Rotisserie BBQ Ribs

I’m not sure what everyone’s Labor Day plans are, but hopefully they include a grill.  I know our grill will see (and has seen – is this even proper English?) a few fires this Holiday weekend.

Every time we have people over, we love to cook for them – and we usually cook ribs.  They are easy (yes, they are) and SO GOOD!  The hubster and I are collaborating on this post to share how we BBQ some amazing pork back ribs.

We own a Weber 22.5” kettle grill.  BEST grill ever, you can seriously do so much with it.  One nifty accessory is the Rotisserie.  When I first bought it for my Hubs, every time we grilled we had to use it.  So one day he wanted some ribs and we decided to take them for a spin on our new toy.  HOLY COW so good!!  It’s my favorite way to prepare them and while you are limited to the amount you can cook (usually just one rack but I have squeezed two on there before) you won’t be disappointed in the flavor or texture.

A great tip passed down from my FIL.  Line your grill with foil.  Lots of nasty fat will drip out of your food.  This will keep all of that nasty gunk off of your grill and it's easy to change.  The really wide heavy duty foil works best.

* Note:  I am not a professional photographer.  I try to take good pictures but my kitchen is not set up to be a "trendy blog background."  Also, we have several BBQ tools that are pretty old.  And old stuff kinda get this, well we'll call it patina, coloring from being used on the grill over and over.  It's not dirty...it's just well loved.  :)

So, let’s get started.  Prep is pretty easy – you will need a rack of pork back ribs (aka baby backs), yellow mustard and seasoning (or “rub”) of your choice.  You will not taste the mustard; some say it tenderizes the meat, some say it’s not even necessary but we have found it helps all that tasty rub stay on…so we use it religiously.

 

 Bust open that pack, wash and dry those ribs.  Now flip them over, bone side up.  You will notice a membrane that coats the entire back of your ribs.  This is called the silver skin and I don’t care how “low and slow” you cook these babies, this will still be tough.  So we need to pull it off.  Just wiggle a butter knife or fork under one corner and pull it back.  It can be slippery so use a paper towel to get a grip.

It may tear on you, it's okay.  Just make sure to remove it all from the entire back surface.

 See the difference with the silver skin removed?

Now, slather those babies up with some mustard and then give it a generous coating of your rub.  We like to pat it in so it sticks better.

This is our BBQ pan.  It's a cheap pan that has been abused but once it's lived it's life I don't feel so bad throwing it away.  See what I mean about "petina?"

Now for the fun part, skewering!  Make a small cut in between about every 3-4 ribs.  This will help you weave the spit through the ribs.

 

Slide the first rotisserie tine onto the spit and then start to weave your ribs on there.  This part is kinda weird but you want to thread it on there and be gentle so you don’t rip up all that glorious meat!

Rotisserie tines (or forks, whatever), spit, and a handsome man ready to do battle with some ribs!

 

When you’re done you’ll have a meat “m” or wave.  Slide the other tine in place and adjust them so the rack is centered in the middle of the spit. 

Now, let’s talk about setting up your grill.  As you can see in the picture below, this is how our grill looks with the rotisserie attachment – sweet!

We use charcoal and we don’t want a roaring fire so we only filled our chimney up about half way.

When the coals are mostly gray, they are ready to go.  Dump them out on either side of your grill, leaving the middle area empty.  You could place a drip pan in the center and fill it with water or beer…but we’re lazy and didn’t do this part.

 

Now, put your lid on and insert a grill thermometer in one of the vents.  You want your temperature between 300-315 degrees.  On the Weber, we control the temp by adjusting the vents on the bottom.  Vents wide open = HOT fire, vents closed = NO fire.  So somewhere there is a happy medium and it’s your job to find it.  But you’re doing it now, before you put your ribs on, so you don’t have to worry about cooking them too hot.

 Now that your fire has calmed down, let’s get those ribs on!  Insert the spit, get them spinning, add your wood of choice (if you want some smokey flavor), and close the lid.  Make sure you have your grill thermometer going in the vent so you can monitor the temperature (ours started to die so Mike started another small fire after 45 mins).   If they are on the small side (like 2.5 lbs, I would check them after 1.5 hours).  Our ribs were closer to 3 lbs so I checked them at 2 hours and those babies were DONE!

 

I’m sure there is someone out there wondering about barbeque sauce.  And why not, it’s delicious!  When we first started cooking ribs we never did sauce.  But lately, I’ve been in the mood to try different sauces so we decided to sauce these as well.  Repeat after me, “I promise to NEVER apply BBQ sauce until I know my meat is done.”  Why?  Because all that heavenly sauce has sugar in it…and sugar burns at high temps.   And that tastes nasty.  And then your neighbors smell it and cringe because they know you are scorching the crap out of some perfectly good meat (I may or may not be that particular neighbor…okay, I am).

Sooo, to test for doneness with ribs it’s easy.  You’ll notice in the pictures the meat has pulled away from the bones.  That’s a good indicator but the best way to tell is to give a few bones a tug.  If the bone tugs easily away from the meat, you’re golden.  We don’t want it to fall apart.  Everyone talks about “fall off the bone ribs” and honestly I don’t get it.  Who wants to eat mushy (because that’s what happens when you cook them until the bones fall off) meat?!  You want your ribs to be tender but still have just a bit of tug when you take a bite. 

I’ll get off my BBQ soapbox now so we can lightly sauce up the ribs.  Let them spin for another 5 minutes (to set the sauce) and pull them off.  It’s time to eat so slice them up and dig in!

If you notice there is a slight pink color to these ribs.  They are fully cooked, this is known as the "smoke ring."  It's caused by a chemical reaction in the meat when exposed to smoke during cooking.  Not the best smoke ring this time around.

See my bite mark?  I think I should get extra points for even putting it down to take a picture.  They didn't last long after this, I can tell you that!!

Before I sign off here I want to give a special shout out to my Father-in-Law.  He was the one to get myself and my hubby hooked on cooking BBQ and grilling food.  He laid a very good foundation and continues to be a resource when Mike and I want to branch out to new BBQ areas!  If it wasn't for him, we would not be eating this well!

Does anyone think they will try some Rotisserie BBQ ribs?  If you do, let me know!