The Ultimate Guide to Smoking (Pork) Ribs
Follow our ultimate guide to smoking ribs and master the backyard BBQ. In this guide we’ll cover:
Types of Ribs You Can Smoke
The beauty of SmokinTex electric smokers is that no matter what cut or style of ribs you want to smoke, it’s a simple and intuitive adjustment to get the perfect balance of moisture and bark every time. We recommend all ribs are smoked at 225° Fahrenheit, so the only adjustment you need to make is how long to smoke depending on the cut of meat.
Smaller cuts of meat like Rib Tips will smoke for about 4-5 hours.
Baby back ribs and St. Louis Style ribs typically smoke for around 5-6 hours.
For thicker cuts with more meat on the bone, like Country Style ribs or Spare ribs, you may smoke them as long as 7-9 hours.
How long you smoke ribs will also depend on how tender you like them. The longer you smoke ribs, the easier they’ll fall off the bone! We’ll cover this more before we start smoking, and give you some different options for finishing your ribs.
The Best Dry Rub for Smoking Ribs
We’ll start by preparing a dry rub that provides the perfect foundation of flavors. Use this rub alone, or experiment by adding different spices and seasonings as you find your own BBQ smoking style. We’ll include a few of our favorite additions!
For the base rub, mix together equal parts:
salt
black pepper
paprika
turbinado or raw sugar*
Our favorite ways to spice it up:
Coat your ribs with Dijon mustard before applying the rub. Or substitute Dijon for the mustard of your choice, experiment away!
To the base rub, add garlic, onion, cumin, ginger, or chili powder for an extra punch of flavor.
For a little kick, we like to add a bit of cayenne or other dried chili peppers.
How much rub should you make? Make more than you think you’ll need; you can always store the extra in a jar for next time! This rub makes a great staple for smoking and will work great for brisket, chicken, and plenty more.
Don’t worry, if you prefer your ribs slathered in sauce, we’ll cover that soon! Go ahead and start with our base rub and we’ll make a glaze while your ribs are smoking.
If you’d prefer to start with a ready to go rub, you can’t go wrong with SuckleBusters’ Hog Waller Pork Rub.
*A note about sugars: Turbinado (raw sugar) has a higher melting point and less moisture than brown or light brown sugar. In our electric smokers the melting point won’t be an issue, but if you’re finishing over flame for an extra crispy bark, you’ll want to stick with Turbinado. If you’re substituting brown or light brown sugar, drying it out on the counter first will help it blend into your rub better, but it isn’t a necessary step.
How to Prepare Your Ribs for Smoking
Now that our rib rub is ready, we’ll rinse the ribs thoroughly in cold water, and peel the silverskin membrane from the bone side of the ribs. It’s important to remove as much of silverskin as you can, as it will prevent flavor from soaking into the meat, and some people find it to have a bitter flavor.
Rub both sides and all edges of the rack of ribs generously with the rib dry rub. After you apply the dry rub, let your ribs sit out on the counter for at least half an hour. You can also let the ribs sit overnight in the refrigerator.
Wood Flavors for Smoking (Pork) Ribs
Let’s talk wood, how much wood do you need, what kind of wood should you use, and do you need to replenish the wood throughout the cook time?
The way SmokinTex electric smokers are designed to smoke, you do not need to replace wood chips at any point during the process. The smoker will smoke heavily for the first 2-3 hours, then taper off to continue slowly bringing the meat up to temperature.
How much wood you use depends on how smoky you like your ribs! Our smokers are very efficient in the way they slowly smolder the wood chips, and allow far less smoke to escape than a traditional smoker. You need a lot less wood than you think; we recommend 1/8 to 1/3 of a cup of dry wood chips*, and you can dial in your preference from there! More wood will produce a heavier smoked flavor.
What kind of wood you use can be a matter of personal preference and BBQ style, but we recommend keeping some Hickory wood on hand as a smoking staple. For pork ribs we find fruit and nut woods also compliment the flavors well. Our favorite way to smoke Baby Back ribs is using an equal mix of Hickory wood and Apple or Cherry wood. Pecan wood is also an excellent choice with Apple or Cherry.
Try different wood flavors and see what you like! If you don’t have wood chips, that’s fine! Chunks, pellets, and even sawdust can be used so long as it’s dry.
*A note about wood: You should always use dry wood in our smokers. Our smokers use an electric heating coil that slowly smolders the wood, while the smoker’s design retains smoke within the cooking area, so you don’t need to wet the wood at all!
How to Smoke Perfect BBQ Ribs
Your ribs are prepped, thoroughly coated in dry rub, and you’ve got your wood picked out. Let’s get to smokin’!
Load the smokebox with the wood of your choice, and place the ribs directly onto the racks, meat side up, or use our rib hooks to hang the ribs inside the smoker.
Set the temperature to 225°, and make sure the smoker door is closed.
How long to smoke ribs:
Depending on what kind of ribs you are smoking, you’re looking at around 5-6 hours smoking time. Short ribs will smoke around 5 hours, Baby Back ribs around 6 hours, Spare ribs about 9 hours.
If you plan to glaze your ribs, only let them smoke for about 2 hours initially, and follow the glazing steps to prepare a glaze while they’re smoking.
Try to resist the temptation to open the door and check on your ribs. The magic of our electric smokers is their ability to trap and retain moisture and flavor, every time you open the door, you let all that out! The best way to avoid opening the door too much is to use a temperature probe you can read with the door closed.
For fall off the bone ribs
If you’re like us and you want to pick up a rib bone and let the meat slide right off, then you’re in luck! SmokinTex electric smokers make it easy to get a juicy and tender fall-off-the-bone rib by creating a humid smoking environment. If this is your style, we recommend smoking to an internal temperature of 195° Fahrenheit*.
For ribs with a little more chew
If we’re being honest, our smokers excel at fall-off-the-bone ribs, but some folks prefer a little more structure to their smoked ribs. If you want to still be able to pull the meat from the bone, we recommend smoking a little less, finishing up when your internal temperature reaches 185°.
If you’re going to glaze your ribs, you’ll want to pull them out of the smoker when they are still firm enough to stay intact.
How to check when ribs are done (without a probe)
If you don’t have a temperature probe, you can check if your ribs are ready by how far the meat has shrunk away from the bone. Typically, 1/4 of an inch of visible bone indicates your ribs are ready if you prefer them with more structure. If you want them to fall off the bone, let them smoke for another hour.
Another way to see if ribs are done smoking, slide your tongs underneath a rib rack to about halfway down the length of the rack. Gently raise the ribs up. The meat should be just starting to split, or pull away at the bend for chewier ribs. Again, let them smoke another hour if you like them to fall off the bone.
Glazing BBQ Ribs
For this technique, the initial smoke time doesn’t vary based on the type of ribs you’re smoking, we just want to establish a nice smoked flavor before glazing.
While your ribs are still smoking, let’s start making a glaze. With the glaze, you can go as complex or simple as you want. Just like the dry rub, this is a great opportunity to experiment with different flavors and create your own signature BBQ style.
Here are some ideas for single-ingredient glazes to get you started:
BBQ sauce, whichever is your favorite!
Apple juice or orange juice
Apple cider vinegar
Craft beer
For something a little more complex, here is a glaze we love:
Apricot preserves
Apple cider vinegar
Honey
Cayenne or other chili peppers
Just a dash of ginger
Mix ingredients to taste and combine on low heat until a nice thick glaze is reached. You want the glaze thick enough to stick to the ribs, but not so thick that it’s difficult to apply with a brush.
When your rib glaze is ready, build a foil boat big enough to go all the way around each rib rack. To do this, lay out 2 to 3 sheets of equal length foil side by side, with their edges overlapping, for the length of the rib rack. Fold the side edges of overlapping foil together a few times to create a large foil rectangle. With the fold lines in the foil perpendicular to the rib rack, place the ribs inside the foil rectangle.
Generously glaze both sides and all edges of the rack of ribs, and place the ribs meat side down.
Fold the edges of foil over the ribs, and further wrap the whole rack of ribs in two additional layers of foil. We don’t want the foil to accidently tear and let all the delicious glaze out!
Load your ribs back into the smoker, meat and glaze side down this time.
Allow the ribs to cook for another 3-4 hours, making sure to pull them early enough that we can finish the glaze over high heat.
As your glazed ribs are finishing up, prepare to finish the glaze over an open flame.
Be careful unloading the ribs, the foil boat will be full of hot juices. Allow the ribs to rest in the foil for 5-10 minutes before transferring to an open flame.
How do you like your ribs?
Easy on the sauce
The dry rub we started with is packed with flavor and can be used without a glaze or any additional sauce if you prefer a less messy dining experience. The sugar in the rub will caramelize and form a nice bark that compliments the wood smoke well. If this is your preference, once your ribs are done smoking, you’re ready to eat!
Glaze it up
If you love saucy ribs with a crisp bark you can bite in to, make a glaze following the instructions above, and allow your ribs to smoke until just before they are done. Get a charcoal grill nice and hot, or preheat your kitchen oven’s broiler on high.
When your ribs are ready:
Brush with additional glaze if desired, skipping the foil boat this time.
Place your ribs directly on a very hot charcoal grill*, or under the broiler in your kitchen oven.
Grill or broil between 4 to 7 minutes, on each side, until you achieve the desired bark.
If your ribs are already falling off the bone, don’t worry, this is where your oven broiler comes in handy. Arrange the ribs meat side up on a cookie sheet to resemble a whole rack of ribs, glazing all sides as you place them. We’ll only broil the top (meat side) since they’re a little messy. They won’t be as pretty, but don’t be surprised if your friends and family would rather have them done this way from now on!
*An open flame from a charcoal grill is ideal here because we want to caramelize the glaze on the outside while locking all the juices in. Your oven’s broil setting will work just fine, but it is essential you use high heat and a short amount of time for this step, so let your oven or grill get nice and hot first.
We hope you’ve learned something from our Ultimate Guide to Smoking Ribs! SmokinTex electric smokers make it easy to achieve the perfect balance of a hearty smoked flavor and a juicy, tender finish, giving you the freedom to experiment with rubs, glazes, and finishing techniques.
