With rub and marinade
RIBS-O-RILEY
I took all the recipes of Mr. Paul Kirk, who is a champion BBQ chef, and came up with this one of my own.
This particular recipe uses a RUB for its flavour. You can add BBQ sauce for the last 15 or 30 minutes if you like, but I swear to all that is pure that you won't need it. If you do add sauce, keep an eye on it, because the
sugar in the sauce burns very quickly.
This technique goes against conventional wisdom in two ways: first, you don't soak or boil the ribs. They'll get more tender as they cook, as long as the heat is low.
Second, there is so much fat on ribs that not only will they stay moist, even the salt in the rub won't pull the juices out.
The type of ribs may or may not be important. I find that the cheaper
cuts work best: they have more fat, so they can cook longer without
drying out. But you really must check on them regularly; smaller
pieces and thin
edges cook faster, and can get far too crispy if left
to cook as long as the bigger, juicier chunks.
Ingredients
Put a tablespoon of each of the following in a bowl,
and stir it up:
- Paprika
- Sugar
- Garlic powder
- Lemon pepper or just pepper (freshly ground, of course)
- Chili powder
- Celery salt OR regular salt 1/2 TBsp;
- Any other dry spice you like, but the above will do
Method
Use your fingers to rub the mixture right into the meat of your ribs, all over.
Cook on real
low heat (like 275 if you can measure it on your Bar-B; that would be with the burner down to about the bottom one-quarter or less. I like to place the ribs on the left side with the flame only on the right side; in any case, don’t keep a flame under the ribs. This is the basic convection-grilling method that also is perfect for doing chicken pieces. (Some folk like to seal in the juices by putting meat on a high heat for the first coupla minutes, but I haven't found that to be necessary with ribs.)
At two hours you'll notice your favourite food getting' real good, but let them go for another hour, and they'll start to pull away from the bone. At four hours (if you can wait that long), they'll be unbelievable.