Slow grilled Pork Ribs

Lord only knows how many international laws I’m breaking here for giving away BBQ secrets…but I’m about to tell you how to make amazing ribs on a gas grill.

Starting off, get yourself some Hickory Smoking Chips.Put about 2 cups in something that you can soak them in. They tell you to let the chips soak in water for 30 minutes. I used unsweetened Apple Juice. After 30 minutes, drain the chips and make a pouch about 8-10 inches long out of aluminum foil. Make sure the pouch is sealed on all four sides, then poke some holes in the top of it… about 10-12 holes with a knife will work just fine. Place the packets directly on the burners that will be used for your cooking. (Under the grilling surface itself.)

As far as grill setup, you want to cook the ribs indirectly, so on my 4 burner grill, I turned the outside burners on low, and the ribs will be cooked above the inner 2 burners that will remain turned off. You’ll be able to see what I’m talking about in pictures later. So, get the Hickory packets on the outside burner(s), set the burner(s) to low, close the lid and get the meat ready.

Start with a good rack of ribs, trimmed of *most* of the fat. A little bit of fat left will slowly cook off. Rinse the ribs under luke-warm water, then it’s time for your rub. My rub consisted of McCormick Smokehouse Maple seasoning and McCormick Worcestershire Ground Black Pepper. That’s it.

Now it’s time to put the meat on the grill.

Now, in the picture above, you see my failed attempt. The smoking devices DO NOT WORK placed on top of the grilling surface. They got really dry. No smoke. But, the location of the aluminum pans (also don’t work well) tells you where the 2 outside burners are; the ribs are over the 2 inner burners.

After a few minutes, check you lid-mounted thermometer. You should be somewhere in the neighborhood of 250-275 degrees. If it’s a hot day, look at your lid thermometer before you start cooking to see how far off it’s reading. In Boone today, it was about 75 degrees, but in direct sunlight, the grill was reading 125 degrees before I turned it on. So, during cooking, mine was sitting at about 300.

This is how they looked after an hour. You shouldn’t be opening the grill, I just did it for pictorial purposes. You don’t need to flip them. Leave them bone side up and the juices will pool and stay with the meat.

Now, you just sit and wait… and wait… and wait… You’re looking at about 2-1/2 – 3-1/2 hours total cooking time. When you’ve got about twenty minutes left, you can flip the ribs and brush some sauce on.

For the sauce, I used some extra thick Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce and some molasses BBQ sauce. I used probably a 1/4 Cup of BBQ Sauce, and about 2 TBSP of Worcestershire sauce.

Another 20 minutes, and they’ll be ready to come off the grill…

Juicy. Sweet. Salty. Savory. Wonderful.

I was really impressed considering that this was my first attempt in making ribs and really, it was amazingly easy. If you have a grill, and the most basic of motor skills, you should absolutely make these. Obviously, you can change seasoning and sauce to suit your tastes, but for me, this is the recipe that’ll be sticking around, and I won’t be paying for any ribs in restaurants anymore.

In closing…