those exist?). Cut out almost all the salt if you want to give a low-sodium version to someone watching their salt intake. Make it your spice rub. And once you’ve got the recipe down pat, I promise folks will be asking for it year-after-year.