How to BBQ the perfect Ribs

On Saturday when buying my favorite mozzarella cheese from Trader Joe’s I happened to see baby back pork ribs. The weather in Seattle has been/ always is awesome…but for this past Memorial Day weekend the weather was sick…so I knew I was grilling. I have never made ribs and on Saturday all my thoughts were about just buying them and I’ll figure out how to make them later.

FAST FORWARD…

Sunday! Ash and I headed to the Mariners game at 1pm. The entire game I was thinking…how the hell am I going to make the ribs. I knew I was going to BBQ. So while the Angels were beating the Mariners I was researching how to BBQ the perfect ribs. WOW WOW WOW! There are so many conflicting strategies/ techniques/ criticisms…from boiling before grilling to smoking for 6 hours! Hell no! I am not waiting 6 hours to cook ribs and boiling just sounds nasty. I DID ALL THE HARD WORK FOR YOU…ALL YOU NEED TO DO NOW IS BUY YOUR RIBS AND FOLLOW THE BELLOW (read once all the way through..then go for it)…

TOTAL COOKING TIME: 2 hours

I bought 3 racks of baby back ribs for a total cost of about $40 ish dollars. This easily fed 2 women and 4 men. With all meats I do like dry rubs…for me they work. So for the ribs I used:

• Onion Powder
• Garlic Powder
• Salt
• the smallest pinch of truffle salt (just because)
• Smoked Red Pepper Sea Salt
• Montreal Steak Seasoning
• pinch of Curry
• Paprika
• Cayenne
• Mustard Seeds
• Dried Parsley Flakes
• Tarragon

Basically whatever you want in your dry rub.

I left the ribs out for just over 2 hours before grilling with the dry rub.

I set the gas grill to a low heat (250 to 300 degrees) and placed the ribs (concave side down) onto the front part of the grill…since that seems to be the lowest temperature on our grill (the back of the grill gets too hot as I learned on Saturday when grilling ALL-Star chicken).

Seriously leave the grill covered. No need to lift the lid…trust me I always like to check too…just pray…Psalm 91 seems to help 🙂

After 1 hour…(THANK YOU TO MY OLDER BROTHER)…who let me know about this technique.

Create a foil tray. You know the one with multiple sheets of foil, folded on all sides. Take the ribs off the grill and place onto a side tray for now. Place the foil tray on the grill. Now place the ribs onto the foil tray, which is now on the grill.

Take a cup of ice cubes and place all around the ribs. Cover foil tray with a sheet of foil and close grill lid for 30 minutes. I believe this steams the hell out of the ribs making them just the way you want them…cooked one, juicy the next.

After 30 minutes…comes the fun part. You should be able to tell by this point if the ribs are done…some tale tale signs…you see the rib(s) poking out the side, the ribs seem to be tearing, they smell awesome…etc…

Ash prepared the BBQ sauce…so without further ado..Ash…

• Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ Sauce
• 4-5 Garlic Cloves, minced
• 1 Tbsp Olive Oil
• Cayenne Pepper, to taste (start off with a smaller amount and then taste)
• Black Pepper, to taste
• Salt, to taste (just a dash)
• Red Chili Flakes (again, taste as you go)
• 1-2 Tbsp Honey
• 2-3 Tbsp Orange Chipotle Butter (we made this in our Grilling Mastery class, regular butter will do)

Everyone has a preference on how they like their BBQ sauces.  We personally like sweet and spicy.

Just whipped this one up really quickly using Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ Sauce as the base.  First, heat the oil in a medium saucepan on medium low heat and add the garlic…let it cook down for a bit, stirring occasionally and then add the BBQ sauce, peppers, salt and chili flakes…make sure to taste test!  Then stir in the honey and then add the butter.  As soon as the butter has melted, remove from the heat and let it sit until you are ready to use it.

I AM BACK…

So on the foil tray start by flipping the ribs over concave side up (discard the foil lid) and brush on the BBQ sauce. Close grill lid for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, flip the ribs over and brush on the remaining BBQ sauce. Close BBQ lid for another 15 minutes.

Done! And you know it.