By now you can probably tell I like ribs. Anything pork really. It all started with my Dad’s rib recipe I posted here, then I refined that a little bit by combining his method with a little smoke from a Weber, now more recently I combined my Dad’s rib recipe with the classic 3–2–1 smoked rib method to make: Dad’s 3-2-1 Smoked Ribs.
The classic 3–2–1 recipe is all over the internets. Basically you smoke the ribs for 3 hours, then wrap them in foil and liquid for 2 hours, then take them out of foil and put back in the smoker for 1 hour with sauce.
My recipe is different however because it combines my Dad’s oven method with this classic 3–2–1 method. The main difference is that I replace the 2 hour section of the recipe where you wrap the ribs in foil and liquid in the smoker and instead I put the ribs in Pyrex dishes with water, butter and honey and cover with foil for 2 hours. Now this can really be done in the smoker but in my testing I’ve found this oven method gives more consistent results. I’ve really abandoned all my other recipes for ribs and strictly make 3 racks every time like this.
Follow along and let me know how they turn out.
Ingredients
Pork Ribs (I prefer baby back, but you do you)
Your favorite BBQ sauce (this is mine)
Honey
Butter
Smoking chips (I just keep it simple with hickory)
Rub
2T kosher salt
2T paprika
4t granulated garlic
4t chili powder
2t black pepper
1t cumin
Directions:
I start my smoker and set it to 225° and give it time to start smoking. While the smoke is starting I prepare my ribs. I mix my rub and set that aside, then I remove the membrane on the back of the ribs. If you don’t know how to do that, check out this post and it shows exactly how to remove the membrane. After you have the membrane removed, coat the front and back of ribs with a ton of rub (don’t worry it’s delicious). Then put the ribs in the smoker for 3 hours at 225°. Keep feeding the smoker to really get the smoke flavor into the meat during this first 3 hours.
After 3 hours, remove the ribs from the smoker and set your oven to 300°. Then place the ribs in some Pyrex dishes and fill about half with water. Melt some butter and pour over the ribs, squeeze some honey over the ribs and use a brush like this to coat the butter and honey evenly over the ribs. Then cover the dish with foil and put in the over for 2 hours at 300°.
After 2 hours, take the ribs out of the oven and coat them in your favorite bbq sauce. Bring them back out to the smoker and keep them in there for 1 final hour. Now it doesn’t really matter if you have smoke going at this time since most of the smoke flavor penetrated the meat and made the main smoke meat flavor during that first 3 hours. But it’s up to you if you want to smoke this last hour. I typically do just cause I like the smell of the smoke while I’m outside haha.
After the last hour they should be ready to go! Pull them out and try not to eat all of them – or eat all of them – who cares. Enjoy!
Get the rub mixed together
Coat the ribs with the rub (don’t forget to remove the membrane)
