- Chef Eric
Weekend Meal Inspiration - Fall-off-the-bone, messy hands, slow cooked want-more ribs
Updated: Apr 17
We've got two ways to cook ribs that will both produce amazing, tender, fall-off-the-bone ribs. Start your smoker or your slow cooker...and sing with me "I want my babyback-babyback-babyback riiiiiiiiiiibs...
Eric’s Smoked Ribs
These ribs are super easy, and consistently delicious. A few simple steps to keep in mind, and the results are well worth the effort. This is a version of the classic 3-2-1 system for smoking ribs.
Ingredients:
2 racks baby back ribs
Township 27 Cluck n Squeal, Death By Pork, Big Meat, Viking Jerk – your choice
Township 27 Maple Spice Barbeque Sauce
¼ cup brown sugar
4 tbs. butter
T tbs agave syrup (or maple syrup)
(you can jazz these up by adding ¼ cup bourbon or scotch or whiskey to the butter, brown sugar, and agave syrup!)
Directions:
The day before smoking the ribs, remove the silverskin membrane from the back of the ribs. This allows the rub to penetrate and marinade the ribs completely. This is very important. Insert a small strong knife between the membrane and the bone rack, this should loosen the membrane enough to pull it away from the rack. Do this for both racks.
Season the ribs all over with the rub – be generous. Wrap the ribs in plastic and let sit in the fridge to marinade over night.
About 1 to 1 ½ hours ahead of smoking, remove the ribs from the fridge to the counter. Unwrap and let sit to come to room temperature.
Start the smoker, set to 225 degrees and if the smoker has a super smoke setting, turn that on. When the smoker reaches temperature, place the rib racks, bone side down and smoke for 3 hours.
Once the 3 hours are up, remove the ribs from the smoker and set aside. Turn the smoker up to 250 degrees. This will shut off the super smoke setting.
Prepare the brown sugar braising liquid. Melt the butter, and mix the brown sugar, syrup, and butter together. Keep warm but not hot.
Place 2 layers of aluminum foil on the counter, we seam 2 sheets together to make one layer so the liquid doesn’t escape, so 4 pieces of foil will be required for the double layer for one rack of ribs.
Place the braising liquid on the aluminum foil and then the rack of ribs, meat side down into the liquid. Wrap tightly. Do the same for the second rack of ribs.
Return the wrapped ribs to the smoker, meat side down for another 2 hours. Check temperature after 2 hours, should be around 205 degrees.
Remove the wrapped ribs from the smoker, turn the heat back down to 225 degrees, unwrap and place the ribs bone side down on the grille. Smoke for 45 minutes or so, basting with barbeque sauce every 15 minutes. Remove from the smoker and let rest for 15 minutes. Slice up and enjoy!
Heather’s Slow Cooked Ribs
These are more of a -set-it-and-forget-it for when you are running around all day!
Ingredients:
Baby back ribs, how ever many racks you need!
Spice rub – our favorite for ribs is Cluck ‘n Squeal
1 can of beer – dark or light
BBQ sauce – our favorite for ribs is Plastered Peach
Optional – a few drops of liquids smoke added to the beer or sprinkle some hickory smoke powder in with your rub to add some smoke flavor to your ribs.
Directions:
Remove the membrane from the ribs for better flavor and texture. For a guide to help you out check out this YouTube video. It is quick and easy and makes for much better ribs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_fqJcc4n_I
Preheat the oven to 250° F
Generously rub the ribs with a spice rub or blend and let sit for about 20min or until the oven is ready.
Pour the beer into the bottom of the pan. Do not pour over the ribs as it will wash the rub off the meat.
Cover with foil, put into the oven and ignore for 3-4 hours. Go to a movie, read a book, take the kids to hockey – just ignore the ribs and leave them alone. You could also leave them in a slow cooker all day.
Remove the ribs, discard any liquid left in the bottom of the pan. Preheat a grill to medium and add the ribs, meat side up. Generously brush the ribs with bbq sauce and leave for 2-3 minutes. Flip over for another 2-3 minutes, remove and serve. If you don’t feel like heating up the bbq, use your broiler on 450° F for the same results, keeping an eye to not burn the bbq sauce.
