Name: Barbecue Chicken Rub
Yield: 2½ cups (400 g/14 oz)
Ingredients: 4 tablespoons chili powder; ¼ cup (75 g/2.6 oz) salt; ¼ cup (35 g/1.2 oz) dry mustard powder; ¼ cup (40 g/1.4 oz) lemon pepper; ¼ cup (30 g/1.1 oz) dried rosemary; ¾ cup (140 g/4.9 oz) turbinado or light brown sugar; ¼ cup (40 g/1.4 oz) cayenne pepper

Why it works: Lemon and rosemary match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 845 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

The recipe

2½ cups (400 g/14 oz)

Ingredients

4 tablespoons chili powder
¼ cup (75 g/2.6 oz) salt
¼ cup (35 g/1.2 oz) dry mustard powder
¼ cup (40 g/1.4 oz) lemon pepper
¼ cup (30 g/1.1 oz) dried rosemary
¾ cup (140 g/4.9 oz) turbinado or light brown sugar
¼ cup (40 g/1.4 oz) cayenne pepper

Directions

Combine all ingredients in an airtight container.

Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Lemon + rosemarytop 2% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together845 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Lemon + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together27,039 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Pepper + rosemarytop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together2,324 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Mustard + peppertop 6% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together15,427 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Mustard + rosemarytop 7% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together315 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Turbinado or light brown sugar: Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the rub caramelise and brown on the chicken.
Salt: Seasons the chicken and draws out moisture that dissolves the other seasonings into the surface.

Flavor stand-ins for the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, pepper, rosemary, sugar):

Capsicumbetter flavor fit
Carrotbetter flavor fit
Potatobetter flavor fit
Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, pepper, rosemary, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.