Smoked Honey Chipotle Ribs
May 7, 2009 by admin
For my birthday last year my parents bought me Emeril’s stove top smoker but it just gathered dust above my washer/dryer stack. It was a combination of laziness (not wanting to learn something new) and trepidation (not sure if stove top smoking was a pain in the pork butt) that kept me away from it originally. Once I got past those barriers and used it for the first time, though, I was in love. For the past few months we’ve probably smoked about 10 racks of ribs, portioned for two.
The smoky flavor imparted on the ribs is amazing and the dry rub permeates into the meat. We had made ribs in the ovens (on a roasting rack) numerous times but we never got the smoky flavor - obviously - and the dry rub was more of a dry crust than a deep flavor, if that makes sense. It wasn’t bad but it definitely wasn’t the effect we were trying to create.
Also, because we are using the smoker, the ribs come out tender and moist that peel off the bone, but not so soft that the ribs are more braised/stewed than smoked. I never thought it would be this way, but the stove top smoker has now elevated to “kitchen essential” status and until our doctor tells us we’ve consumed an unsafe and inhumane yearly quantity of ribs, I don’t see an end to rib smoking in sight.
Process-wise, smoking ribs is very simple. You get the wood chips smoking on the stovetop, throw the seasoned meat on the rack, close it up, toss the entire contraption in the oven for a while, baste it, then broil it. The end.
With that said, I’ve probably done a different style of rib each time (from spicy to sweet) because I don’t really write down the rubs or the bastes. I decided to write this one down in hopes it would be good enough to share with you. Thankfully, that was the case.
The directions on how to work the slow cooker is specific to the smoker we have. Please consult the directions of your own smoker to ensure proper usage. Side note: I just noticed that usage looks like sausage. I’m going to use that word more often.
Smoked Pork Ribs
Dry Rub - Expressed in “parts” instead of actual measurements so you can scale this for as much or as little as you want**
- 2 parts chili powder (homemade or store bought)
- 2 parts cumin
- 1 part smoked paprika
- 1 part coriander seeds, cracked
- 1 part dry mustard
- salt & pepper
Baste - Usually I make a BBQ sauce but I was feeling lazy so this was the alternative. It’s a modified Bobby Flay recipe.
- ¾ cup honey (I actually did ½ cup honey and ¼ cup pomegranate molasses that Jacquie made)
- 1 chipotle from chipotle in adobo sauce
- 1-2 tbsp of the adobo sauce depending on how spicy you like it
- 1-2 tbsp mustard (I used Dijon, yellow probably would have been good too)
1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees
2. Mix the dry rub ingredients together and coat both sides of the ribs. This can be done the night before and refrigerated to let the rub marinate longer but we don’t find it’s necessary.
3. Place about ¼ - ½ cup of your favorite wood chips (I used mesquite bought from Sur la Table) in your smoker and cook over a high heat on the stove. Set the rack on the rack (hah!), then immediately put the entire thing over the chips in the smoker. Cover it and it will start to smoke pretty soon. (I usually give it about 10-15 minutes this way so there is a good amount of smoke going.)
Then put the whole shebang in the oven. NOTE: DO NOT OPEN THE SMOKER OR YOU WILL LOSE ALL YOUR SMOKE!
4. While you let that smoke in the oven for about 60-90 minutes, toss all of the baste ingredients together in a blender and blend until fairly smooth.
5. After about 75 minutes (it’s really hard to over cook the ribs in the smoker) pull out the ribs and turn the broiler on. Flip the top of the smoker over so it’s a grill pan and lay the ribs on foil placed over the pan. This will mean easier clean up later on. If the top of your smoker does not convert to a grill pan, you can just up the ribs on a regular broiling rack at this point.
6. Baste the ribs with an even coat of sauce and place directly under the flame, maybe 2 inches below the fire. Broil for 3 minutes then remove and baste again. Put it back in for another 3-4 minutes until the sauce is slightly charred and bubbly. We usually leave the oven door ajar while broiling so we can easily keep an eye on it since the sauce is mainly sugar-based and can burn easily.
7. Remove, let rest for a few minutes, carve next to each bone and enjoy.
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