No Limit Baby Back Ribs

When I smoked ribs for the first time, I used a Weber Kettle accessory called the Smokenator to convert my Weber Kettle into a smoker to smoke my Baby Back Ribs.  For the past few years, I’ve been happily using Selena, my Weber Smokey Mountain, to smoke my ribs and meats.  I still believe it’s the best BBQ investment ever!

As mentioned in my previous blog posts, my family loves ribs and we smoke ribs here at the No Limit house pretty regularly.  I researched countless online recipes, watched quite a few YouTube videos, and played around with different techniques, but this has recently been my consistent go-to technique to smoke ribs.  I believe that adding butter, brown sugar, honey, and BBQ sauce to the ribs during the wrapped part of the smoking process adds savory and sweet richness to every bite of the ribs and making the ribs go from good to great real quick!

Serve up these Baby Back ribs the No Limit way with white rice, salad, pickles, and jalapenos for a complete meal.

Ingredients:
1 Full Rack Baby Back Ribs (About 3 Pounds)
1.5 teaspoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon yellow mustard
1 tablespoon No Limit Rub
2 tablespoons BBQ Sauce
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey

4 ounces wood chunks, a combination of cherry and oak wood

Steps:

Prepare Ribs –  Pat the ribs dry with paper towels. Evenly sprinkle both sides of ribs with kosher salt. Wrap rib with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, preferably overnight. At least an hour before smoking ribs, remove the plastic wrap from ribs, slather both sides of ribs with yellow mustard, and generously sprinkle No Limit rub on both sides of ribs.

Smoke Ribs –  Set up the smoker and bring the internal temperature inside the smoker to 225-250 degrees. Add four ounces of your favorite wood chunks.  Smoke the ribs in the smoker for about three hours.  After about three hours, remove ribs from the smoker and place the ribs on top of a long sheet of aluminum foil. Sprinkle brown sugar, squeeze honey, pour bbq sauce, and unsalted butter on top of the ribs and wrap the ribs tightly in aluminum foil. Smoke the foil-wrapped ribs in the smoker for an additional 1.5 to 2 hours.  Remove ribs from foil, brush ribs with the leftover liquid from the foil, and smoke uncovered for an additional hour or until the ribs are ready.

Slice Ribs – Allow ribs to rest for at least 15 minutes. Slice ribs into individual rib segments and serve.

Tips:

• Rack of ribs are perfectly done when you pick it with tongs and it slightly cracks
• Spritz ribs with apple juice (or water/juice) if it looks like it’s drying out
• If using St. Louis style ribs allow for at least an additional hour of cooking time
• If smoking more than one rack of ribs, allow for longer cooking time
• If you want the ribs to cook faster, set smoker temperature to 275-300 degrees