Girls Can Grill BBQ rubs are back on the market. Learn about the production process, the flavor profiles of each blend and where to buy them.
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I have got some amazing, exciting news. Those of you who subscribe to my email list or follow me on social already know what I’m going to talk to you about, but I really wanted to go into detail on my podcast because I’ve been talking to you guys about this for so long.
My spice rubs are now available. Oh my gosh, this process has been wild, lengthy, but rewarding and I’m so glad that I have my full line back on the market for you guys.
History of Girls Can Grill Rubs
First, I want to give you a little bit of a backstory behind my rubs. I have three blends. I’ve got brisket, chicken and pork. I started creating these blends back in 2017 when I started out on the competition circuit, I definitely used a lot of pre-made bottled rubs out there.
But I am kind of a chef at heart. I’m a cook at heart. I like to make my own creations and my own recipes. As you can tell from, girlscangrill.com with all the recipes I have on there.
Well, as I was competing, I wanted to create rubs that I could actually use that met the flavor profiles that I wanted to present to the judges. I was looking for flavors of that salty, sweet, peppery, a little bit of heat to it, but also I’m looking for color because I want to see that sexy ruby red color that you get on a pork butt or on your chicken thighs.
So those are some of the criteria. When I was developing these rubs that I kind of set out for myself.
Well, in late 2019, Spiceology reached out to me and they were gracious enough to say, hey, we want to bottle your rubs we want to take your recipes, and we want to put them into bottles and sell them, you know, wholesale, retail, etc.
So fast forward March 2020 and my rubs were bottled and they were available on the market.
Well, if you guys recall what happened in March of 2020, that’s when the world shut down due to Covid. So the whole marketing launch and everything was a little bit wonky because we couldn’t fly out to Washington and film all the videos that we wanted to film and all that stuff. But needless to say, the rubs were a total hit.
They were really, really successful. They were picked up by retailers throughout the country. They were sold internationally.
But then in 2023, Spiceology did some reorganization, and I realized that I actually wanted to take my rubs and rebrand them myself. There were also a couple of tweaks that I wanted to make to my rubs that they just weren’t able to do at the time.
Bringing a Rub to Market
So I took on the whole operation myself with the help from Susie and Todd Bulloch of Hey Grill Hey. They have a company called Patio Provisions. That’s where they do all of the Hey Grill Hey rubs and sauces.
Through Patio Provisions, they are working on bringing on a team of people who they can kind of help through the process too. Where I still own my rubs, I handle the whole details of what I want the labels to look like and all of that, but they really help connect the dots to co-packers, to label makers, to suppliers, to shippers, to retailers, to wholesalers, etc. and they handle all the fulfillment for me.
So I’m so grateful to Todd and Susie of Hey Grill Hey. If it wasn’t for them, I don’t know that I would be where I’m at today.
I have learned through the process that it is a lengthy process, so I want to touch on that a little bit for you guys in case you’re interested in bottling up your own spice blends.
Developing the recipe
First and foremost, when you come up with a recipe, it’s really important that you measure the ingredients as opposed to not not doing like teaspoons, tablespoons and cups.
But instead measure it in grams and even half grams. That way when you take that formulation and you take that recipe in weight, you can multiply that. And when you multiply it evenly, it should taste the same, whether you’re making 100 pounds or one cup of the recipe.
So that’s the main thing. My original recipe was definitely all in teaspoons and tablespoons because that’s how I cook in the kitchen. But I’ve adapted it and created the new formulations.
Formulation testing
No matter which co-packer you do end up going with, you’re going to want to taste the formulation that they make before you start to bottle it.
One of the primary reasons for that is because the granulated garlic that you use in your kitchen may not be the same one that they source.
Or for instance, kosher salt. There are a few different brands of kosher salt out there, and they’re each a little bit different in their weight and their granular texture. And so if they’re using something that’s a little bit different, it could be too salty or not salty enough.
So with my rubs, I gave them the recipes we worked on, the formulations. The Chicken Rub, they got perfect right away. I was so proud of how well that one turned out. And I’m going to talk about each one of these rubs in a little bit.
With the Brisket Rub, I think we did 4 or 5 revisions and same with the Pork. We did 4 or 5 revisions. There were certain notes like you, you have to have a good palate when it comes to this.
There were certain notes that I wanted to be more enhanced, like the molasses flavors that you get out of my pork rub without amping up the chiles too much. And the color on my pork rub is super important because I really want that beautiful mahogany bark. And I get that through natural flavors, through natural ingredients, I should say, not through like artificial colorings or anything like that.
So we got all the revisions done. They sent them to me, I approved them, and then I went and I got a label maker.
Labels
I actually designed my labels myself. I used Adobe InDesign, which is kind of a high-end graphics product, but I’ve got some graphic design experience.
So if you don’t have that kind of experience, you’re probably going to want to hire somebody. You can definitely, like pencil it out, draw it out, or use an app like Canva to kind of get some ideas.
But you are going to want to use somebody who has professional software, understands Pantone colors. Kind of can go into that in depth intensity so that you get the exact color and exact look and everything that you want.
Another thing is your nutrition factors. Those are really, really important. Your co-packer should provide all that information for you with your ingredients, with any allergens, so that you can provide that to your label designer and they can work all that out.
Then once you have your label design, you’re going to want to send that off to the printer themselves. And there’s a few different printers. There’s like on demand printers that are a little less expensive.
The printer I use is called Revolution. And they did a beautiful, fantastic job. I’m really happy with them. They’ve got just the right sheen to them. They stick on here great. They did wonderful.
Bottling
So then after you get your labels made, you get all of those shipped off to the co-packer and then you get on the schedule on the calendar to where they start bottling your rubs and then they start putting the labels on them, and then they ship them out to you.
Ordering and fulfillment
And in my case, they ship them to Patio Provisions, which is in Saint George, Utah. And now they are all in the warehouse and they are available to order online.
Speaking of the ordering process, if you’re going to do your own spice blends, you also need to consider having some kind of a sales platform. I’m using Shopify and Shopify is great.
It’s seamed into my own website, and then people can order things and they can pay with PayPal or credit cards, or there’s a variety of different ways that people can pay for their products, and then they can get them shipped directly.
When it comes to shipping, you’re going to have to figure out those costs, too, whether you charge your customer shipping or not.
And I’ve worked out kind of a flat fee based on weight, to make it not too pricey for shipping. But to cover costs. So one bottle of rub if you ship it, it’s only $5 through my store. And then if you get 2 or 3 or more, depending on weight, then it’s only $7.50. So I think that’s pretty reasonable.
The $5 doesn’t actually cover my shipping cost, but I really didn’t want to raise shipping costs to you guys too much. So I’m happy to absorb that because you shouldn’t spend more on shipping than on the rub itself.
Brisket Rub
So now that we’ve talked about the whole process of designing rubs, I’m really excited to talk to you guys about the rubs themselves and the actual flavors.
All right, so let’s start with my Brisket Rub. My Brisket Rub is really kind of my all purpose rub. This is going to be the salt pepper garlic forward rub that you’re looking for for all things beef. It is made with kosher salt, coarse ground black pepper which is 16 mesh.
So it’s got some good texture to it. And granulated garlic. Those are kind of the foundational flavors.
So like I said anything you’re going to put salt pepper garlic on. This is the rub to go to. But what makes my brisket rub so unique. I love the smell. Are the chiles that I put inside of here. So it’s got guajillo chile, so I could have gone with a more traditional chile, but Guajillo has just this beautiful earthiness that I think marries really, really well with beef.
It’s not spicy. It has more of a little bit of a floral note, but again earthy. And then I’ve also put cumin in here. So that accentuates the earthiness too. So it really gives you kind of this rich umami flavor mixed with that salt, pepper and garlic. And because there are chiles in here, you know, you get a little bit of that red color also.
So it’s going to give you a beautiful bark. And I kept the black pepper coarse because when I’m doing brisket I do like to have that coarse texture on my brisket.
Plus it’s coarse which is great for steaks. So if you like cooking steaks and you want to get a great seared crust on there, whether you’re doing that over a sear station on a grill or a cast iron or even on a griddle, this is the rub to use.
I also love it on hamburgers. It’s great mixed in with ground meat. Like, if you’re going to just do like some tacos, you can mix this with a little bit of taco seasoning if you’re gonna do some ground beef tacos.
It’s also fantastic on tri tip. I actually made my rub from scratch when I was on Food Network, and I cooked a tri tip with my rub, and it won first place that day, and Rodney Scott said it was the best tri tip of the day.
Using it on competition brisket
Oh, and I want fifth place at the Jack Daniels World Championship using this rub. I got fifth place in brisket, so you definitely want to try it out. When you are cooking brisket. I recommend that you sprinkle this on your brisket and you let it set overnight. This does not have any MSG.
None of my rubs have MSG in them. So if you’re doing competition barbecue, you may want to add a little MSG. When I’m competing, that’s what I do. But I also use this in my mop. So after my brisket has smoked and then when it’s time to mop it like kind of soak it in, it’s braising liquid. I actually mix this with consomme with beef consomme and it just adds more flavor and more beefiness.
Instead of just the beef broth itself, you’re going to get more of that Brisket Rub in there. And then I use it as a finishing. Also, when I’m recreating the bark at the end of my competition brisket. So check this one out. It is available now at GirlsCanGrill.com, and I’m also working on getting all of these available on Amazon.
But for now they’re available on my website.
Chicken Rub
Now my chicken rub of course has salt pepper garlic in it. I mean pretty much all rubs do, but it’s a finer salt. It’s a finer pepper. And it’s finer garlic. Plus it’s full of like citrus notes, like lemon zest plus rosemary and different herbs and of course, some chiles in here as well, because I like just a little bit of heat on it.
But this is a really great all purpose poultry rub. It is called Chicken Rub but it’s good on duck. It’s good on turkey, and it’s fantastic on vegetables like asparagus or roasted potatoes. You just sprinkle this on there with some olive oil or butter and it just hits the spot.
All right. Let me smell this and kind of describe it to you guys. Oh, you can just smell the herbs like like think of poultry seasoning or herb de Provence, which is a popular seasoning for poultry. It’s got those herbaceous notes. But you can also smell a little bit of sweetness, some umami. And then there’s chiles in here, as I mentioned, but not not hot hot chiles.
Not hot peppers. There’s like bell pepper. There’s paprika, some peppers that are definitely more on the mild side. But help give it that beautiful red color. And then there’s some citrus in there as I mentioned. So again this kind of like just it makes your taste buds wake up. And that was my whole goal when I was creating this one.
I wanted the judges to have a satiating experience. And if you don’t know what satiating means, that’s like when something’s in your mouth, a taste is in your mouth and it just makes your mouth water like it just it just kicks in those like glands in your mouth to just make your mouth water and make you crave more.
And that’s what this rub is all about. Chicken Rub, when those judges go in and take that first bite of their chicken, I want them to be like, oh my God, my mouth is watering, I need another bite. So that’s what was in mind when I designed this. Now, when I had my other Chicken Rub with Spiceology, it was definitely more coarse.
And that’s something that I didn’t care for because it was hard to cook with in a competition without grinding it. Now it is definitely finer, so you do not have to grind it before you put it on your chicken, which I’m so thrilled with. But if you also want to use this as a finishing rub on your chicken, I do recommend grinding it then, because then it’ll kind of disappear and dissolve into your sauce.
But again, this is the Chicken Rub that I use in competitions.
But it’s also fantastic for backyard barbecue. Whether you’re cooking whole chicken or chicken wings or chicken breasts or chicken tenders. Like I said, I’m throwing it on my Thanksgiving turkey this year. It’s just a good all purpose rub for all poultry and all veggies.
Pork Rub
Last, but definitely not least is my pork rub. This was always my number one seller because it’s so unique. It’s so kind of different from other sweet rubs out there, other pork rubs that are out there.
And that’s because of the sugars that I use. This has brown sugar, cane sugar, coconut palm sugar, as well as some honey granules.
So there’s all these different complexities of sweet profiles. And that gives it this unique caramelization flavor. Like I said, that molasses flavor that you get from the brown sugar mixed with the coconut palm sugar, it dissolves beautifully at different levels because some of the sugar is coarse and some of the sugar is fine. So it kind of creates a different layering of sugars, but also a different flavoring of those sugar flavors.
But it’s not just a sweeter rub. It definitely has depth because there are lots of different chiles in here. Again, I’m all about chiles. I think that chiles add the beautiful color, but they also add the complexity of earth notes as well as floral notes. And it’s got garlic because I like garlic with my pork. So let’s go ahead I’m going to smell this one for you guys.
Try to describe it. Yeah man I just this one makes me smile like it’s just so unique. I’ve had people from Germany emailing me saying, when is your Pork Rb coming back? I mean, really people from all over the United States? This is the rub that they keep asking for. Like, when is this one coming back in stock?
So I’m so glad this one’s here. Oh, it’s just you. You smell the sweetness. You smell the different caramelized flavors of the of the different sugars. And then you get kind of a little bit of that heat. Yeah. I don’t know. It’s just like it’s so aromatic. And again, it was very important for me that the natural color of red came through through the different chiles, like paprika and the other chiles that I’m using.
So that when you put this on your pork that you get that gorgeous mahogany bark, that’s a priority. Like second to the taste. That was really a priority for me.
One thing that I love about this version of my Pork Rub, compared to my other one, is that it’s a finer texture. It’s not as chunky. My last one was really chunky and it worked fine. I competed with it all the time and did really well in pork with it, but it just it was too chunky I think, and some teams were a little bit hesitant to use it because of that.
Now it’s definitely more granular and it will melt more evenly onto your pork. So I love that. About this rub. This rub of course, is good on all things pork like pork shoulder, pork ribs, pork chops, pork loin, obviously everything that’s pork. But I do also love it on vegetables. And I do like mixing my Brisket Rub and my Pork Rub because my Brisket Rub is more savory.
Again, it’s more of that salt, pepper, garlic. Mixing that with the Pork Rub, which is more sweet, really gives a nice balance on really just about any kind of protein. The pork is also wonderful on salmon and shrimp and other fish because it just has that nice kind of little bit of sweetness. And again, that molasses flavor that just kind of melts and gives a beautiful crust on anything that you’re cooking.
Where to buy GCG Rubs
So that’s it guys. Those are my three rubs. They are back in stock now. I’m so thrilled. Thank you so much for your patience as I work to get these on the market.
I want you to listen to the Pitmasters Podcast on December 16. We’re actually going to do a Facebook Live where I’m shipping these rubs to about ten different pitmasters. They’re going to taste them for their first time and smell them, taste them, and just give you their first overall impressions of what they think.
So I’m a little anxious, a little nervous, but I’m also pretty confident because these rubs are awesome. They are award winning, after all. I mean, I’ve won multiple awards with them. So super stoked about it. I really can’t wait to get these in your hands. Be sure to visit shop.girlscangrill.com. You can pick up one.
You can pick up all three. You can shop and send them to your family and your friends for holiday gifts. Great stocking stuffers. Or just get the whole Pitmaster pack and give that as a beautiful gift under $50 for this holiday season.
You can also find my barbecue rubs at Pretzels Barbecue in Littleton, Colorado, at Missouri Barbecue Supply in Columbia, Missouri, and at West Coast Barbecue Shop in Chula Vista, California.
If you want to carry my ribs in your barbecue store. Please reach out. I’d love to get you all hooked up.
Oh, and one more thing.
On the side of the bottle, you’re going to see a QR code. You can scan that with your phone. It’s going to take you to my website. You’re going to see pictures of these bottles on my website. If you click on that picture, you’ll find recipes that use each and every one of these. So you don’t have to come up with ideas for yourself.
You can just click on that picture and it’ll give you you know, like ten, 15 recipes or so that you can make with these rubs. So thank you guys so much for tuning in. Again, sorry about my hoarse voice. Next week I’m going to bring you those turkey tips that I’ve been promising you. So please tune in for that.
