Smoked Baby Back Pork Ribs
This Labor Day Weekend I decided to fire up my smoker and have another attempt at smoking baby back ribs. This was my third time trying to cook them. They finally came out just the way I envisioned and my guests and I were extremely satisfied with the end results. I decided to post what I did on here for others to see in case they wanted a little guidance. If you have any questions that aren't answered on here feel free to ask me in the store any time, or you can reach us on the phone while we are open at 757-547-2161. I will do my best to answer any questions you have.
I don't claim to be an expert smoker. I've only had a smoker for about 4 months now and am doing a lot of learning myself. I figured I will start to post these blogs/recipes onto our website to share my journey with everyone. My mistakes, what I figured out works for me, what doesn't work. So here is what I did below, I hope your baby back ribs turn out just as amazing as mine did.
Ingredients:
- 1 Slab of Pork Baby Back Ribs (They usually weigh 2-3 lbs. per slab)
- 1 Bottle of Lotta Bull BBQ Diamond Dust Rib Rub
- Chigger Creek Apple Wood Chunks or Chips (I used chunks)
- Charcoal
Preparation:
- Remove the Baby Back Ribs from the packaging and put them onto a cutting board, or any other clean surface that you want to work on.
- There is a thin silver lining underneath the baby back ribs that is called the membrane. It’s tough/chewy and doesn’t taste very good, so I remove this ahead of time. We can do this for you at our store if you don’t want to do it yourself, or you can just leave it on and eat around it when you go to eat the ribs. It’s not too hard to remove, once you get it started. It peels right off as long as you peel it nice and slowly, too fast and it will rip and make things a lot harder for you. You can grab a knife to help try to get the membrane to start to peel.
- Start to pour the Lotta Bull BBQ Diamond Dust Rib Rub onto the ribs. I use quite a bit, ended up using 1 whole bottle on 3 slabs of baby back ribs. I really focus on coating the entire rib, including the sides of them. I take my hand and rub it into the ribs, all over the sides/bottom of the ribs.
- After applying the rub, I put the ribs in the refrigerator and let them rest for 2 hours inside the fridge. You can let them sit in the fridge overnight if you wanted. It’s not going to hurt anything.
Cooking Method:
- Prepare your Smoker or whatever cooking device you are using. I use the weber Smokey mountain 22” smoker. It uses charcoal for fuel and wood chunks/chips can be added to the charcoal. I used Chigger Creek Apple Wood Chunks for the baby back ribs.
- I smoked the baby back ribs at 225-250 degrees F thru the entire process. It took the ribs about 5 hours total, to be done. Their final temperatures were around 180-190 degrees F. Typically ribs need to be cooked to 190-205 degrees F. However, I used the bend test on my ribs to check to see if they were done. What is the bend test? Here is a link for you: https://amazingribs.com/tested-recipes/pork-ribs-recipes/are-my-ribs-ready-yet
- I DID NOT wrap the baby back ribs in anything. I have done that in the past, wrapping them in aluminum foil and I don’t think I ever will again. I think it cooks the ribs to fast and they end up being tough and not as tender. Ribs need time to cook and work their magic. The lower and slower you cook them, the better they are going to be. Patience is key!
- 2 hours into the cook I did turn the ribs and then after about another 1 hour I turned them again. It helps to get a nice bark around the entire rib.
- Let the ribs rest for about 10-15 minutes before cutting. I added Head Country Original BBQ Sauce to my ribs. You can do that while they rest if you want. I added the sauce after I cut mine because some people don’t like tons of sauce on their ribs.
Pictures:
Recipe by Andrew Edmondson Backyard Smoker Enthusiast from Central Meats