What are your go to rubs either home made or store bought for:
Pork
Chicken
Brisket and anything else that might need a good rubbin.

Here is the recipe that I came up with when I was on the Food Network. In reality, I don't actually measure, I eyeball it to the amounts that I think are right, and then I taste it and adjust accordingly. For ribs, I use a little more brown sugar. I usually add garlic salt, and red pepper flakes as well.

½ cup paprika, ½ cup brown sugar, 2tbs garlic powder, 2 tbs onion powder, 2 tbs seasoned salt, 2 tbs pepper, 2 tbs cayenne, 1 tbs cumin, 1 tbs allspice

Meat church Holy Voodoo and Kosmo hot dirty bird are my go to's for chicken.

Chupacabra Cluckalicious for chicken.

Kosmos Q Honey Killer Bee for pork.

Brisket is always just 16 mesh pepper and diamond crystal kosher salt. Chicken on my smoker is usually S&P when I'm cooking for an event. Pork ribs are usually S&P as well. Pork butts get a mix of 50/50 S&P with smaller amounts of paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, some chili powder and mustard powder. Kind of the Aaron Franklin style rub, at least that's where I got it initially.

Salt and pepper sometimes garlic. My family likes chupacabra ribnoxious on ribs, I can’t complain about it either.

Meat church for anything and everything! Holy cow is great on beef, texas sugar and holy voodoo for chicken and honey hog/honey hog hot for pork. For veggies etc we use the holy gospel bbq rub or the all purpose seasoning.

Have you tried the Texas Sugar yet?

Oh yeah it's my go to chicken rub now! Whats funny is Matt Pittman said that the Texas Sugar rub has less sugar than any of the other rubs, he just liked the name.

Steak. Brisket and Rib rub from Janak's grocery in Halletsville Texas in combo with my homemade Jalapeno Rub.
Burgers. Same
Chicken. Sucklebusters Clucker Dust and Chef Merito Pollo if going Mex.
Pork and Ribs. Sucklebusters Hog Waller and a touch of the Halletsville.

I just did my first brisket -- a small one -- on my Traeger and used this rub from Meathead Goldwyn at Amazing Ribs. I love the guy. He barbecues pork wearing a yarmulka.
It was just excellent. You salt your meat with kosher an hour before you apply this rub, which contains no salt. I smeared a light coat of yellow mustard on the beef to give the rub something to adhere to. Very, very pleased with the result. Spritzed with a "mop" of 1 cup Coke, 1/8 cider vinegar, 1 TBSP Worcestershire.

https://amazingribs.com/tested-recipes/spice-rubs-and-pastes/big-bad-beef-rub-recipe/

These are my go to for quick:

Ribs, Pork Butt, Tenderloins: Sucklebusters Texas Pecan
Chicken: Ralph's Spices Fajita Lime Seasoning
Brisket: Head Country and/or Pit Barrel Cooker Beef and Game

Ribs or pork shoulder- Rib Tickler/Brown sugar. 3/1
Chicken-Fiesta fancy chicken.
Brisket or Beef ribs-Chupacabra Brisket Magic.

Meat Church is primary in my pantry. Holy Cow, Gospel, Vudoo, honey

Aaron Franklin doesn't use just salt and pepper. No one does. That old tale needs to die.

My go to for brisket or steak is below. That's not quite the ratios I use but you can adjust to your flavor profile.

2 tablespoon ground dark roast or espresso coffee
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon Sweet Hungarian Paprika
1 tablespoon Diamond Crystal salt
1 tablespoon cracked black pepper
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cayenne

Definitely not a true statement. Plenty of places just use S&P, or S&P and some lawrys. I was also referring to Aaron Franklin when I mentioned the pork butt seasoning I use 👍

Brown sugar and coffee on brisket or steak? No thanks 🤮

Fair. I take the browns sugar out for steak. And I only use it on other than prime cut steaks. If I buy a nice steak it's just salt.

Also, name the places that use just salt and pepper. Name a place widely regarded as having great BBQ and uses only salt and pepper. And don't throw in "They use salt and pepper and some Lawry's" Lawry's has all kinds of crap in it. You know something funny? Look at the second ingredient in Lawry's. It's sugar lol

While I know Aaron Franklin uses some other stuff on his briskets now, I know for a fact he used only S&P for many years while operating out of his little trailer (before he got the restaurant). Also, the brisket rub he sells online is strictly salt and pepper

Here's an article from Texas monthly written by the guy that reviews top BBQ in Texas and has for years. Several of the restaurants listed below are using only salt and pepper, including Snows, LeRoy and Lewis, and Evie Mae's. Not trying to be argumentative, but I think this guy knows better than both of us considering he's interviewed the owners of these establishments 👍

https://www.texasmonthly.com/bbq/seasoning-worst-kept-secret-texas-barbecue/

I'm not convinced Franklin used it for years. I've heard people that worked with him back in the day say Lawry's was a long time staple. Maybe he did when he started and it was just him the first couple of years. Evie Mae's uses pickle juice which has different herbs plus salt so I wouldn't throw it into the salt and pepper only category. So two of the top 10 places in Texas use S&P only. That's not "Plenty of places" in my book. But I really doubted there would be any. Maybe you find it interesting that 6 out of the top 10 are putting sugar on their brisket in the form of Lawry's? None use coffee. But everyone seems to love my brisket. You would be surprised by the mellow taste after hours of smoking the coffee lends to the bark. For the record, Snow's brisket is extremely over rated. I've never had LeRoy and Lewis.

In regards to pickle juice, I was separating a binder from a rub. Pickle juice isn't adding significant flavor to a brisket unless it's being brined in pickle juice for hours. I also wasn't talking about Texas BBQ only. I just saw that article a while back and remembered it. I've eaten at quite a few places that advertise S&P only on their brisket in particular, not all were in Texas but most of them were operated by Texans.

I'm curious how much sugar by volume is in Lawrys. It never tasted all that sweet to me. And yes, I do know that ingredients are listed in the order they are in based on how much is in them. But a dusting of lawrys likely isn't putting a significant amount of sugar on a large piece of meat that is going to make it taste sweet at all. Just my 2 cents.

Some brown sugar in the rub helps develop the bark. You can't taste sugar once it's broken down by heat and smoke...unless you use a ton of sugar. Most rubs have at least some sugar.

Well I would assume they go through the trouble of using pickle juice because it does add flavor. Like you said we should listen to the guy that wrote the article and he separated the one that used pickle juice away from the two S&P only ones. I have never seen S&P out of Texas unless they were trying to emulate "Texas Style BBQ" and I've been to a lot of them. I travel a lot for work and I've tried quite a few.

I looked at some copycat recipes for Lawrys and it seems to be about the same amount that's in mine. If not a little more sugar in Lawry's. But of course it isn't sweet. Think about it man. If you remove the sugar from my recipe it leaves you with over half a cup of seasonings. A tablespoon of sugar in over half a cup of isn't going to make it sweet. My brisket isn't sweet at all. Or coffee flavored for that matter.

Lawry's Copy Cat

1⁄3 cup fine salt (Morton Popcorn Salt)
3 1⁄2 teaspoons superfine sugar
1 1⁄2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 1⁄2 tablespoons celery salt
1 tablespoon paprika
1 1⁄2 teaspoons onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1⁄8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

I've never had trouble developing bark with all my sugar free rubs. My briskets are jet black and have a great bark. Sure you can tweak things to help develop a bark if needed. I just don't have that need and prefer sugar free rubs.

Post up a picture of your brisket. The one in your post history isn't doing your story any favors. The bark looks thin and soft. I'm sure your brisket is really good. Anyone that smoked a lot of brisket knows the difference between a good brisket and a great one is all of the little tweaks. When you say "Sure you can tweak things if needed. I just don't have that need" it just shows you haven't done it long enough. You do have that need. You just haven't realized it yet.

All bark gets pretty soft when they rest for 10-12 hours.