Herb-Encrusted Baby Back Ribs
In the world of barbecue, it's so easy to have tunnel vision and see ribs only as rubbed down and slow smoked beauties. Sure there's lots of a variety in there—dry, KC sweet, Memphis tangy—but it's still a narrow view of what can be so much more. That's why I was so excited when I first saw these herb-encrusted baby back ribs on Another Pint Please, forcing me to expand my worldview of ribs, and I knew I just had to try time.
These baby backs couldn't be more different than their barbecue counterparts, starting with the rub. Dropping the complex mixed of dried spices, these still start with a rub, but one made entirely of fresh herbs.
Basil, thyme, oregano, and parsley are mixed together and pressed into both sides of the ribs. I was a little apprehensive about this at first, afraid the herbs may burn on the grill, but I put a lot of trust in Mike Lang's grilling abilities, so I went for it.
Then, departing from both low and slow, the rack was threaded on the rotisserie spit to cook over medium, indirect heat with no additional smoke. This in ingenious method to cook them, since the slowly rendering fat from the ribs will baste the rack in flavorful, porky greatness.
After about two and half hours, the ribs had turned to a beautiful reddish-brown and the herbs were solidly embedded in the meat to form a bark like none other I'd ever seen. At this point my mouth was watering.
But one final step of basting the ribs with a garlic and basil infused oil kept me from pulling the ribs and devouring them at that point. Just another half an hour and the meat was tender and these babies were ready for consumption.
Without smoke, the pork had a very mild flavor that let the subtleties of each herb come through. They were juicy and tender with just the right pull off the bone, but for such a barbecue freak as myself, they were lacking just something a little extra. I would put my money on that something being smoke, and if making them again, I'd throw on a wood chunk or two to coax a little more flavor into the rack, and then I'd deem these near perfect. More important though, these ribs have opened up my mind to think outside the smoker, and I'm now awash in dreams of ribs of all types, the question is just where to go next.
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Comments
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Mike Wow, Josh, those look great! Your timing is crazy, too. I just cranked out a batch a couple Saturdays ago...with smoke! Sadly, they didn't turn out as good as usual, as I let them spin a little too long. For the the BBQ purists, make note that over the years I've had friends who are not solid BBQ eaters who can't get enough of these. It's a great alternative to smokey, sweet ribs. Thanks for the shout-out and all of those mouth watering photos!
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Russ Hello Josh. Like you I am not a Pro Chef / Writter. I am just a Guy that likes to play with fire. I recently found your site and like the layout and info. I have bookmarked it to return often. I recently started a site on grilling, and would like very much if you could check it out and give me your thoughts. thank you in advance. my site is www.Grillingtipsandgadgets.com .
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Chris I've done the rotisserie rib technique with beef ribs but not pork. It's good that you take chances like that to do something different.
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kenny reed How would these turn out cooked in a traditional offset smoker? The pictures seem to indicate they were cooked more with direct heat than not to get that good char
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Josh @Kenny reed They should turn out well. These weren't done over direct heat, but certainly hotter than the 225 degrees I normally smoke ribs. The real difference in these is the rotisserie, which bastes the meat in it's own juices, creating that rich and beautiful brown crust.
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Clutchngrab What kind of rotisserie setup do you use? I too have the weber smokey mtn and a 22 inch grill. It may be time to add a rotisserie to the mix.
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Josh I use the Weber Rotisserie, fits 22" kettles. I love it and think every griller should have one!