Marks Apple Hickory BBQ Ribs from the grill.

So, if you know me. you know I’m no chef. BUT, I do like to grill. I have never really made ribs on the grill before, so this last monday (labor day) I set out to do just that. I figured, I would post how I did it, because one of my biggest pet peves, are when people post how-to’s for recipies, they always assume you know how to cook, and where to actually get everything. So, I provide links, and suggestions on where to do that. (not that it will help anyway..) its just a rib recipie for petes sake!

Ok, I have a gas grill. You know one of those Charmglow stainless steel ones from Home Depot. (this one to be exact. Nothing fancy. Just a boring ole gas grill.) I read all sorts of stuff on the internet about how you can’t really make good ribs on a gas grill, or how charcol is the *only* way to go. It sort of discouraged me. But, im here to tell you that you can make some very very very good ribs on a boring ole regular guy gas grill. Heres how.

First, you will need some supplies.
1 - Hickory Wood Chips (I used the weber firespice brand) but really anything will work. I bought mine at the local truevalue hardware store. (caspers). but, turns out, you can get em at amazon also. And they have a much lager collection. See this link. Here.

2 - A Smoker box (I used this one. Also bought at true value, but it was cheaper at amazon.com. Here.

3 - 1 Gallon of apple Cider. (from your local grocery store.) Brand doesn’t matter.

4 - 1 Bottle of Tobasco sauce. I used the regular ole boring tobasco.

5 - A Rib Stand for your grill. I used the weber brand one. But you can find many here on amazon.com.

6 - A gas grill with a pretty full tank.

7 - Alluminum foil.

8 - A spray bottle.

9 - Olive Oil (doesn’t matter what brand/type. I used extra virgin stuff from the local store).

10 - Some kind of small pan to hold some water/apple juice.

11 - The RIBS of course. I used a full slab of baby back pork ribs from the local store. I seriously think this would work with just about any type of ribs.. pork or beef. (im doing beef next time). But make sure they have the bones in them. (not boneless). And make sure you remove that membrane from the back of them before you cook them. (if you don’t it won’t hurt anything.. its just a little wierd.).

Ok, now that you/we have all that stuff. Heres what you do. Its pretty simple.

Take your woodchips, and put a few handfuls into some tupperware/medium sized bowl.
Next, poor enough water into the bowl with the woodchips so that they are mostly submerged. Then, take your apple cider and mix in about 2 cups full or so. Then, cover them, and let them soak for at least an hour. The goal here is to get the chips pretty soggy so that they will smolder when placed in the smoker on the grill.

At the same time as the chips. (or there abouts). Take our your ribs and and place them into some tupperware as well. then poor in a generous amount of apple cider and about 10-15 little dots of tobasco. Make sure you get the ribs nice and wet. Then cover em up and place them in the frige. The goal here is to let them marinate in the cider for at least an hour. (the longer the better, but remember you’re gonna wanna cook these ribs for a long time, so do this first thing in the morning, or the night before to make sure you get a good long marinade.).

Ok, Now you wait for everything to soak/marinate. Now is a good time to get everything else ready.

While we are waiting, take your spray bottle and fill it up about 3/4 the way with apple cider.
Next, add a few drops of tobasco to the mix. Then fill it up the rest of the way with olive oil. (note that I used a pretty small spray bottle.. not some huge thing. So, just be your own judge of how much to mix.) The goal here is to get a cider/oil/tobasco concoction that you can spray on your ribs while they are cooking.

Ok, next, lets get our grill ready. You want to cook these things really really really slowly to get the best flavor/tenderness. My grill has 3 burners on it. Left-Middle-Right. I turned the right burner on as low as it would go, and left the other two completely off. This let my grill heat up to only about 225F. This is the sweet spot. Anything much hotter than this and things start to dry out. 250F works as well.. just don’t get too hot.

Next, I took aluminum foil and covered the entire left side of my grill. This is going to be where the ribs are going to sit on their rack.

Next, My grill has one of those upper levels that always seem kind of useless. Up there, I took a very small square glass pan, and filled it up with apple cider. I then just sat it on that little shelf. This evaporated during the cooking process and really helped keep things moist. Once all this is in place, your grill is all set to go.

Now that’s all done, lets get back to our ribs/woodchips.

Take your woodchips our of your water/cider mix, and place them into your smoker box. (don’t worry, you don’t have to use them all.). Then place the smoker box on the right hand side of your grill over where the burner is running. Then just leave them there for the duration of your cooking. (this will provide in our case a hickory flavor that a traditional smoker would usually provide).

Now, its time for the ribs. Since I used a full slab, I cut the slab in half and stood each half slab up on the rib stand that I linked to previously. Now, take the stand/ribs out to your grill and sit them down on the left hand side opposite the burner thats running. Make sure they look comfortable, as they are going to spend the next 6 hours that way.. :).

After placing the ribs, take your spray bottle, and spary them down with your oil/cider/tobasco mixture.

now, for the next 6 hours we go into rib maintainance mode. Every 30-45 minutes go back out to your grill and spray down your ribs with your spray bottle mixture. Also, while there, make sure that the grill isn’t getting much hotter than 225F. Otherwise, its all for nought. Make sure you are diligent about the temperature and the spraying of the ribs, this is what makes them so darn good. (attention to the small details can make this better than you imagine).

Ok, in hour 5 or so, you can if you want to.. apply your favorite barbecue sauce with a brush. I did this with some sweet baby rays, about every 15 minutes or so in the 5th hour. It was pretty damn good.

Ok, now that your in your 6th hour, and the ribs look freaking awesome… go get em and eat!

(sorry for the long winded post about ribs.. they were just so damn good!)

Mark.

This entry was posted on September 4, 2007 at 9:28 pm and is filed under Random Stuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.