What Are Dry Rubs And How To Use Them

In those moments spent in the kitchen, chopping, slicing and air-frying away trying to make a delicious dish, seasoning is the spice that brings any dish to life. From marinades and spice mixes to dried herbs and dry rubs, there are a variety of ways to infuse your food with exciting flavours and unforgettable aromas. Today though, we’re focusing on dry rubs.

With meat dishes and a few other foods, a well-made, flavourful dry rub can go a long way in transforming any dish from bland to infused with bold flavour. If you aren’t familiar with dry rubs or want to know more about how to use them, read on because we’re breaking down what a dry rub is, how to use it and some scrumptious recipes too. Let’s tuck in!

What are Dry Rubs?

Perfectly seasoned steaks that sing with a meaty taste, chicken wings with a punchy spice that makes them taste nice, and full-of-flavour grilled fish dishes are some of the meat masterpieces many of us love. With all these dishes though, there is one common element that gives them the delicious flavours we love - a dry rub.

Dry rubs are the perfect way to season your meat, or any other food you like for that matter, like in this Grilled Orange Sweet Potato Halves recipe with a Robertsons Braai & Grill All-In-One spice rub. Dry rubs are a type of dry seasoning mix, made by combining a variety of herbs, spices and other flavourings to create a spice blend that is usually rubbed on meat before grilling. Some popular dry rub ingredients include paprika, cumin, thyme and garlic powder.

How to Use Dry Rubs

As the name suggests, to use a dry rub, simply rub your dry mix onto your cuts of meat like rib eye or rump steaks, chicken thighs, or veggie steaks if that’s more your speed. Some methods suggest –

1. Put the dry rub mix on a flat surface like a plate.
   
2. Place the meat cut on the spice mix and gently press the cut down.
   
3. Then turn the cutover and repeat the process.

For veggie steaks, you should rather sprinkle the spice rub onto the veggie slices. When it comes to figuring out how long you leave a dry rub on, if you have the time, the longer the better. So if you can, leave the coated meat in an airtight container in the fridge overnight. If you’re short on time, just season your cut of meat shortly before cooking.

The Best Dry Rubs

Knowing how to use a dry rub is only one part of creating a delicious meal. The other part is finding a tasty and well-balanced dry rub to use. With all the unique flavours each ingredient in your dry rub seasoning mix brings to the table, it can be difficult to balance them all to create a flavourful dry rub. Fortunately, you don’t need to worry about trying to make masterful spice mixes, thanks to Robertsons.

With the Robertsons range of seasonings, a world of expertly blended spices is at your fingertips so that you can create the most flavoursome meals with ease. The Robertsons range includes a selection of Masterblend seasoning mixes and braai and grill seasonings that make the most mouth-watering dry rubs. So for a sensational steak dinner or to bring chicken thighs or a sweet potato bake to life, go for the Robertsons range of seasonings for a scrumptious dry rub.

Try our Robertsons Braai and Grill Spicy BBQ spice to create a flavourful dry rub for veggie steaks, like in this delicious Butternut Steaks recipe. The Robertsons spice rub makes this dish a healthy treat that’s full of rich, smoky flavour. Or go the more traditional route with this succulent Grilled Steak with Chimichurri Sauce, infused with the incredible taste of Robertsons Masterblends Traditional Braai Mix spice.

No matter the meal, enhance the taste with the Robertsons range of herbs and spices and treat yourself to the sensational flavours of expertly blended spice mixes.