Sooner,
let me start by saying
Jeff's rub is just fantastic. the first time i ever smoked anything, i used it and i have tried many variations and different recipes but
Jeff's rub always welcomes the prodigal son back when i am ready to do things right.
if you add jalapeno or green chile powder to jeff's base rub it works great. My brother lives in albuquerque and so i get a steady supply of their delicious chile powders. have added both red and green to
jeff's rub as well as rubbing some of the juice from the jalapeno jar on the meat directly and then applying a coating of Jeff's. You sound like me - the spicier the better - but you know, if your grandma is going to be eating, you obviously dont want to make it too hot. You can substitute the hot ingredient in
Jeff's rub (I'm a lawyer and don't want to play around with revealing his copyrighted secrets!) with jalapeno or other spicier green chile powder or you can keep Jeff's and add a little to it. I would say his rub is between mild and medium, towards mild, and it won't take much tweaking to bring it up to medium/hot.
Good luck and if it's not perfect the first time you play with it...what better excuse to smoke again!!!
PS - one day i made a brisket for a family at church who heard i was a bbqer and brought me a packer to cook for them. I used Jeffs rub exactly, and was in the process of making his sauce to go with it. Unfortunately for me, the shaker top to my bottle of the spicy stuff had been removed only minutes before so i could get the measuring spoon in there and i dumped wayyyyy too much in the saucepot. I mean a dusty layer of it on top of the cooking sauce, and i tried to remove it best i could but it ended up being much spicier than normal. To make a long story short, it was great! The point being, both jeff's rub and sauce are delicious at higher degrees of heat.
Another great use of Jeff's rub - and i HIGHLY recommend giving this a try - take a few pounds of sweet potatoes and make mashed potatoes. (I smoke mine for an hour with pecan at 225, finish baking foiled in the oven at 300, then run through a ricer, and add butter and milk, but just make them however you're comfortable) When you have your finished sweet mashed potatoes, stir in some heaping tablespoons of Jeff's dry rub. DELICIOUS! Fact of the matter is i am eating some as i type. If you'll excuse me...