Beef plate ribs are one of the best foods there is when it comes to BBQ, and particularly Texas style BBQ. On top of that, they are actually one of the easiest cuts of meat to prepare and cook as well, which is nice. These massive beef plate ribs were given a light trim, and some heavy seasoning and then smoked at 250 degrees for 9 hours up to 210 degrees. The end result was some massive ribs with perfectly rendered fat.
Tap/Click above to watch the recipe or scroll below for the steps: Video – Traeger.com
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Step 1: The recipe starts with some massive beef ribs. These are plate ribs, also known as short ribs with three large bones. These ribs also have great fat marbling despite only being Prime grade (not Wagyu).
Step 2: The only trimming these ribs received was removing a little bit of hard fat on top that would not render down properly. But other than that no membrane or silverkin removal.
Step 3: The seasoning for these massive beef plate ribs was a Texas-style rub, in this case, the Meat Church Holy Cow BBQ Rub. However, you could easily make up your own salt and pepper rub with some Kosher salt and coarse ground black pepper.
Step 4: As beef plate ribs are so thick, you will want to go heavy with the seasoning as if you were seasoning a beef brisket.
Step 5: After a good coating of seasoning has gone all over the beef plate ribs let the rub do its work and for the salt to penetrate into the meat for up to 30 minutes while the pellet smoker comes up to temperature.
Step 6: For this recipe, the pellet smoker was set at 250 degrees which means those 10 lb beef plate ribs will need to cook for around 8 to 10 hours. If you have less time then running the pellet smoker at a higher temperature is fine, but the smoke flavor will be less developed.
Step 7: This is what the beef plate ribs looked like after smoking at 250 degrees with some Mesquite pellets for 9 hours. No wrap or anything like that, really, this is as simple as it gets when it comes to BBQ.
Step 8: You will want to cook to temperature and not time. The notable point with this recipe is cooking to tender as well. While some may take beef brisket/ribs off around 200 degrees, these beef plate ribs were left a little longer to 210 degrees to render the fat down more.
Step 9: When off the pellet smoker I know the temptation to cut into the ribs will be strong, but to get the best end result you need to resist and let the ribs rest for around an hour, ideally to an internal temperature of around 140 degrees.
Step 10: Taking these beef plate ribs up to that internal temp of 210 degrees and then leaving them to rest back down to 140 degrees shows just how well the fat was rendered and then reabsorbed back into the meat fibers. Fantastic!
Hi, I’m Chris Scott. I started PelHeat.com back in 2007 and I have a background in pellet manufacturing. PelHeat.com is an educational resource on BBQ pellets, pellet grills & smokers. Check out our Pellet Grill & Smoker Database.
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