Smoked Ribs

I wanted to try smoking ribs for Father's day, yes the gift to myself was to spend a few hours making dinner. Sometimes a meal that takes awhile to prepare is a bit of a luxury for me so I appreciated the chance to do this. I picked up a full rack of Baby Back Ribs while I was out shopping. On Sunday Morning I put a spice rub on them and let them sit in the refrigerator for about 6 hours. The rub consisted of:

1 TBS Paprika
1 TBS Garlic Powder
1 TBS Cumin
1 TBS Cayenne Pepper
1 TBS Kosher Salt
1 TBS Fresh Cracked Pepper
2 TBS Brown Sugar







about 2 1/2 hours before I was ready to eat I started the grill I used a little less charcoal than I usually use to grill out. Once the coals were hot I pushed them to the sides of the grill and put a drip pan in the center so I could cook with indirect heat. I put a little water into the drip pan so it wouldn't burn too much. I had soaked a large handful of Mesquite woodchips in water for about an hour then put some (about a cup) of them on either side on top of the coals. I had cut the rack of ribs into 3 pieces and put them over the drip pan. Since I was slow cooking I could stack them as you see in the picture. I covered the grill for about 1/2 an hour while they were smoking I made a Mop sauce to put on the ribs as they continued to cook.

The Mop Sauce consisted of:
3/4 cup Cider Vinegar
1 TBS Dijon Mustard
1/2 tsp Salt

It couldn't be easier, after 1/2 hour I spread some sauce on the ribs then rearranged them so they would cook evenly added some wood chips to either side and covered again. If I wanted the grill a little hotter I would open the vents more to cool it some I would close them a little. After another 1/2 hour I set the Ribs on a plate for a minute while I added about 10 Charcoal Briquettes to each side of the grill and another couple of tongs full of wet wood chips. Put it all back together, spread the ribs with the Mop Sauce again and covered the grill for the last 1/2 hour of cooking. While they were sitting in the smoke filled grill for that time I prepared the Slaw (see the post below) as my side dish. I knew the ribs were done when the meat would pull from the bone easily and was tender to when poked with a fork



This made for a beautiful plate the slaw was a light and refreshing addition to the ribs that had a smokey depth to the them that was just wonderful.