Sprig Originals's kitchen / 3-2-1 Smoked Pork Ribs
3-2-1 Smoked Pork Ribs
By Sprig Originals · with credit
Adapted from jerkyholic.com
Worked out from this recipe's ingredients. If you're cooking for an allergy, always read the full ingredient list.
The classic three-stage method for smoked ribs: three hours in the smoke, two wrapped in foil with apple juice and honey, one more with barbecue sauce brushed on to set. You get bark on the outside, meat that pulls cleanly off the bone, and no guesswork.
Ingredients
Ribs
- 3 racks pork baby back or spare ribs
- 1/2 cup yellow mustard
Dry rub
- 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
- 2 tbsp coarse kosher salt
- 2 tbsp freshly cracked black pepper
- 1 1/2 tbsp paprika
- 1 tbsp chili powder
Wrap and glaze
- 2 1/4 cup apple juice
- 3/4 cup honey
- 1 cup barbecue sauce
Instructions
- Rinse the racks under cool water and pat them completely dry. Flip each rack bone side up, slide a dull knife under the silvery membrane at one end, then grip it with a paper towel and peel it off in one sheet. Discard it — it never gets tender.
- Rub the racks all over with the yellow mustard, using it as a thin glue rather than a flavour. Stir the brown sugar, kosher salt, black pepper, paprika and chili powder together, then season both sides generously, pressing the rub into the meat.
- Fire up the smoker with apple or hickory wood and bring it to 225°F for baby backs or 250°F for spare ribs. Set the ribs meat side up on the grates or in a rib rack and smoke, undisturbed, for 3 hours.
- Lay out three large sheets of heavy foil. Place each rack meat side down on its own sheet, pour 3/4 cup apple juice and 1/4 cup honey over each, then wrap tightly so no steam escapes. Return the packets to the smoker for 2 hours.
- Unwrap the racks carefully — the liquid is scalding — and set them back on the grates meat side up. Brush liberally with barbecue sauce and smoke a final hour, until the sauce is tacky and the internal temperature between the bones reads 200–203°F.
- Rest the racks on a board for 10 minutes, then slice down between each bone and serve with any extra sauce.
Chef's tips
- If a rack is still firm at the end of the final hour, keep going in 15-minute stretches. A toothpick slid between the bones should go in with almost no resistance — that feel matters more than the clock.
- Baby backs are leaner and can dry out, so hold the smoker at 225°F for those and save 250°F for meatier spares.
- Save the juice left in the foil: skim the fat and simmer it down for a few minutes to make a quick glaze to spoon over the sliced ribs.
- Sauce only in the final hour. Added earlier, the sugars scorch before the meat is tender.
Nutrition (per serving, estimated)
1285calories
62gprotein
134gcarbs
58gfat
Estimates only — values vary with brands and portions.
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