I got rid of my smoker. All I have left now is a charcoal grill. I’d like to cook them on the grill but the last time I tried that the ribs basically turned in to “pork jerky” on a bone.
Any suggestions?
Thanks.
Over a grill you use LOW indirect heat: away from the fire and with the lid firmly closed. On a gas grill with a thermometer built into the hood, I put only the side burners on (ribs go in the middle, using a rib rack if I’m making 3-4 racks at a time) and maintain a heat of about 225-250F for 1h45 before basting with sauce and letting cook for another 30 mins, then a final 15 minutes on higher heat to char the edges. Don’t put sauce on the ribs until near the end, limit your pre-grilling enhancements to dry rubs and maybe marinating in something vinegar-y or wine-y.
On a charcoal grill you can do the same, bank all the coals on one side and put the ribs far away on the other, with the rack raised high – hopefully you also have a thermometer. To finish, you can use direct heat (since you can’t easily just twist a knob to raise the temps to 350F).
You can add wood chips to give some smoke flavor too, doing the soak-chips-in-water, wrap-in-perforated-tinfoil-pouch trick.
AFAIK you cannot open grill ribs, except to reheat them or to finish them.
That’s assuming these are ribs on a rack and not raw, individually separated out ribs. If that’s what you’re dealing with, I’d say use the oven and braise them.
Yes, charcoal grill.
Yum.
First, slap yourself for getting rid of the smoker…:smack:
I saw a show on Food Network, withthe Neelys. They used a grill. I believe it was using indirect heat (coals on one side, ribs on the other). You might want to google for that episode and watch it.
You may find it easier and get more reliable results in the oven:
[ol]
[li]Marinate/rub/season as you like.[/li][li]Fill a baking pan with 1/4" of water.[/li][li]Put ribs on foil and put in pan in a single layer concave side down.[/li][li]Loosely close foil over top of ribs, forming a sort of tent over the top. The foil should not be pressing against the meat.[/li][li]Bake at 345 F for an hour.[/li][li]After an hour, remove foil tent and bake uncovered at 375 for another 10-15 minutes.[/li][/ol]
Low and slow. Loooooow and sloooooow.
IIRC Alton Brown’s method has them in a low oven, tightly wrapped in foil, for about 3 hours.
I’d recomend cooking lower and longer, say 225-250 for three to five hours. You can also use the liquid to braise the meat too, if you’d like, rather than just uising plain water for steam and moisture.
You can easily slap together some flavorful liquid out of a mix of some white wine, cider vinegar, honey, garlic, whatever else you want.
Then, when the ribs are done, you put the liquid into a pot and boil it done to thinkcen it up and turn it into a glaze/sauce for the ribs, if you’d like (I know some people prefer dry ribs, which I don’t get, but hey, they’re your ribs, cook them howeer you want. :))
He also uses a braising liquid, for what it’s worth.
I usually smoke mine, but I think braising is the way to go in this case. Finish them on the grill after you’ve spent about 3 hours breaking down the connective tissues.
My GF is a vegetarian; it’s not really worth it for me run the oven all day just to feed myself. That’s my quick-and-easy method but yeah, were I to have time and the occasion to do it right, I’d drop the temp and let it go all day.
Surely she will convert for ribs!
That method works just as well on the grill. The ribs don’t real care where the heat comes from.
Bingo. Slow-cook them to get them tender, then grill them for some flavor. Or vice-versa, which is how my buddy does it. Indirect heat on the grill with woodchips for an hour or so for the smoker flavor, then into the oven to cook them.
Yeah, but it’s a lot harder to regulate/maintain temps for that long on a grill. Can be done but a PITA.