3-2-1 BARBECUE HICKORY SMOKED BABY BACK RIBS

Big Green Egg

Barbecue by Miss Kristi-Lou

Temperature is the key to successful juicy almost just falling off the bone tender smoked barbecue ribs, lovingly rubbed, sopped and sauced these gorgeous mouth watering ribs are delicious and the hickory smoke bark is divine.

Set up your smoker to a constant 110-120 C / 230-250 F

What is the 3-2-1 Cooking Method?

Indirect Cooking

Quite simply 3 hours smoking at 110-120 C / 233-250 F, then dry rubbed again and wrapped in a double Texas crutch for 2 hours and finally out of the Texas crutch and back on the grill baste and sop regularly for 1 hour and now you have glorious tender smokey basted ribs that are just clinging to the bone, but not over cooked and falling off the bone.

Trouble Shooting Temperature Control

If you struggle to control your smokers temperature around 110-20 C / 230-50 F which I did when learning to become friends with my big green egg, at this time I could maintain 140 C / 285 F but this slight increase in cooking temperature resulted in dry ribs, not what you want.  To beat this and guarantee juicy tender ribs you can place the raw dry rubbed ribs in a roasting pan cover with Coke cola and braise in the oven for 1 hour at 165 C / 330 F.  Then at the slightly higher temperature 140 C / 285 F smoke with hickory for 1 hour then dry rub again and double Texas crutch, pour in 400ml of the cooking Coke stock, wrap up and back in the Egg for 1 1/2 hours.  Remove from the Texas crutch, back in to the Egg, sop and baste regularly for 30 minutes and ta-da perfect tender Smokey ribs.

Cooking time 5-6 hours

Ingredients

1 whole rack of baby back ribs per person

1 bottle french’s hot dog mustard

200ml apple juice per rib

Barbecue Dry Rub

7 tbsp dark brown molasses sugar

1 tbsp sweet paprika

1 tbsp smoked paprika

1 tbsp dried chipotle flakes

1 tbsp dried ancho flakes

1 tbsp salt

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

Mix all the ingredients together well, store in a ball mason jar.

Texas Style Barbecue Sauce

1 cup tomato ketchup 

2/3 cup molasses brown sugar

3 glugs Worcestershire sauce

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

1 tsp chipotle powder

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

200ml Coke

Mix all ingredients together in a saucepan and simmer until desired consistency.

The Jack Daniels Maple Sopping Sauce

200ml Jack Daniels 

300ml maple syrup

25 ml molasses 

1 tbsp tamarind or lime juice

3 tbsp honey

Whisk all the ingredients until combined, pour in to a squirt sopping bottle for or bowl for for dipping your sopping brush in.

Fire Up Your Big Green Egg Set For Indirect Cooking

How ever you start your smoker /grill fire up (I fill my fire box to the top as my fire starts in the middle and slowly burns outward giving me up to 12hrs hours of slow heat controlled cooking) once your fire is established bring the temperature down to 110-120 C / 230-250 F, using your air vents to control the heat.  Air flow = temperature control. more air flow = more heat, less air less heat.

Ribs 3 - 2 - 1

Remove your ribs from the fridge 1 hour before smoking.

Do Not Skip This Step

Remove the silver skin membrane from the back of the ribs, to do this slip a small knife tip under the the thick skin membrane on the first bone, lever up gently, take some paper roll and hold the lifted skin and peel off the rib, this silver skin normally comes away in one strip.  If you leave the skin on it constricts while cooking pulling the rib tight and it is like eating a rubbery skin on your tender rib, not nice.

Ribs 3

Rub your ribs generously with mustard then the barbecue rub, next add one hickory wood chunk or chips to your smoker, place the ribs  in you smoker for 3 hours, I like to rotate my ribs by 90 degrees half way through, if cooking on a rack rotate 180 degrees.

Rubbed ready to smoke.

After 3 hours your smoked ribs ribs will look like this.

Ribs 2 The Texas Crutch

Take two sheets of foil and one sheet of butchers paper or baking paper, lay the butchers paper on top of the two sheets of foil, place the rib in the center, generously baste the rib all over with your barbecue sauce, bring the edges of the foil up to start to make a bowl, pour in the apple juice and gently fold the top of the foil over to create a tent around the ribs.

Place back in your smoker for 1-2 hours.  After 1 hour check the ribs for tenderness, keep cooking for up to 2 hours, you don’t want the meat to actually fall off the bone, your looking for a presentable rib that the bone easily pulls cleanly away from the meat.

Ribs 1 Final bark

I increase the heat in my smoker at this point to 200 C / 395 F.  This is not essential but I like a good bark on my ribs, Unwrap your ribs and place back in your smoker, now I get to sopping with my maple bourbon glaze every 10 minutes along with a additional baste of barbecue sauce, at a higher heat this stage can be as quick as 20 - 30 minutes.

That’s it now enjoy this beautiful rack of ribs.

Fixings

Barbecue burnt ends baked beans

BRISKET COWBOY BAKED BEANS

Texas Style Barbecue Sauce

1 cup Heinz tomato ketchup 

2/3 cup molasses brown sugar

3 glugs old Worcestershire sauce

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

1 tsp chipotle powder

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

(reserved brisket juices optional)

Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan and gently simmer until thick.

Cowboy Beans

2 cans Heinz or bush baked beans

100g diced pancetta

100g dark brown sugar

1 cup of your homemade barbecue sauce (above)

2 cups of your diced brisket and some burnt ends

75 ml Jack daniels

Fresh ground black pepper

Pan sear the pancetta until just crispy, add to a deep saucepan along with the rest of the ingredients and bring to a gentle simmer cook until piping hot, serve with a spoon!

BOURBON GLAZED BARBECUE CHICKEN LOLLY POPS

Big Green Egg 

Barbecue by Miss Kristi Lou

Oh boy these are glorious, so juicy so flavoursome with a marinated barbecue spice rub and a bourbon sopping glaze these will have your family or guests absolutely delighted.

Ingredients 

(serves 4)

8 chicken drumsticks

4 tbsp barbecue seasoning rub

(homemade rub recipe below)

150ml bourbon barbecue sauce

(homemade recipe below)

To turn the chicken drumsticks in to lolly pops, simply chop off the narrow end top knuckle bone about 1/4 of a inch, this will leave a straight bone handle, next to clean the bone handle make a cut to the bone about 1-2 inches down the drumstick all the way round, pull the skin up and off the drumstick leaving you with a clean trimmed bone.

To level of the bottom of the drumstick so the lolly pop can stand upright simply cut the bone at the bottom straight.  Smooth the skin down the drumstick to the base of the drumstick. 

Toss the drums in your barbecue dry rub.  Heat your grill to 230 C / 446 F.  I cooked these with indirect heat.  Stand the lolly pops upright and cook for 20 minutes, now start to sopping your drums with the gorgeous glaze, you can dip and roll them or sop, do this every few minutes for the next 10 minutes until they are cooked to 75C / 167 F, take off the grill and serve immediately.

Barbecue Spice Rub

7 tbsp dark brown molasses sugar

1 tbsp sweet paprika

1 tbsp smoked paprika

1 tbsp dried chipotle flakes

1 tbsp dried ancho flakes

1 tbsp salt

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

Combine all ingredients together evenly, store in a glass air tight ball mason jar, this rub will last for 3 months ensuring the best flavours.

Texas Style Barbecue Sauce

1 cup Heinz tomato ketchup 

2/3 cup molasses brown sugar

3 glugs old Worcestershire sauce

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

1 tsp chipotle powder

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

Heat in a saucepan until desired consistency.

The Jack Daniels Maple Sopping Sauce

200ml Jack Daniels 

300ml maple syrup

50 ml molasses 

1 tbsp tamarind or lime juice

3 tbsp honey

Combine all ingredients until the honey is incorporated.

WINGS BARBECUE CHOLULA GREEN PEPPER HOT SAUCE

BIG GREEN EGG BARBECUE

Gorgeous smokey wings marinated in jalapeños and poblano green pepper Cholula hot sauce, for a extra punch tossed with more green hot sauce and roasted garlic.  These are lip smackinly gorgeous.

Marinating time 1-24hrs / Grilling time 20 minutes

Ingredients 

(serves 2)

1 kg fresh chicken wings, flats and drums

2 150ml bottle  Cholula green pepper hot sauce

1 whole bulb garlic peeled and finely sliced

50ml olive oil

100g salted butter room temperature

1 tbsp chopped coriander optional

Method

Marinate the wings with one bottle of hot sauce for at least 1 hour or overnight in the fridge for more depth of flavour.  Fire up your grill I cooked these beauties on indirect heat so that my smoker would maximise the flavour of the barbecue, maintain your heat at around 180 C / 350 F and cook turning occasionally for around 20 minutes until juices run clear when pricked.  Cook over direct heat if you want more of a charred flavour instead of smoke.

Heat the olive oil medium and sauté the garlic until a nutty and chewy not crispy, remove from the oil and place in a large tossing bowl along with the butter and coriander.  Once the wings are cooked add these to the bowl and toss well to coat, pour over some more green pepper hot sauce to your likin and dig in!

BARBECUE BACON RIBS BIG GREEN EGG

BARBECUE 

by Miss Kristi-Lou

These are so darn delicious, lip smackingly gorgeous, melt in the mouth bacon seasoned ribs.  The flavours are further elevated with a molasses maple Jack Daniels honey sopping sauce applied regularly for the last hour of cooking.

Don’t be tempted to cook the whole rack of belly loin ribs as one slab, the smoke ring and flavour is no where near as flavourful as cooking the bacon ribs individually.  The individual ribs get flavour all around the surface maximising the awesomeness of eating these.

Big Green Egg

Cooking temperature 150 C / 300 F

Time 3 - 4 hours

Brine time 5-7 days depending on size of ribs

Hickory wood chips un-soaked (less is more on this cook)

Love my Big Green Egg…

So simple to fire up, honestly just light and walk away, ready to cook in 15 minutes and can with good air flow temperature control cook for a minimum of 12 hours low and slow!  Once you’ve finished cooking, shut down the air vents and the remaining coals will be extinguished and can be used again.

This is the cut of meat you want from the butchers, a belly end loin with the ribs attached.  It is important to take the silver skin off the back of the ribs, place a thin tipped knife in under the this silver skin at the base of the rib bone and lever up, with a paper towel take hold of the skin and peel off the ribs.

Follow the bone and individual cut each rib.

 

The Brine 

4 ltrs cold water

1 cup sea salt

Heat 1 litre of the water, take off the heat and add the rest of the ingredients, stir until dissolved, add this to the rest of the cold water and stir well.  Once completely cool pour into a container that will allow the ribs to be submerged and has a lid.  Add the ribs and place the container in the fridge for 5-7 days depending on the size of the ribs.

Let’s get rubbing!  

Barbecue Spice Rub

7 tbsp dark brown molasses sugar

1 tbsp sweet paprika

1 tbsp smoked paprika

1 tbsp dried chipotle flakes

1 tbsp dried ancho flakes

1 tbsp salt

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

(1 bottle American hot dog mustard) 

Combine all ingredients together evenly, store in a glass air tight ball mason jar, this rub will last for 3 months ensuring the best flavours.

The Jack Daniels Maple Sopping Sauce

200ml Jack Daniels 

300ml maple syrup

50 ml molasses 

1 tbsp tamarind or lime juice

3 tbsp honey

Combine all ingredients until the honey is incorporated.

The Bacon Ribs Out of Brine

Remove the ribs from the brine and rinse several time really well, then leave to soak for 1 hour in fresh cold water.  Remove and pat dry.

Rub the American mustard all over the ribs, then generously rub the barbecue spice all over the ribs.  Now your ready to cook.

Place the ribs in your barbecue or smoker and maintain the temperature at 150 C / 300 F.  Add some hickory wood to the coals to add that smoke flavour and just let the barbecue take charge and do it’s thing.

At 2 hours turn the ribs and sop with the Jack Daniels sopping sauce.

Sop the ribs every 20 minutes generously, at 3 hours check for tenderness, the meat should have shrunk off the bone and be fall apart tender but just hanging on to the bone.  If not, cook on and check every 15 minutes as they won’t be far away.

That’s it enjoy with family and friends.

MEXICAN ALL CHEESE TOSTADA BASKET WITH BARBECUE PULLED PORK

GLUTEN FREE

Wonderful crispy cheese tostada basket stuffed with crunchy ice berg lettuce, refried beans, more cheese, succulent barbecue pulled pork finished off with fixings of pico de gallo, sour cream, guacamole, red jalapeños chillies and fresh lime.

When I make slow cooked pulled pork I always make extra to be efficient with the use of my oven for 3-4 hours, this also gives my family lots of variations for the week, stuffed tacos, crispy chimichangas, burritos, wraps, sliders and sloppy joe’s.  This freezes well too.

Slow Cooked Pulled Pork 3-4 hours

Ingredients 

(makes  2)

Cheese Tostada Basket

500g Mexican mix grated cheese

(equal mix of mild cheddar, Red Leicester and mozzarella)

(reserving 100g for later)

Pulled Pork

1 kg pork (butt) shoulder

1.5 ltr coke cola

Water

5 tbsp bbq spice rub

(make your own rub recipe below)

Barbecue Rub Spice

4 tbsp molasses dark brown sugar

1 tbsp chipotle dried chilli flakes

1 tbsp sweet paprika

1 tbsp smoked paprika

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

2 tsp sea salt

Fixings

Re fried beans

Guacamole 

Sour cream

Iceberg lettuce chopped

1 lime halved

Red jalapeños sliced

Pico de gallo

2 tomato finely diced

1 small red onion finely diced

1 jalapeño finely diced

1/2 lime juiced

1 tbsp roughly chopped fresh coriander

1 pinch sea salt and fresh ground black pepper

Cheese Tostada Basket

Pre heat your oven 160 C / 315 F.  Line a baking tray with parchment paper, place 200g of cheese in a level circle twice place in the oven to melt and get a little crispy around the edges approx 15 minutes. Take a muffin baking tray and turn it upside down using a spatula lift up the circle of melted cheese and lay over the raised muffin tin encouraging the sides to hug the muffin tin shape to create the basket, leave to cool and set.  Once set your are ready to layer in the fillings.

The Pork Butt

Pre heat the oven to 160 C / 315 F.  Rub the pork generously all over with the BBQ rub, place the pork in a deep roasting tin pour in all the coke cola, top up with water to cover the meat and then cover the tin with foil, place the roasting tin in the oven and slowly cook for approx 3 1/2 hours.

When your cooking time is up to check that the pork is super tender, take a fork and push in to the shoulder then pull down if the pork gently pulls away with ease, it is cooked.  Remove the pork from the cooking stock and place on a large plate, keep the pan with all the stock to one side for now, take the pork, remove the skin and fat and discard, break down the pork slightly with your hands and pop back in to the roasting pan with all the BBQ stock and leave the pork to absorb the gorgeous braising stock liquor for ten minutes or so, drain the stock off through a sieve in to a fat separator jug this stock is ready to make the barbecue sauce to coat the pulled pork in.

Homemade BBQ Sauce

500ml coke a cola rib stock

1 1/2 cup tomato ketchup

1/4 cup soft brown sugar

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1 tsp chipotle powder

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Salt and pepper to taste

Place all the ingredients in a saucepan combine and bring to a simmer, adjust the seasoning and chilli powder to taste, simmer gently until thickened, toss the pulled pork in the barbecue sauce.

To assemble the tostada basket heat the re fried beans and place in the bottom of the basket, sprinkle over a little of the reserved cheese, next add the iceberg lettuce another sprinkle of cheese, some jalapeño slices, lime juice, pulled pork then finish off with sour cream, guacamole, more jalapeños and pico de gallo.

BIG GREEN EGG JERK CHICKEN

Barbecue by Miss Kristi-Lou

This is my favourite jerk marinade, succulent juicy jerk chicken with a smokey bark from big green egg cooking adding a whole other layer of flavour, this is so far from the jerk marinade in a jar, fresh zingy and vibrant you may never go back!

Ingredients 

(serves 4)

Jerk Marinade

2 limes zest and juice

2 tbsp freshly grated ginger

6 tbsp honey

2 tsp fresh chopped thyme

2 tsp ground all spice

1 tsp fresh ground black pepper

1 tsp sea salt

1 habanero finely chopped

2 tbsp olive oil

4 large skin on chicken breasts

1 lime quartered for serving

Place the chicken in a large bowl, add all the ingredients except the 1 lime for serving and toss well to combine.  Leave to marinate for at least 1 hour but over night is so much better for depth of flavour.

Fire up your grill or oven to 200 C / 392 F.

Place the chicken skin side down so that it can creat the bark, after 8-12 minutes start checking the chicken so that the bark does not become burnt, turn the chicken and finish cooking for a further 6 minutes +, (total cooking time 18 minutes).  Some maths will be needed here, but hey that’s barbecue!

Remove from the heat and leave to rest for 3 minutes before serving, squeeze over the lime juice and sometimes I like to drizzle a little extra honey.

LOUISIANA HOT PEPPER MASH FERMENTED HOT SAUCE

The Best Hot Sauce Ever

THE HANG FIRE COOKBOOK

This fermented Hot Sauce is a game changer for my family, a great burst of flavour with a hint of sweet from the Riesling wine fermentation followed by a good punch of tingly lasting heat, on its own it’s crazy hot but once tossed over wings or used as a drizzle the food takes the heat score down and the full flavour of the hot sauce is elevated.

Don’t want this sauce as hot substitute some of the fresh red jalapeños for a red pepper.

Fermented Louisiana Hot Pepper Mash Sauce

Ingredients 

(makes approx 700ml)

STAGE 1:

1 kg fresh ripe red jalapeño chillies 

35g sea salt

150ml Riesling sweet white wine

The Fermentation 

14 days 

Cut of the green stalks from the chillies and slice in half, place in a air tight glass jar, sterilised, to sterilise wash and dry your glass jar and lid, pop in a warm oven 150 C / 300 F for 5 minutes, remove and while the jar is still hot fill the jar with the chillies, wine and salt, press the chillies down so they are mostly under the liquid.  Pop on the lid, once the jar is cool place in a dark cupboard for two weeks to ferment.

Once a day with a clean spoon stir and push the chillies down, return jar to the dark cupboard.  You can see the fermentation, there will be a layer of bubbles on top of the chillies, this will slow down over the two weeks and actually stop by week two.

Now your ready to make the final hot sauce!

First blitz the fermented chilli mash as smooth as can be.

Pass the mash through a fine mesh sieve.

This is your liquid base to your hot sauce.  This will store in your fridge for up to 3 months in a air tight glass jar.

STAGE 11:

150g fermented hot pepper mash
4 garlic cloves grated

2 tsp celery seeds

1 lemon juiced

100ml apple cider vinegar

Really quick and simple place all the ingredients in a glass jar and with a hand held blender, blitz smooth, pass through a fine mesh sieve if you don’t want the flecks from the celery seeds.  That’s it.  Store in a air tight glass jar in the fridge for up to several months, but this sauce is not going to last that long!

It took my family just 10 days to eat the whole batch!