Plowboys BBQ Yardbird Rub
After giving Plowboys BBQ Bovine Bold meat rub a try on steak and chicken with great results, I only thought it natural to give their Yardbird Rub a try for the chicken edition. I've heard through others that it was the go-to rub for poultry.
Like the Bovine rub, the Yardbird rub can brag about its several awards including the granddaddy of them all, the 2009 American Royal Champion. The label states that it was "created for chicken, but made for pork", which doesn't make a lick a sense to me. We'll give it try on chicken. I'll try it on pork some other day.
Initial Impressions
I love the the 14 oz. sized bottle. Smaller bottles just seem to go too quickly for my liking. The color is definitely orange, which is typical of most rubs containing paprika and chili peppers. There is speckling of black granules which could be any one of the listed ingredients. Usually a speckling of color components in a meat rub means added flavor. I like when I see that.
Speaking of listed ingredients, they are: Salt, sugar, spices including chili pepper, paprika, dehydrated garlic and onion, celery powder, mustard flour, disodium inosinate and guanylate, not more than 2% calcium stearate added to prevent caking.
The aroma of this rub scares me. I immediately detect the paprika and can pick up a few of the ingredients, but the flavor that really stands out to me is the aroma of celery. Personally, I don't believe that I'd like celery flavor anywhere near my meat. Well, let's see how it tastes.
Out of the Bottle Taste Test
Whew! There is no detection of the celery, which means it's going to be subliminal in taste. That I like. The initial taste is that of nothing. I mean nothing really jumps out at you. It seems balanced. Of course you get the immediate taste of salt, followed by just a bit of heat, then other flavors come out. Not any one in particular, but all of them at about the same time. It's not earth shattering, but equalized in flavor.
Apply the Meat Taste Test
I gave the Yardbird rub a try on chicken breasts that I was preparing for pulled chicken sandwiches. In addition, a few dozen wings were also being prepared. Both were getting a little hickory smoke with a pinch of maple wood thrown in.
The color of the rub really made the chicken appear respectable. It was a nice color. The unsauced flavor of the meat was indeed tasty. Nothing powerful, just a nice flavor. I again began to worry. How would sauce respond? In this case I was correct. The sweet and spicy sauce I used on the pulled pork sandwiches eliminated any trace of the rub. Oh, I'm sure it was there, it just didn't contribute much to the overall flavor. The wings on the other hand were lathered with a buffalo-style wing sauce. Voila! That was a wonderful combination of flavors. Those two went together like a hand and glove!
The Final Verdict
It's possible that because Plowboys' Bovine Bold has stolen my heart, I may be reluctant to embace their Yardbird rub, yet I found its use to be limited. Using that same premise, it does have its place in my fire cooking arsenal. Vibrant and bold sauces seem to overpower its flavors. I'll use another, more intense rub. On the other hand, if your sauce isn't complex in flavor or you're using no sauce at all, Yardbird rub is a great choice.
Next up, I'm thinking this rub is going to kick butt on my next pork chop dinner.
To locate where you can get your hands on Plowboy's products, check out their website...Here
Happy Grilling!
UPDATE: Using Big Bob Gibson's white sauce on a grilled rotisseried whole chicken with some apple smoke, Plowboys Yardbird rub was the magic ingredient. I swear, between the Alabama white sauce and the Yardbird rub, that chicken began talking in tongues!
