There are a lot of rib recipes out there on the internet, and a shit ton of how-to tutorials on Youtube claiming that they have the best ribs on the planet. This is not a recipe for the greatest ribs in the world, but a tribute to the greatest ribs in the world. (Tenacious D pun intended.)
Were going to keep it simple with this recipe. If you follow the process, my goal is for you to crank out some tender, fall off the bone ribs that are sweet with a little heat on the back end.
For this recipe, lets go with St. Louis spareribs. Take it out of the pack and pat the rib down with a paper towel. You want to remove as much moisture on the front and back so that you have a nice surface for your seasoning to adhere to the meat. Before we can get to rubbing the meat down, lets trim it up a bit. If you have little pieces of fat or meat hanging off, now is a good time to remove it. Once it is trimmed up, then turn your attention to the back of the ribs where your can see the membrane. We usually remove the membrane when we smoke ribs for competition, but when I’m in the backyard I leave it on. You can take a fork and poke the membrane a few times in between the bones to help break up the membrane.
Time to rub the meat. There are a lot of great rib or pork rubs on the market these days. Use your favorite. I would suggest you look at the ingredients in the rub you are using. If it is loaded with a lot of sugar, then I would go light on it. You will run the risk of over caramelizing and burning your ribs. Trust me we are going to add a lot of sweetness at the end. We love using Jess Pryles Hardcore Carnivore Red rub. Its great by itself, but of course we must kick it up a notch. We love using Tony’s Chachere’s, Lowery’s season salt, or your favorite SPG as a base layer. Then layered with HC Red rub.
We smoke the ribs using the 2 & 2 method, which is 2 hours smoked and 2 hours wrapped at 275 degrees. **Warning** these ribs are going to be fall off the bone. That’s how we like it. If you find they are too done for your liking, then back up off the wrap time. Two hours in and you should be seeing the meat starting to pull back off the bones and that a good tell that its time to wrap the meat. You want to add a little butter, brown sugar and honey to the foil. Place the ribs bone side down on top of the butter sugar mixture and repeat the process on top of the rib. Close it up and add it back to the smoker and cook for another 2 hours.
Take your favorite BBQ sauce and pour it in a saucepan and warm it up. To the sauce pan you will add a ¼ cup of brown sugar, a little more honey, and few dashes of you favorite hot sauce. You want to warm it up slowly to make sure you dissolve the sugar and not burn it. Pull your ribs off the smoker when you reach the two-hour mark of it being wrapped. Open the foil carefully and try not to burn yourself when you open the foil. Add your sauce to the ribs and let it set up while meat cool down. Let it rest for 10-15 mins before you start tearing into it.
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James Moore