BBQ season is upon us, so I decided it was time for some ribs at the weekend. As Blork mentioned a while ago, there are many techniques and “secret” recipes for the perfect BBQ ribs, but the generally accepted method is to cook them for a long time at a low temperature.
Of course, before you cook them you need to tenderize and flavour them a bit. I did that with a dry rub mix of paprika, chili powder, cayenne pepper, thyme, oregano and salt and pepper, rubbed into the meat the night before cooking.
The next day I took the ribs out of the fridge to come up to room temperature, then prepared the BBQ. I had some hickory chips left from when I made pulled pork last year so I threw them in an old tin with holes in and put them over the heat.
When the BBQ was stable at 300 degrees F. I put the ribs in on the side with the burner off and quickly closed the lid. 300 is a little hotter than I would like, but I only had a 3 hour cooking window. If I had the time I would do them at 200 for 5 hours.
I made a quick mopping sauce with apple cider vinegar, olive oil, water and pepper. You can add other flavourings if you like but I decided to let the rub do most of the flavouring. I mopped the ribs every 30 minutes.
After three hours the ribs were tender and delicious, but not quite falling off the bone. Slower and longer would’ve fixed that. I made a quick potato salad and a green salad to go with them. I’m having the leftovers for lunch today.
