Hot Things – Our Current Go-To BBQ Rubs!

Our go-to flavours for chicken, beef, and everyday barbecue greatness.

The flavours we’re personally using right now — in-store and at the BBQ School.

At Hot Things BBQ School, we run through an absurd amount of rubs every month. Partly because of our free Rub Club Discounts … and partly because our pitmasters refuse to stop experimenting.

We’re constantly changing things up — testing new brands, tweaking flavour profiles, and seeing what really shines on different smokers before each new month of classes.

At Hot Things BBQ School, we run through a mountain of barbecue rubs every year — testing, tasting, tweaking, and teaching people how to bring out the best in their barbecue.
After thousands of cooks across pellet grills, kamados, kettles, offsets and everything in between, a few standouts have earned a permanent place in our kit bag.

These are the rubs we genuinely rate, use in our classes, and recommend to anyone wanting flavour that hits the mark every time.

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For Chicken: YardBird Rub — Plowboys BBQ

This one’s a dead-set crowd favourite at the BBQ School. Plowboys YardBird gives chicken that perfect golden-brown colour with a savoury-sweet competition flavour that never gets old.

Balanced. Reliable. Stupidly tasty.
It works on wings, drumsticks, whole birds, turkey even sneaks its way onto pork in our classes sometimes.

If you want that classic “BBQ chicken” flavour without overthinking it, YardBird is the one we reach for first.

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For Beef: 1836 Beef Rub — SuckleBusters

If you’re doing brisket, beef ribs, steaks or tri-tip, this is the rub that lets beef taste like beef.

1836 is a Texas-inspired blend built on salt, pepper, garlic and a few clever touches that add depth without covering up the meat.
It builds a beautiful bark and delivers that clean, beef-forward Low n Slow flavour people fall in love with.

We use it because it works, and it tastes great every time, simple as that.

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All-Rounder: Meat Candy — SuckleBusters

The name tells you everything.
Meat Candy is one of the most versatile, foolproof rubs you can keep in the pantry, which is why It's one of our favorites at the moment.

we've been using it on chicken, pork, ribs, bacon, veggies, chips, and to be honest if it fits in a BBQ, Meat Candy will probably make it better. Sweet, savoury, balanced and ridiculously moreish

If you only want one rub that does it all, start here.

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Another Great All-Purpose Option: Professor — Tuffy Stone

When you want something clean, refined and competition-quality, Tuffy Stone’s Professor rub is a beauty.

It gives food great colour, great flavour, and suits almost every protein: beef, pork, poultry, seafood - even roast veg.
It’s one of those “can’t go wrong” blends we use when we want a flavour that’s impressive but not overpowering.

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Want Us to Review a Rub or Recommend One for Your Next Cook?

We love helping people level up their barbecue, especially at our BBQ school.
If there’s a rub you’re curious about, a cut you’re prepping, or a flavour profile you want to achieve, email us your questions anytime here at (bbqschool@hotthings.com.au)
if there's a rub you want to know more about, we might even use it in our next blog post or for one of the meals we cook at our BBQ School!