Today, I decided not to use a commercial rub, but went back to using (and modifying) my custom rub. For this particular rub, I used the following:-

2 tablespoons sugar brown
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon sea salt
3 teaspoon paprika
2 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon chilli flakes

At 3:40pm, I fired up the pit and about 20 minutes later, the chicken went on with a rangehood temperature of 250F. 15 minutes after that, it started to rain. It was only spitting, but still, so I setup the bricks on top with my umbrella covering the BBQ. The rain had started to make it a miserable, cold and windy day. It was so windy that it blew my umbrella over and the bricks. One of those bricks landed freakily on my tongs and split them in half. I couldn't believe that it landed on the one part of the tongs that was plastic. I'll have to get some new ones now.

At 5:45pm, the chicken looked and smelled great and had an internal temperature of 80C. Roughly 30 minutes, later and it was cooked to perfection and taken off to rest. It had an awesome taste with a sweet and mild spice front end and a herby back end. I think I'm definitely on to something with this rub. I do have to work on my veggies though, as I ruined some carrots with honey that, sadly, got burnt.

It's days like today where I definitely remember and honour my mother who passed away last year. She never got to see me get into BBQ smoking which is a shame, I think she would have loved it and been very supportive the only way a mother can.

We'd been to breakfast this morning at the Glen Hotel which was nice and packed. Glad we got there early. We then went to Blake's first soccer training and then home to start marinating the chicken with Stubbs Rub. Still loving the herby flavour profile this commercial rub delivers.

I used some fresh mesquite pellets for this cook as I wanted a strong smoke flavour to go with the rub. Plus I think in addicted to mesquite :)

At 4:18pm, the pit went on with an internal temperature of 9°C and the rangehood sitting just under 300°F. An hour later, I added the veggies. This time I did some carrots drizzled with honey and sweet potato wrapped in alfoil with a sprig of rosemary, butter and salt.

At 6:18pm, everything came off to rest and was pretty soon ready to eat. The sweet potatoes were off the hook. Fluffy buttery rosemary flavour goodness. The carrots turned out awful though. I'm really going to have to work on those. Truth be told I don't put a lot of effort into those. However, the rest of the meal was cooked to perfection. I guess that's what it tastes like when you cook with love.