Name: Barbecued Beef Back Ribs
Total time: 4 h 45 min
Cuisine: US & Canada
Ingredients: 3 tablespoons brown sugar; 4 teaspoons chili powder; 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper; 1 tablespoon salt; 2 teaspoons pepper; 3–4 beef ribs (3 to 4 ribs per slab, about 5 pounds total) (see note); 1 cup wood chips , soaked for 15 minutes

Why This Recipe Works

Traditional Texas barbecued beef ribs are placed in pits for up to 10 hours. The low heat and smoke slowly permeate the meat, melting away fat, building flavor, and creating unforgettable crust. We wanted to streamline our recipe for Texas Barbecued Beef Ribs to work on our backyard grill without shortchanging the ribs. Our beef ribs contained a lot of connective tissue, or collagen, which needed a steady supply of low heat to break down and tenderize. Since we didn’t want to spend a full day smoking our ribs, we turned to a surprising technique: steaming. To speed things up before smoking on the grill and to tenderize the meat, we steamed the ribs in the oven on a tray of water covered with aluminum foil. After steaming, we smoked the ribs on the grill over indirect heat (banking all the coals to one side of the grill and placing the ribs on the empty side) using wood chips to duplicate the smoke of a pit. The surface of the meat dried and formed a spicy, crusty bark.

Before You Begin

Beef ribs are sold in slabs with up to 7 bones, but slabs with 3 to 4 bones are easier to manage on the grill. If you cannot find ribs with a substantial amount of meat on the bones, don’t bother making this recipe.

Instructions

MAKE RUB Combine sugar, chili powder, cayenne, salt, and pepper in bowl. Pat ribs dry with paper towels and rub sugar mixture all over ribs. (Ribs can be wrapped in plastic and refrigerated for 24 hours.)

STEAM RIBS Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 300 degrees. Arrange ribs on wire rack set inside rimmed baking sheet. Add just enough water to cover pan bottom, then cover pan tightly with aluminum foil and bake until fat has rendered and meat begins to pull away from bones, about 2 hours.

SMOKE RIBS Tightly seal wood chips in foil packet and cut vent holes in top of packet. Open bottom vent on grill. Light about 100 coals; when covered with fine gray ash, carefully pile on one side of grill. Arrange foil packet directly on coals. Set cooking grate in place and heat, covered, with lid vent open halfway, until wood chips begin to smoke heavily, about 5 minutes. (For gas grill, place foil packet directly on primary burner. Heat all burners on high, covered, until wood chips begin to smoke heavily, about 15 minutes. Leave primary burner on high, shut other burner[s] off.) Scrape cooking grate clean. Arrange ribs on cool side of grill and barbecue, covered, flipping and rotating slabs once, until ribs are lightly charred and smoky, about 1½ hours. Transfer to cutting board, tent with foil, and let rest 10 minutes. Serve.