How to Cook Amazing Smoked Barbecue Ribs
Dry, tough, tasteless barbecued ribs, we've all had them. Lots of people try to cook barbecue ribs only to give up, leaving it to the so called 'Pit Masters' The key to making great barbecue ribs is to apply the three important principles to the process; flavorize, tenderize, and moisturize. Follow the steps below and you too can cook amazing barbecue ribs every time.
- Difficulty:
- Moderately Easy
Instructions
Things You'll Need
- Rack of spareribs, 3-4 pounds
- Rub of your choice, low sugar content!
- Yellow mustard
- Aluminum foil
- Smoker or oven
- Wood chips or chunks, flavor of your choice
- Apple juice in a spray bottle
- BBQ sauce, flavor of your choice
- Good, accurate thermometer
- butter knife and other bbq utensels
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1
Choose a great rack of spareribs. Select a rack of ribs with some fat covering, not too much though. Also, pick the rack up and hold it by the end of the packaging to see how much it bends. The more it bends, the more tender it will be, and our goal is tender barbecued ribs.
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2
Remove the membrane. Lay the rack down with the bone side up. Start at the 2nd rib on the short end with a butter knife. Slide the butter knife under the membrane and gently lift towards the close end. Once you have a good amount up grab with a paper towel and gently lift away. With practice you should be able to get almost all of it in one pull. This is an important step if you want tender, flavorful ribs. After removing the membrane trim off any excessive fat. Remember as the fat breaks down it will add moisture so don't remove it all! This is a key step if you want to cook great barbecue ribs.
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3
Apply some barbecue rub. use your favorite, just try to find one low in sugar. If the rub has a high sugar content it might burn during the long cooking process. Rub the rack down with some yellow mustard, this will make the rub stick to the ribs and not fall off during the cooking process. Don't worry, you wont taste the mustard. Apply a generous amount of barbecue rub to the rack and rub it in good with your hands, it is called 'rub' after all. Flavorful barbecued ribs are what we're looking for!
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4
Put the rack in the fridge for a few hours or overnight. This will allow the rub to work it's way into the meat. The salt in the rub will pull moisture and proteins to the surface and make a great 'bark' during cooking. Also, a chilled rack of ribs will absorb more smoke flavor and have a deeper smoke ring. We are making smoked ribs here.
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5
Prepare the smoker. Get your smoker of choice, i've linked my personal favorite below, or your oven up to 225 degrees. Make sure confirm the temperature with a thermometer. Add the wood chips of your choice now. If you're using your oven DON'T add wood.
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6
Put the rack in the smoker meat side up and close the door or lid. Barbecue is NOT a spectator sport, walk away and leave it alone!
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7
Flip the rack every 45 minutes and spray with apple juice at that time, this will keep the surface of the ribs moist. Cook for about 2 1/2 hours.
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8
After about 2 1/2 hours you'll want to foil the ribs. Remove the rack and wrap it in aluminum foil, you can add a little barbecue sauce and/or apple juice to the foil pack for even more flavor at this time. This is an important step, foiling will make the rack juicy and tender.
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9
After about an hour open the pack and check for tenderness, slide a fork between two ribs and pull out, if the rack wants to come along for the ride then it's not done, go for another 20 minutes and check again. You want some resistance but not too much, there's still some more cook time left.
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10
Once the ribs pass the pull test unfoil them and place back in the smoker, it isn't necessary to have the smoke going anymore. Crank up the heat to about 300 degrees and sauce the ribs. In 15 minutes flip and sauce the ribs again. You can do this step on a grill if you have one available. Watch the temperature though!
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11
After two saucings remove the rack and enjoy your barbecue ribs!
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1
Tips & Warnings
Choose a tender rack of spareribs with some fat covering
Remove the membrane!
Monitor the cooking temperature often, especially if you are using a charcoal smoker
Use a BBQ rub that's low in sugar
Check the ribs while foiled as they get tender real fast!
