Steal Alton Brown's 8-3-1-1 BBQ Rule For Perfect Flavor, Every Time

Slow cooking the perfect ribs, whether you're using an oven-baked recipe with homemade sauce or cooking them in the smoker, can be intimidating. Thankfully, you can have fall-off-the-bone ribs with a little glaze, some aluminum foil, and the right-tasting barbecue rub. Brown sugar adds sweetness to the rub, chili adds spice, and salt brings out the flavor. According to Food Network chef Alton Brown, each of these elements is a crucial part of your dry rub — you just have to know the right amounts.

Brown has a trick: On an episode of his former Food Network show "Good Eats," he referred to his 8-3-1-1 barbecue rub rule. This means he uses eight parts light brown sugar, three parts kosher salt, and one part chili powder. That last "1" stands for one part additional seasonings, and this is where you get to freestyle. Add in one part of your favorite seasoning blend, as long as it meshes well with those other flavors. "It doesn't matter if we're dealing with grams, or tons, or bushels," Brown joked, "as long as it's the correct number of parts." This makes it easy to follow the dry rub formula and makes it adjustable depending on how many racks of ribs you're preparing.

There are a few tips to get this formula to produce the best possible flavor. When you measure the brown sugar, for example, Alton Brown advised packing it down to remove some of the air from when you scooped it in order to get the right amount. Brown also stressed chili powder is different from powdered chiles. Instead of just ground up chili peppers, chili powder is a mix that also has herbs and spices, the show noted, so it's important to use chili powder here.

The last part — the extra "1" — is your chance to add any other seasonings you want, as long as the sum of those seasonings doesn't add up to more than one part. Brown used a combination of black pepper, cayenne, jalapeño seasoning, Old Bay, dried thyme, and onion powder. The result is a spicy seasoning blend with a nice bite to it, which combines well with the sweetness of the brown sugar. Brown also noted the seasoning mixture will last for years, so you can prep this large amount ahead of time and have it ready any time you want to make ribs. If you're worried the seasoning blend won't stick to the ribs' surface well enough, try spreading some mustard on the ribs (just be sure to match your flavors) before the dry rub, which creates a binder.