Occasionally you'll create a dish by pure accident and it turns out to be one of the more delicious ways to prepare sensational ribs on a Kamado.
This recipe is exactly that. A bit of a fluke but the output was sensational and likely one of the easiest ways to smoke ribs that produce a distinct flavour and burnt end experience.
For this recipe you'll need 2 racks of pork ribs with the membrane removed. Slather your ribs with mustard or just wet them with water and apply a good even coat of your favourite rib rub.
The rub I used for this cook went a little like this:
3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup paprika
1/4 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup garlic powder
2 tablespoons ground black pepper
2 tablespoons ground ginger powder
2 tablespoons onion powder
2 teaspoons rosemary powder
Set up your kamado for indirect heat, add some hickory chips and stabilize the temperature at 300F.
You'll also need a rib holder that'll allow you to place your ribs vertically. I have a rack that fits right on top of the plate setter of my BGE Mini Max. What I also do is wrap the plate setter in aluminium foil to ensure an easier clean up.
When you're ready, cut your ribs racks in half so you end up with 4 smaller racks. This allows you to smoke and grill on a smaller Kamado like the Mini Max. Spray the plate setter with some oil and place your ribs bone side down, resting right on the plate setter. That's what will produce the insanely tasty burnt ends. Leave the ribs there for 1 hour. Flip the ribs and let them go for another hour so you end up smoking them for 2 straight hours.
The next step is to steep the ribs in some heavy duty aluminium foil. You'll wrap each mini rack individually but before you do, sprinkle on a good amount of dark brown sugar, add two small knobs of butter and a drizzle of honey. Wrap them tightly and put them back into the vertical rib rack for another 30 minutes. No saucing at this point...that comes next.
Now that you've done 2 hours of smoking and 30 minutes of steeping, it's time for the finale. Remove the rib rack and the plate setter. Convert the Kamado to direct heat. Put in a grid or in my case a set of Grill Grates and get the temperature going but you don't have to go too hot. Your Kamado should still be holding steady at 300F but you can creep it up to about 400F.
Carefully unwrap your ribs from the foil and baste them with your favourite sauce. For this cook I used a homemade KC sauce. Sweet and sticky! Don't bother sauching the bone side of the ribs, just the meat side. Put the ribs onto the grid/grates and close the dome. Check in every few minutes to see if the sauce sets. It should be tacky and sticky and not at all runny. Careful of the fire too. You can easily ruin 2.5 hours of work by not paying attention and burning them.
So after about 5-7 minutes, you're done. Cut each mini rack into individual ribs and serve.
Let us know how you go!
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