My hot and fast ribs recipe takes only 4 hours for St Louis ribs and 2.5 hours for baby backs. It kicks things off with a hot and sweet meat rub generously applied all over the ribs and grilling them at 300 degrees for 2.5 hours.
With St Louis ribs, proceed to braise the partially cooked ribs and wrap them tightly in foil before grilling for another hour. Lastly, brush them with your favorite barbecue sauce and grill for 15 more minutes. Easy peasy!
We all love a good BBQ but if we are being honest, the long cooking hours can test even the most patient of us. So, what if I told you that you can serve ribs hot and fast? I’ll show you how.
In this post, I will tell you how to whip up your preferred ribs on the grill or your smoker before we get to your most pressing questions regarding smoking pork ribs. Walk with me:
The key to any great meat starts with preparation. The best part about this recipe is that it yields excellent results whether you use your grill or the smoker.
That said, grills run hotter than smokers so if you are using a smoker, allow an extra hour than you would with a grill when cooking ribs on a smoker. So let’s gather our ingredients and prep our ribs and cooking gear.
We have 2 sets of ingredients. One for the meat and the other for our quick homemade meat rub.
Measure these ingredients into a small bowl and give it a good mix till well blended.
First things first, prepare the ribs. They are the star of the show after all.
Take your St Louis-style ribs out of the fridge and set them on the work surface for around 30 minutes. Room-temperature meat will cook more evenly compared to chilled and frozen meat.
Once at room temperature, trim down any excess fat and remove the membrane on the underside of the ribs. It is also referred to as silver skin because of its signature transparent color.
Use a kitchen paper towel to pat your ribs dry. Coat with a layer of yellow mustard.
Grab your dry spice mix and season your ribs liberally. Strive to coat the ribs equally. This way, you get a gorgeous uniform bark.
Your St Louis ribs are now ready to hit the grill gates.
Baby back ribs are comparatively smaller than St Louis ribs. That means they will cook in a shorter time. That said, they are leaner than St Louis pork ribs and can easily dry out. To counter this, we will spritz them at regular intervals throughout the cook. Let’s start:
Every ingredient in this recipe has a job to do. It helps to know their importance before deciding on any alterations to suit what is available to you:
St Louis-style ribs are trimmed spare ribs. They have a straight, flat shape that makes them easier to cook and brown evenly. This feature makes them ideal for grilling and smoking. They are fattier and thus very flavorsome too.
If you have baby back ribs, don’t fret. They are smaller and thus require a shorter cooking time than St Louis-style ribs. That said, they are leaner so I suggest letting it sit in a meat rub overnight to give them extra flavor.
This chemical powerhouse is one that we cannot ignore and it features in all hot and fast rib recipes. It is not only responsible for sweetening the ribs but also for the gorgeous mahogany outer shell thanks to the browning reaction, also known as the Maillard process.
You can also use white sugar or maple syrup instead of brown sugar.
Unsalted butter keeps the ribs moist and juicy so that it does not dry out as it cooks. Salted butter is an excellent alternative. If you opt for salted butter, reduce the amount of kosher salt you put in the meat rub.
Apple and apple juice pair wonderfully with pork dishes. In this case, the apple juice adds to the moisture content, keeping our ribs from drying out and adding subtle apple notes to the delicious bark.
Alternatives for apple juice include apple cider vinegar, white wine, light beer, cranberry juice, and pineapple juice.
The BBQ sauce helps to enhance the bark and round out the flavors of all the ingredients that go into preparing this dish. Foolproof alternatives include Teriyaki sauce, chili garlic sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and mustard sauce.
The meat rub simply seasons the meat and contributes largely to the flavor and look of the bark. I strongly recommend that you do not skip the meat rub.
If you are working with a smoker, first decide on the fuel. I recommend ordinary charcoal briquettes coupled with some flavoring wood chips. I use Oklahoma Joe's Cherry Smoking Chips because of its subtle fruity notes that pair divinely with pork ribs.
Arrange your coal using the charcoal snake method or the minion method to facilitate indirect heat cooking.
Use a charcoal chimney to light your fuel. I recommend Kingsford Charcoal Chimney Starter. It is quite affordable and gets the job done.
You can also get your fire going using lighter fluid or fire starter cubes.
Let the fuel burn until it is coated with a thin layer of white ash. That’s how you know your fire is ready. Let the smoker get to 300 degrees and then introduce your ribs.
Prepping the grill for indirect heat is as easy as lighting half the burners and leaving the rest off. Preheat it to 300 degrees and let it come to temp.
To impart a distinct smoke flavor, I recommend making a foil pouch. Here’s how:
If you are not up for a DIY, just use a smoker box. Consider Char-Broil Smoker Box. It is affordable and very effective.
Pork ribs are usually smoked low and slow. The ideal cooking temperature ranges between 200-275 degrees for 5-8 hours depending on a couple of factors.
This gives the heat enough time to break down connective tissue and render the fat in the ribs. The result is tender, fall-off-the-bone ribs that are packed with flavor.
In our case, however, we do not have 8 hours so hot and fast ribs is the way to go. This involves cooking at a higher temperature to cut the cooking time to 2.5-4 hours. Impressive, right?
The first cooking phase involves cooking your ribs for 2.5 hours. This forms a nice reddish-brown bark thanks to the smoke and caramelization of the brown sugar. At this point, the excess fat will have been rendered but the interior is still undercooked.
Softening the meat takes a while so to speed things up, we wrap it in foil and top off with butter, apple juice, and more sugar. We then pop the tightly wrapped ribs in the grill for another hour.
Allowing the meat to baste in liquid tenderizes the meat and keeps it from drying out as it cooks.
The final phase of this recipe serves to rebuild the crust. Basting creates a humid environment. Liquid coupled with the insulating power of the aluminum foil does no favors for the bark.
Slather your favorite BBQ sauce all over the ribs and grill for another 15-30 minutes. The sauce beautifully caramelizes forming a delicious crusty bark. Once rested, they are ready to grace your plate.
Both 3-2-1 ribs and 2-2-1 ribs are cooking techniques that divide the smoking process into 3 phases.
3-2-1 ribs involve smoking the ribs on the grill directly for the first 3 hours, followed by 2 hours of smoking while wrapped, and a final one hour unwrapped and slathered in a sauce.
The 2-2-1 method on the other hand involves smoking the ribs on the grill unwrapped for 2 hours, followed by another 2 hours of smoking while wrapped in foil, and finally another hour while topped off with your favorite sauce.
Pick either technique based on what you want to achieve. In general, the 3-2-1 technique is a great choice if you favor a deeper smoke flavor, a more caramelized crust, and a very tender, almost mushy, fall-of-the-bone texture.
If you prefer meat that is just tender enough to hold onto the bone until tagged on, the 2-2-1 technique is just what you need.
The fastest you can smoke ribs without compromising on quality is 2.5 hours. That would be hot and fast baby back ribs.
Generally, smokers do not run as hot as grills. The internal temp of a grill can get to as high as 400 degrees while cooking even with a preset temperature of 300 degrees. It is therefore essential to account for this when working with a smoker.
This depends on the type of ribs you are preparing. Baby back ribs will take approximately 2 hours to cook at 350 degrees while St Louis ribs could take about 3 hours at the same temperature.
The hot and fast method is a fairly easy way to enjoy a delicious classic BBQ dish. Unlike traditional smoked pork ribs, hot and fast ribs are cooked at a higher temperature for a shorter time. St Louis ribs are fattier and larger and thus will require comparatively more cooking time than baby back ribs.
To cook St Louis ribs hot and fast, first place the coated and rubbed ribs directly on the cooking grates for 2.5 hours. Then wrap them in foil and top them off with butter, sugar, and apple juice. Grill for another hour before slathering it in BBQ sauce and grilling for an extra 15 minutes. This totals 3.5 hours of cooking time.
As for baby backs, coat and rub them before grilling the ribs directly on the hot grates for 2.5 hours until they hit an internal temp of 203 degrees. With that, you have all you need to go forth and prep some fast-smoked baby back ribs in the next 4 hours tops.
