Yes, you can use dry rubs to season food on your George Foreman grill! Although we’ve mentioned it in a few posts, we’ve had a few questions recently on whether dry rubs actually work on an indoor electric grill. While you might think that you can’t use them, because the dry ingredients would burn that close to the heat source, in truth, dry rubs come out looking great and tasting phenomenal from your George Forman grill.
Whether you want to make your favorite dry rub from scratch or simply purchase a premade rub to give you food that extra punch of flavor, both will work on your grill. Dry rubs are a great way to spice up a boring or bland meal. Premade rubs also particularly good on those busy weeknights when you’re trying to please your family’s palates with very limited time to cook.
While in the past, it might have been more difficult to find something premade without going to a specialty store, McCormick®* and a few other brands have just come out with new lines of premade rubs, so you don’t even have to mix. Just go to your local grocery store and find a rub or spice mix in the same aisle with the spices and herbs.
Unlike with marinades, dry rubs don’t need a lot of time for your food to soak in the flavors – in fact, you want to put the rub on your food just before you start to grill it for best results. This makes them perfect for quick meals on nights where you haven’t planned what you want to do.
When you’re doing the rub, don’t overcoat the food, because this can lead to the “charring” effect of the ingredients burning on the outside of your food instead of crusting nicely and cooking in. Basically, you just sprinkle the rub evenly over the entire surface of the food – including the edges – then press or “massage” in. The more the rub is pressed into the food, the more the flavors will penetrate the food. If you think you have too much of the rub in one area, you can shake or tap off the piece of food directly before you place it on the grill.