Coffee & Chile Dry Rub

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Scratchpad

Like many cooks, I have countless recipes that come and go from the dinner table. I jot down just about everything that I make, but most of it never reaches Chic Eats before I squirrel off to the next thing. This assortment of dishes is a bit like life—always in a state of fiddling and flux.

"Scratchpad" is a series where I share brief entries featuring some favorites from my trove of recipe scribbles. While I can't help turning some posts into food novellas à la my Sourdough Focaccia and Sauerkraut, these will be more like recipe cards.

This post is finally a true scratchpad in that it's brief. Where's my cookie?

Rhyme or Reason

I've been thumbing through my recipes and randomly picking some to publish—there's not always a rhyme or reason to what grabs me. In this case, the image caught my eye and the blend is one that I've been using for years. It's pretty good. A coffee and chile dry rub for pulled pork, dark and smoky with just enough sweetness for balance.

I do have a draft recipe for proper oven pulled pork that's making progress. Hopefully that entry will join its partner here in the near future. By "proper," I mean the bark is adequately developed for an oven preparation. I'm no BBQ expert but my novice opinions are strong and plentiful.

Farmers | Artisans

• Flora Bella Farms // Fresh Cayenne Peppers
• Good Boy Bob // Coffee Beans

Tools

My Favorite Cooking Tools spotlights the kitchen equipment I’ve owned and used for years from bread baking to coffee brewing.

Ingredients (enough for a 6- to 6.5-pound boneless pork shoulder)

A note on scale: The plate in the photo is tiny, so it makes the quantity look large. A little bit of this rub goes a long way, so you'll see below that the measurements are on the smaller side.

I use all of the rub in this recipe for 6 to 6.5 pounds of boneless pork shoulder. That's 8 to 8.5 grams (a scant 1 tablespoon) of rub per pound.

• 24 grams (about 2 packed tablespoons) dark brown sugar, muscovado if available
• 4.5 grams (2 teaspoons) finely ground coffee Note: This is finely ground drip coffee, not an espresso grind.
• 0.5 grams (1/4 teaspoon) cinnamon
• 1 gram (1/2 teaspoon) smoked paprika
• 0.5 grams (1/4 teaspoon) ground cumin
• 1.5 grams (1 teaspoon) homemade ground cayenne Note: You can see in the photo how coarse my cayenne is. Store-bought cayenne is finer and often more potent, so use 1/2 teaspoon if that's what you have.
• 0.5 grams (1/4 teaspoon) homemade dried onion powder
• 4 grams (about 2 teaspoons) freshly ground black pepper
• 2.5 grams (1 teaspoon) ground chipotle morita Note: An alternative is to use 1 teaspoon of chile powder, though ground chipotle morita is worth seeking out for its smokiness.
• 15 grams (about 4 teaspoons) Jacobsen flaky sea salt Note: Salt varies significantly between brands. If you use a different type, go by weight or take a look at my comparison chart in the Sauerkraut post.

Instructions

Mix the ingredients together and apply evenly to the pork, then refrigerate. Doing this the evening before is preferable. Salt is the main ingredient working the night shift, but I see no harm in putting everything on early so the flavors can marry.

Newsletter

Subscribe at the bottom of this page for the Chic Eats roundup. It includes new and updated recipes along with a grab bag of unique content that was interesting enough to share around the dinner table.