3-2-1 St. Louis Style Spare Ribs

The best smoked St. Louis Style Spare Ribs only require a gentle tug with your teeth for them to strip off the bone cleanly. I don’t like my ribs completely falling off the bone when I pick it up, and I don’t like the meat still stuck on the bone when I’m eating it.

For this smoke session, I get the biggest St. Louis Style Spare Ribs I can find and smoke at 250 degrees!

This classic 3-2-1 rib smoking method achieves that and would be great for starters to try out. This requires 3 hours of smoking unwrapped, 2 hours of wrapping, and 1 hour unwrapped at the end. For me, the 1 hour is more like 30 minutes.

Once you get comfortable with your grills and know how to manage the fire and temps, you can adjust the smoking times to preference and taste.

Ingredients:
1 Full Rack St. Louis Style Pork Spare Ribs (About 3 Pounds)

2 tablespoons yellow mustard

¼ cups BBQ Rub, more or less to taste

¼ cup BBQ Sauce, for wrap and brush on at end

3 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 tablespoon honey

Steps:

Prepare Ribs – Lather the spare rib on both sides with a thin layer of yellow mustard. Generously sprinkle on your favorite BBQ rub on both sides of the rib.

Smoke Ribs – For the first 3 hours, smoke the ribs uncovered in the smoker at 250 degrees. After the 3rd hour, place a few pats of butter, drizzle on your favorite BBQ sauce and honey, sprinkle on more BBQ rub onto aluminum foil. Place the ribs meat side down, and tightly double foil wrap the ribs. Continue smoking the ribs at 250 degrees for about another 2 hours. After the 5th hour, carefully unwrap the ribs, brush on a layer of BBQ sauce on the ribs and smoke the ribs unwrapped for about the last hour until the ribs are sticky and set. Rest the ribs for 15 minutes. Serve.

Tips:

• When selecting ribs, I like to pick the heaviest option available.
• Cooking time will vary based on the type of pork ribs, the size of the ribs, outside temperatures, and grill temperatures.
• Baby Back Ribs generally require less smoking time. Monitor as necessary.
• Spritzing with juice or a liquid is only necessary after the 2nd hour if the ribs look like it is drying out.
• You can check to see if the ribs are done by picking up ribs with a pair of thongs and if the meat surface cracks, it’s ready.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by 🅱️🅰️🅾️ | No Limit Cooking (@nolimitcooking)