As our days get busier, we are far more likely to reach for pre-packaged mixes and other convenience foods to lighten our load and make dinner prep a bit easier. These are some of my favorite homemade kitchen helpers you can make in advance and keep handy for those extra-hectic evenings… or even the non-hectic ones. Work smarter, not harder!
There is a hidden gem of a restaurant called The Settlement not far from our home in the neighboring town of Priest River, Idaho. I’ve been all over the world, and I can honestly say they have the best dry rub chicken wings I’ve ever had.
Mr. Redheaded Herbalist is a chatty fellow and often engages the waitstaff in talking about all kinds of things. During one of our chats, a waitress told us the story of how these awesome “Spicy Dill Rub” chicken wings came to be:
It involved one of the restaurant employees making a snack run to the grocery store across the street and bringing back a bag of “Flamin’ Hot Dill Pickle” potato chips. The bag of chips was passed around by the employees and made its way back to the chef, who was inspired to create a unique spice blend that they now use to make the world’s best chicken wings.
The rest is history.
Mr. Redheaded Herbalist and I love their recipe so much that I took a stab at recreating the spice blend at home. Every variation I’ve made so far has been good in its own right, but I do believe this one is getting close to the real deal!
This stuff jazzes up chicken, pork, beef and is even good sprinkled on veggies. My favorite way we’ve used it so far has been as a dry rub on a whole chicken that we then smoked on our BBQ rotisserie.
Spicy Dill Rub chicken heaven. ♥
Spicy Dill Rub
Ingredients
2 T smoked paprika
2 T brown sugar
1–1/2 tsp cracked black pepper
3/4 tsp cayenne
3/4 tsp citric acid
Instructions
- Combine ingredients and process in an electric spice grinder or with a mortar & pestle
- Store in a small mason jar with an airtight lid.
- Rub on all the things ♥
