Hello Again,
Well I had such good luck with my pulled pork that I decided to try some spare ribs this past weekend. Like my pulled pork, the ribs turned out amazing. Just wanted to share my experience with everyone.
I started off with purchasing two racks of spare ribs, in one pack, from my local Hyvee. I think the price was about $14. I don't think they were the best quality ribs I could buy, but heck, they still tasted really good. I planned on smoking the ribs for Sunday dinner. So Saturday night I got started. I got the ribs out of the pack and proceeded to remove the membrane, extra fat, and other misc parts. Here is a pic of the ribs before I put on the rub.
The next step was the rub. There were so many great ideas out there it was hard to choose which one I should do. I ended up going with a pretty basic rub. Technically I think it is a Kansas City rub. Here is what I used.
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup paprika
1 T black pepper
1 T salt
1 T chili powder
1 T garlic powder
1 T onion powder
1 t cayenne
And now for a pic with the rub. I went pretty light with this rub, didn't want to overpower it. I put a little on the bone side, but mostly put it on the meat side.
I then put the ribs in the fridge to let them sit overnight. I wanted the ribs for dinner on Sunday so I wanted to start them at about noon. I decided to try the 3-2-1 method since it seemed the best place to start. I set my Lil Tex Elite to 225* and put the ribs on.
After about 2.5 hours at 225* I started to get my foiling juice ready. For that I went with Chef JimmyJ's KC foiling juice recipe.
1T Pork Rub, yours
1/2 Stick Butter
1/2C Cane Syrup... Dark Corn Syrup...or Honey
1/4C Apple Cider...or Juice
1T Molasses
2T Vinegar
2T Mustard
1/4C Ketchup
After 3 hours I pulled the ribs out and foiled them. Here is a pic after 3 hours.
View media item 235476
Let them be in the foil for about 2 hours and pulled them off. Opened them up and to my suprise they were really falling off the bone. So I did my best to put them back on the smoker so I could put my sauce on. I went with some Grandma Foster's BBQ sauce, which is my favorite store bought BBQ sauce right now. I didn't leave them on very long since they were already done. Took them off and plated them. Here is a pic of the finished product.
As I said before these turned out amazing. They were completely falling off the bone and pretty moist. If anything they might have been a little over done, but nothing bad. I'm still learning the temps of Lil Tex, but after a few smokes it is safe to say that it cooks 5*-10* higher in the chamber. Just something I need to think about in the future. I will probably do a 2.5-1.5-45min next time for ribs and see how that goes. But for my first time smoking ribs I couldn't have asked for a better experience.
View media item 235474
Well I had such good luck with my pulled pork that I decided to try some spare ribs this past weekend. Like my pulled pork, the ribs turned out amazing. Just wanted to share my experience with everyone.
I started off with purchasing two racks of spare ribs, in one pack, from my local Hyvee. I think the price was about $14. I don't think they were the best quality ribs I could buy, but heck, they still tasted really good. I planned on smoking the ribs for Sunday dinner. So Saturday night I got started. I got the ribs out of the pack and proceeded to remove the membrane, extra fat, and other misc parts. Here is a pic of the ribs before I put on the rub.
The next step was the rub. There were so many great ideas out there it was hard to choose which one I should do. I ended up going with a pretty basic rub. Technically I think it is a Kansas City rub. Here is what I used.
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup paprika
1 T black pepper
1 T salt
1 T chili powder
1 T garlic powder
1 T onion powder
1 t cayenne
And now for a pic with the rub. I went pretty light with this rub, didn't want to overpower it. I put a little on the bone side, but mostly put it on the meat side.
I then put the ribs in the fridge to let them sit overnight. I wanted the ribs for dinner on Sunday so I wanted to start them at about noon. I decided to try the 3-2-1 method since it seemed the best place to start. I set my Lil Tex Elite to 225* and put the ribs on.
After about 2.5 hours at 225* I started to get my foiling juice ready. For that I went with Chef JimmyJ's KC foiling juice recipe.
1T Pork Rub, yours
1/2 Stick Butter
1/2C Cane Syrup... Dark Corn Syrup...or Honey
1/4C Apple Cider...or Juice
1T Molasses
2T Vinegar
2T Mustard
1/4C Ketchup
After 3 hours I pulled the ribs out and foiled them. Here is a pic after 3 hours.
View media item 235476
Let them be in the foil for about 2 hours and pulled them off. Opened them up and to my suprise they were really falling off the bone. So I did my best to put them back on the smoker so I could put my sauce on. I went with some Grandma Foster's BBQ sauce, which is my favorite store bought BBQ sauce right now. I didn't leave them on very long since they were already done. Took them off and plated them. Here is a pic of the finished product.
As I said before these turned out amazing. They were completely falling off the bone and pretty moist. If anything they might have been a little over done, but nothing bad. I'm still learning the temps of Lil Tex, but after a few smokes it is safe to say that it cooks 5*-10* higher in the chamber. Just something I need to think about in the future. I will probably do a 2.5-1.5-45min next time for ribs and see how that goes. But for my first time smoking ribs I couldn't have asked for a better experience.
View media item 235474
