Applewood Chipotle Rub

The dominant characteristics of our Applewood Chipotle Rub are smoke, from smoked salt and chipotle chiles, and sweetness from granulated honey. This rub, meant to turn into a luscious glaze during grilling, is full of exciting flavor contrasts. It is kept down to earth by the steady presence of paprika. Black pepper contributes its pine-forward burn and floral top notes, while garlic and onion deliver aromatic pungency. We blend our Applewood Chipotle Rub in small batches in our facility, to protect flavor and freshness.

Dry rubs, like this one, add an enormous amount of flavor to meat, but they also help to tenderize the meat they’re rubbed on thanks to the judicious use of salt. A lot of salt left on a piece of meat for a long period of time will create a dry, tough cut of meat. Salting was used as a method of preservation long before refrigeration became commonplace, and it works because salt draws moisture from meat, and with that the bacteria that lived in the moisture. But a small amount of salt, over a relatively short period of time, will cause the proteins in the meat to gelatinize. This permits the meat to retain moisture longer, creating a juicier piece of meat. The salt also penetrates the meat enough to cause diffusion, which brings flavor through the entire piece of meat and not just the surface.

Tips From Our Kitchen

This blend is excellent on the grill, particularly on pork, beef, and chicken. Use it in the slow cooker on pulled pork recipes, throw some on your baked ribs, or add it to burger meat before cooking. It's also good on vegetables! We love this applewood chipotle rub on sweet potatoes, corn on the cob, or on grilled asparagus. Use it on rice or on strongly flavored vegetables like brussels sprouts. As a rule of thumb, you should use about 1 tablespoon of dry rub per pound of chicken or pork. For fish, about ½ that amount would be enough to start out with. Rubs are patted into the meat on all sides before cooking begins, making a crust of tasty flavor on the meat.

Season both chicken and pork with this rub and let it sit in the refrigerator for 8-24 hours to allow the seasoning to work its way into the meat before smoking or grilling. For fish, let the seasoning sit for 30 minutes to 2 hours before cooking.

Our Applewood Chipotle Rub is blended from granulated honey, smoked apple wood sea salt, paprika, garlic, onion, chipotle powder, black pepper and chipotle flakes.

Hungry for more information?

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