SMOKEY JACK DANIELS BARBECUE RIBS

BIG GREEN EGGING

Barbecue by 

Miss Kristi Lou

3-2-1 Cooking Method

Indirect Cooking

Dry rubbed ribs, smoked at 110 C / 233 F, for 3 hours, then slather with your barbecue sopping sauce, add the apple juice and butter, wrap in a double Texas crutch of foil and a single layer of butchers paper, place back in your egg for 2 hours.  For the last stage remove the Texas crutch and place the ribs back on the grill baste and sop regularly with the bourbon barbecue sauce for 1 hour and now you have the most glorious tender smokey basted ribs that are almost falling off the bone.

The only effort in cooking these ribs is time…

3 hours stage 1

2 hours wrapped, stage 2

1 hour basting, stage 3

Cooking time 5-6 hours

Ingredients

Whole rack of pork baby back ribs per person

1 bottle french’s hot dog mustard

200ml apple juice per rib

100g butter per rib, thick sliced

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

for serving

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

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

LETS GET COOKING… 

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 C / 230 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 cooking.

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.

Cooking Ribs Stage 3 (the first stage)

Rub your ribs generously with mustard then the barbecue dry rub.

To your smoker add one/two hickory wood chunks

Place the ribs  in your smoker 110 C / 230 F for 3 hours, I like to rotate my ribs by 90 degrees half way through, if cooking upright in a rack rotate 180 degrees.

NEXT…

Cooking Ribs Stage 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, lay the butter slices on top of the ribs, 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.

Cooking Ribs Stage 1 (the last stage)

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 sopping with my hot maple bourbon glaze every 10 minutes.

You can also sop some of the buttery apple cooking juices over the ribs too.

Once your ribs are ready around 1 hour is when you can gently pull a bone away from the meat, generously baste the ribs with your barbecue sauce and serve.