Dad Rub 1.3 Salt Free BBQ Rub puts the salt decision back in your hands. This is my sweet Dad Rub with no added salt and no black pepper mixed into the blend. You get the rub, you choose the salt, and you decide how much pepper belongs on your barbecue.
I made this version because I wanted more control over the seasoning on my meat. In my Ninja Woodfire pulled pork video, I season with salt separately, add a little black pepper, and then go heavy with the sweet rub. Each part has its own job. Instead of asking one shaker to make every decision, I can adjust the parts independently. That is the whole reason behind this version of Dad Rub.
The question I wanted to answer was simple: what if I want more of the sweet rub, but I do not want more salt or pepper? Keeping them apart gives me that choice. It also makes it easier to explain what I am doing in the video, because you can see each seasoning decision happen separately rather than seeing one mystery coating go onto the meat.
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Dad Rub 1.3 Salt Free BBQ Rub
Ingredients
Rub
- ¾ cup Brown Sugar
- ½ cup Granulated Garlic
- ½ cup Granulated Onion
- ¼ cup Smoked Paprika
- ¼ cup Espresso Ground Coffee
- 1 tablespoon MSG
- 1 tablespoon Ground Mustard
- 1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon Ground Ginger
Instructions
Mix the rub
- Combine all ingredients and mix until evenly blended.¾ cup Brown Sugar, ½ cup Granulated Garlic, ½ cup Granulated Onion, ¼ cup Smoked Paprika, ¼ cup Espresso Ground Coffee, 1 tablespoon MSG, 1 tablespoon Ground Mustard, 1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon, 1 teaspoon Ground Ginger
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Tried this recipe?Mention @DadGotThis or tag #DadGotThis!Why I Made Dad Rub 1.3 Salt Free BBQ Rub
When salt is already mixed into a rub, adding more rub also means adding more salt. That connection is exactly what I wanted to change. Sometimes I want a generous coating of the other ingredients without committing to the amount of salt that comes along with it. Separating those choices makes the seasoning process easier for me to manage.
This is especially clear in the pulled pork cook. I am working with a big piece of meat and want a heavy coating of rub. However, I also want to control the salt on that meat. With this blend, I can season for salt first and then concentrate on the coating. The amount of rub no longer determines how much added salt I am putting on the pork.
The Sweet Dad Rub, With More Control
This version keeps brown sugar, granulated garlic, granulated onion, smoked paprika, coffee, MSG, ground mustard, and cinnamon. It also includes ground ginger. The coffee is reduced to a quarter cup, while the salt, black pepper, cayenne, and celery salt from my original blend are left out. These are the changes I made for Dad Rub 1.3.
My family does not like much heat, even though I do. Therefore, leaving the black pepper out of the shaker gives me another useful choice. In the video, I add pepper separately so I can use a little rather than relying on the amount already mixed into the rub. The sweet blend can still go on generously without forcing the pepper level higher at the same time.
Using Dad Rub 1.3 Salt Free BBQ Rub
Think of this as separating three seasoning decisions: salt, pepper, and rub. You can decide how much salt you want on the meat, decide how much pepper suits your family, and then use the rub for the coating you want. That is how I approach the pork in the linked video, and it is the reason this recipe belongs alongside that cook.
The recipe card below is for the blend itself. Salt and pepper are separate choices, so they are not listed as ingredients in this batch. I am also not giving you one fixed amount of salt to use with every application. The point of this version is that you control that part when seasoning the meat instead of having it decided by the shaker.
See It on Ninja Woodfire Pulled Pork
The linked Ninja Woodfire pulled pork video shows this version of Dad Rub in use on a bone in Boston butt. You can see the separate seasoning approach and the generous rub coating before the pork goes into the cooker. Later, I check the bark and show what I mean when I say the surface has set.
That makes the video a useful companion to this recipe. The jar gives you the blend, while the cook shows how I use it. There is also more to the lesson than seasoning: I check tenderness, explain wrapping as an option, and rest the pork before pulling it. Watch through the video in the recipe card to follow the cook and see the finished result.
What Salt Free Means Here
There is one distinction to keep clear: this recipe has no added salt, but it contains MSG. Therefore, it is not sodium free. The name describes my decision to leave salt out of the blend so I can season the meat separately. It is not a claim that every ingredient contains zero sodium.
If you came here from the pulled pork video, this is the sweet Dad Rub 1.3 I was talking about. It keeps the rub decision separate from the salt and pepper decisions, which is exactly what I wanted for that cook. Mix the batch from the recipe card, then use the video to see how I put that approach into practice. You stay in charge of the seasoning.
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