The UKBBQweek team was very kindly given these rubs by Richard Orme of BBQGourmet (www.bbqgourmet.co.uk) to review and I got the luck of the draw in being picked to review them, my thoughts in this review are my own.
BBQ Gourmet have been around for a few years now importing the very best in BBQ products from overseas, they have an amazing selection of American Rubs and Sauces, I never know where to start but have picked some cracking rubs and sauces over the last few years. I always bring hold luggage when I hear Richard is going to be at an event just so I can stock up.
My first cook was with cluckin awesome by The Shed BBQ. If you don’t know who the Shed BBQ are then a quick trip to Google will tell you all you need to know. They are now 2 times Whole Hog World Champions after winning Memphis in My BBQ competition in the US twice! That’s a real achievement. They’ve had a lot of success on American TV over the years and have a restaurant in Ocean Springs Mississippi. In recent years they have produced a whole line of award winning rubs and sauces that are now stocked in the UK by BBQGourmet.
We decided to try The Shed’s Cluckin Awesome on a rotisserie chicken, first thoughts when reading the label was that brown sugar seemed a little strange for a chicken rub, however when I thought about it I realised that this would have the effect of a rub and a sauce, we rubbed the chicken with a little olive oil and sprinkled with the rub, then allowed it to sit in the fridge for an hour. To help keep the chicken moist we always put some butter in the cavity to help self-baste the chicken. We set up the Kettle BBQ for indirect cooking and put the chicken on. The great thing about a Rotisserie is you just leave it to do its thing. After about an hour the internal temp when checked was 165°F or 74°C. As it was ready we took the chicken off and the rub had really given it a lovely colour and a gloss as you will see in the pictures. We left the chicken to rest and so sat it tented with foil for 30 mins then came the taste test. The Cluckin Awesome rub was really nice, the rub had flavoured the chicken and not just the skin. A subtle garlic and onion flavour and just a touch of sweetness made it one of the nicest chickens we have had recently, will definitely use that again. I guess these guys know their chickens as well as their whole hogs.
Next up was rack attack by The Shed BBQ. You could see that this was a different colour than cluckin awesome and this is most likely due to the paprika, the chilli in the rub is just enough to give it a kick and I reckon this would work just as well on any pork dish. We rubbed up our ribs with some mustard and sprinkled on the Rack Attack rub. The rubs are more granular than some other rubs we have used which are more powdery but this means that you get a more even covering in my opinion. The mustard helps the rubs stick well to the meat but does not leave an aftertaste when finished. These ribs were cooked on the Traeger pellet BBQ on smoke setting for an hour followed by 2h 45m at 107°C or 225°F. Then wrapped them in tinfoil with some cider (Mr D had drunk my apple juice) some butter and a little brown sugar cooked these meat side down for an hour then glazed them with some sweet baby rays honey sauce. You would think that all this sugar and honey would result in a very sweet rib, however the kick from the chillis and the flavour from the paprika and garlic gave a nice balance. They weren’t competition style ribs more fall of the bone but that’s how we eat them in Chillin N Grillin HQ. My workmates next day thought they were the best ribs they have ever eaten and that we should open a restaurant lol.
Overall I think both these rubs did a great job both presentation wise and also with the flavours they gave to the finished product. Luckily I have a little leftover to try again on some other dishes but I can see I may be buying these from BBQGourmet in the future. If you would like to do the same, please visit their website at www.bbqgourmet.co.uk to see the whole range of the The Shed BBQ products.
