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A very close copycat recipe for the popular Rib Tickler Rub!
Hi everyone – Jack here. A few months back, my buddy, Ed, sent me a bottle of his favorite Rib Tickler rub – a Texas-style spice blend for pork and chicken that is sold by the Williams Food Co.
It really is a delicious rub and seasoning mix – with a sweet and spicy blend that is well-suited for a variety of foods. So, after going through most of the jar in a few weeks, I set out to make my own Copycat Rib Tickler Rub.
How do you make a copycat Rib Tickler Rub?
Full disclosure: I just looked at the ingredients on the jar of Rib Tickler, then played around until I got this copycat recipe to look and taste like the bottled mix.
It’s a mix of minced dry garlic, kosher salt, granulated sugar, freshly ground black pepper, paprika, and a pinch of cayenne pepper.
One key thing to note: After trial and error, I found that using a minced dry garlic is better than using garlic powder or granulated garlic. But to avoid big garlic pieces in your spice rub, use a mortar and pestle to grind the granulated garlic and kosher salt together – and crush it into as fine a powder as you can, but still leaving some garlic bits in the mix. (Alternately, you could give the mixture a quick whirl in a spice grinder – if you have one.)
How do you cook with this Copycat Rib Tickler spice rub?
This Copycat Rib Tickler is great sprinkled on just about every kind of meat – used as a rub before cooking, or after as more of a seasoning salt. And, my buddy Ed claims that Rib Tickler is the best for smoking meats. (He wanted me to try smoking with the Rib Tickler he sent me, not knowing that we recently sold our smoker because we never really cooked much with it. So I sold it to a neighbor who always wanted one).
But even without a smoker or grill – you can make these delicious, super tender, oven-baked country ribs with this Copycat Rib Tickler Rub.
You might like these other homemade mixes:
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Copycat Rib Tickler Rub
Ingredients
1 tablespoon minced dry garlic
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons paprika
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Instructions
Place the garlic and salt in a mortar and grind with a pestle, or use a coffee grinder used for spices. (If you want to hand grind the pepper you could also place whole pepper corns in the mortar, otherwise grind with a pepper grinder.)
Combine all ingredients in a bowl and whisk to combine.
Sprinkle on beef, pork or chicken before cooking.
Store in a sealed zip lock bag or air-tight container for up to two years.
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made this for the 1st time and love it!
Thanks Elizabeth!
Do you par boil the country ribs to remove the extra fat? The rub sounds awesome…
Hi Judy – We did not, but you could if you’d like. Here is the link to our ribs recipe: https://www.afamilyfeast.com/oven-baked-country-style-ribs/ – just realized I never linked to in from this rub recipe! Adding it now…