Brisket Dry Rub
108 Comments
Updated Oct 31, 2023
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This brisket rub is the perfect combination of sweet and smoky. It adds enormous flavor to smoked brisket or oven brisket, making it (in my opinion) the best brisket dry rub recipe.
If you’ve ever been to Texas, odds are you’ve had a delicious, smoked beef brisket. Brisket, when cooked well, is juicy, tender and loaded with flavor. Of course, much of that flavor comes from the smoker or cooking method, but the perfect brisket rub is also essential.
Brisket Rub Ingredients
I personally prefer a brisket rub that favor smoky over spicy undertones. That means more paprika and less cayenne pepper. But if you’re one that likes a super spicy brisket, by all means increase the amount of cayenne in this recipe.
Most brisket rubs also use brown sugar, but because I don’t keep brown sugar in my pantry, I swapped in an equally sweet and delicious maple sugar. In fact, I think I may actually prefer maple sugar now in all my rubs – the flavor is amazing.
If you’re wondering, the reason I don’t keep brown sugar around is that it’s simply just a combination of highly processed white sugar plus molasses. I prefer higher quality (or at least less processed) sugars and figure that if I want to add extra molasses to a recipe, I’ll do that separately.
This dry rub is obviously perfect for brisket, but you could also use it for steak, tri tip and other cuts of beef. The amount listed in the recipe will liberally cover a 5-6 pound brisket – like my Sweet and Smoky Beef Brisket – but if your brisket is smaller just store the remaining dry rub in an airtight container for future use.
For more delicious meat recipes, make sure to check out my Slow Cooker Kalua Pork, Cabernet Braised Short Ribs and Roasted Balsamic Chicken with Brussels Sprouts.
Enjoy!
Brisket Dry Rub
Description
Ingredients
- ¼ cup paprika
- 3 tablespoons maple sugar
- 2 tablespoons kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon black pepper
- 1 tablespoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Instructions
- Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and stir to combine.
- Use immediately or store in an airtight container.
Lisa’s Tips
- This recipe makes approximately 1/2 cup of brisket rub.
- I’m obsessed with using spices (both fresh and dry) in my healthy recipes. For a peek inside my spice drawer, make sure to watch my Spice Drawer Organization and Tips video.
- If your local market doesn’t have granulated maple sugar, this is the brand I buy from Amazon.
Nutrition
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Do not put salt in your rubs.
Dry brine your meat at the rate of 0.5 tsp. of salt per pound of meat, let it sit uncovered in the refrigerator overnight, and use the rub of your choice MINUS any additional salt before cooking.
If you follow this advice you will never over salt your meat.
I didn’t make this up. It’s accepted food science all over the world.
Fabulous brisket rub!!! Just finished eating brisket that was grilled with this dry rub. Very flavorful!
Trying this rub on a sous vide flap half of a packer brisket for 44 hours at 150F.
First time using my Instant Pot sous vide function with a zip lock freezer bag.
Planning on a finish with a 90 min ice bath followed by 2 min each side under the gas oven broiler.
Some Sweet Baby Ray’s copy cat BBQ sauce (Fake Baby Ray’s). Absolute Zero high fructose corn syrup tolerance is my house rule with all the American health issues these days.
Wish me luck and a juicy flavorful brisket.
My son just got braces and I need soft stuff for school lunch sandwiches.
Getting ready to try this. Is it a 1/4 cup of Paprika? Seems like a lot. Just making sure it was not a typo before I start. Thanks.
Yep, its 1/4 cup :)
Could I apply this rub after coating with mustard?
Hi Lisa, I can’t get maple sugar round here, do you think Demerara or similar will work?
Yes, that should work fine!
this is amazing! even the plain smell alone brought me delight. probably one of the best rubs I have ever made
Glad you enjoyed this dry rub Andrea!