Rebel Badass BBQ Sauces and Rubs: A Review
A look at Rebel Badass BBQ sauces and rubs, from classic barbecue flavours to unexpected combinations (and how they perform over live fire).
If there’s one thing that any barbecue person (or cook) knows, it’s that there’s no shortage of barbecue sauces and rubs from which to choose. Every now and then, though, I come across a lineup that offers something genuinely different and that’s worth talking about.
That was my first impression of Rebel Badass BBQ, a Southern Alberta company making a range of sauces, rubs and seasonings with a definite point of view. The lineup moves beyond the standard sweet-and-smoky barbecue sauces you usually find, with flavours ranging from classics like Carolina-style mustard sauce to blueberry, roasted pineapple and even root beer.
According to Rebel, its sauces are gluten free and celiac safe, with no preservatives and no high fructose corn syrup. Rebel sauces are also different than most because they avoid heavy commercial thickening gums, starches, or excessive use of paste-like tomato purees.
The result is a much thinner barbecue sauce. It’s worth noting this up front if you’re accustomed to a thicker sauce that pours slowly and sits in place on top of chicken, ribs or a burger.
For me, however, after using these sauces for a few weeks on several dishes, the thinner consistency turned out to be one of the more interesting things about the lineup. I’ll get to the rubs in a moment, but let’s talk about the sauces first.
A Sauce Lineup with Personality
I tested several of the Rebel Badass sauces, including The OG, Gold Digger, Sticky Fingers, Monkey Junk, Sweet N' Spiked, Blueberry Bandit and Bon-Fire.
There is a good range of flavour profiles here – definitely something for everyone. You have classic barbecue sauce territory covered with the Texas and Carolina sauces, but there are also some flavours that are a little more adventurous.
The thinner consistency makes these sauces useful in ways beyond brushing them as a glaze at the end of a cook, or pouring them onto your plate for dipping. I found that with the sauces being thinner by design, they work best when layered onto the protein as a mop or light glaze, or poured in restraint on your plate. I also found that one of the benefits of the thinner sauce is that it can work very well as part of a spritz.
That versatility is something I appreciate. A barbecue sauce doesn’t have to be a one-trick condiment.
All flavours are well balanced, and equally important, they actually taste like what the label says they are. That’s not always the case with flavoured barbecue sauces.
The Sticky Fingers sauce was one of the more memorable sauces I tested. It is infused with root beer flavour, but it doesn’t come across as though someone simply poured root beer syrup into a barbecue sauce.
There is a recognizable root beer character underneath the traditional barbecue flavours, with vanilla and spice notes contributing to the overall profile. It’s subtle enough to remain a barbecue sauce, without the risk of becoming a novelty sauce that will sit in your fridge or cupboard. That balance is what makes it work.
If you like the old-school root beer and sarsaparilla flavours, this is definitely one of the more interesting bottles in the Rebel lineup. Rebel specifically positions it for things like chicken, ribs, wings and burnt ends. I liked this one on smoked ribs in particular.
The Sauces Taste “Fresh”
One of the comments I heard from a guest while testing these sauces was that they tasted “fresh” and “natural.” That was particularly noticeable when I served the Monkey Junk sauce with asador-style chicken. “Fresh” isn’t a common description of bottled sauces, so I thought it was worth noting here.
I think that that perception is one of the strengths of the lineup. The sauces don’t have the heavy, overly processed character that you sometimes get from mass-market barbecue sauces.
That doesn’t mean they’re minimalist sauces either: there’s plenty going on in the flavour profiles. It’s more that the flavours tend to be identifiable and don’t get buried under a thick layer of sweetness.
The Rubs Hold their Own
Let’s not forget the rubs, which I really found to be quite good across the board. The Rebel Badass rub lineup is equally as interesting as the sauces and they performed very well across a range of live-fire cooks (and some indoor kitchen meals I cooked as well).
The lineup includes Rebel Rub, Jerk Ur Meat, Ragin Cajun, Sneaky Pete, Rebel Fiesta and Rebel Seasoning Salt, with the rubs and seasonings described by the company as gluten free.
By the way, if you notice that there are no “High In” labels on the packaging (as in High in Salt, or High in Sugar) Rebel noted that that’s because their products fall below the thresholds that demand those labels, so it’s an important point to note.
The Rebel Rub, the company's signature all-purpose rub, is the one I reached for most often. The Ragin Cajun was another favourite, with a nice little kick to it. Another favourite is the Sneaky Pete steak rub. Don’t just use it on steak, as it also turns an everyday burger (including turkey burgers and plant-based) into a culinary taste sensation that your guests will notice. A very versatile rub in its own right.
I put the Rebel Rub liberally on a spatchcocked Asador chicken, which I cooked on an iron cross over hardwood coals for about an hour. I used oil as the binder for the original rub coating pre-cook, then I also brushed a mixture of oil and the rub onto the chicken at several points during the cook.
It worked out very well.
The rub gave the chicken a nicely seasoned, roast chicken flavour without overpowering the meat. It also held up well over the length of the cook without burning or disappearing into the background.
That last point matters to me with a rub. A blend can taste great when you sample it from your hand, but perform very differently (or even get completely lost) once it spends an hour over live fire.
The Rebel Rub made the transition from the spice package to the finished chicken without losing its character. I am looking forward to continuing my experimentation with the Rebel Badass rubs and you can follow along on my Instagram feed to see more.
A Different Kind of Barbecue Sauce
What I find most interesting about Rebel Badass BBQ isn’t any one particular sauce or rub, it’s their overall approach.
There’s something here for the traditional barbecue cook, with sauces like The OG, a smoky Texas-style sauce, and Gold Digger, a South Carolina-style sauce. But then you can move into more uncommon territory with Blueberry Bandit, Bon-Fire, Sticky Fingers and Sweet N' Spiked.
That makes the lineup more useful than a collection of slightly different versions of the same sweet barbecue sauce.
The thinner sauces do require a slightly different approach to your cook. I wouldn’t treat them the same way you treat a thick commercial sauce, where you slather a heavy coating and call it done. They work better when layered onto the protein (or even grilled veggies in a basket), or used with a little restraint.
As noted earlier, I also found the thinner consistency particularly useful as part of a spritz. When smoking ribs, a thinner barbecue sauce as part of a spritz can add flavour and moisture without creating the thick, sugary coating that can dominate the outside of the meat. This gives you more flexibility to get a sauce flavour and then add sweetness or charred bark with brown sugar or something similar.
For a cook who likes to experiment, things like this open up some possibilities.
The Bottom Line on Rebel Badass BBQ Sauces and Rubs
There are a lot of barbecue sauces and rubs out there, but Rebel Badass BBQ sauces and rubs are unique in that they made me stop to think about how I could use them differently.
That’s a good and rare thing for any cook (live fire or otherwise).
The combination of interesting flavour profiles, a fresher-tasting sauce and a thinner consistency makes the lineup different than what you typically find on the barbecue sauce shelf. The rubs are equally capable, and the complete line-up is becoming a go-to in my live-fire pantry.
If you like to try new rubs and sauces, the Rebel Badass BBQ lineup is definitely worth exploring. Some of these bottles are different enough that they could give you another tool to work with the next time you fire up the grill.
Visit the Rebel Badass BBQ website to order online or find where they are available in retail locations.
By Mike Belobradic, founder of the Northern Barbecue™ Method of live-fire cooking.
Disclosure: Rebel Badass BBQ provided me with products for tasting and review. I was not paid for this review, and the opinions and observations above are my own.