If you really want to serve the best ribs around, starting with some extremely large beef plate short ribs is not a bad idea. With the recipe below, two racks of large beef plate ribs were given a coating of Louisiana Blackened seasoning (melted butter then seasoned), then smoked with Hickory and left to cook for six hours low and slow. The end result really is the pinnacle of beef ribs.
Tap/Click above to watch the recipe or scroll below for the steps: Video – BBQGuys.com
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Step 1: The Blackening seasoning for the ribs starts with 2 tbsp of Kosher Salt and 1/4 of a cup of Paprika.
Step 2: The rest of the Blackening seasoning includes 4 tsp of Cayenne, 1 Tbsp White Pepper, 1 Tbsp Black Pepper, 2 tsp of dry Thyme, 2 tsp of dry Oregano, 4 tsp of Onion Powder, and finally 4 tsp of Garlic Powder.
Step 3: Mix all those Blackened seasonings together with a small whisk, or you could use a food blender.
Step 4: You’ll want to keep around 3 to 4 tsp of the Blackened seasoning to one side for the Whiskey BBQ Sauce.
Step 4: This recipe used two large beef plate short ribs racks, no tinny/skinny ribs here. To begin, the silverskin was removed along with a little fat trimming, but not a lot.
Step 5: Next the Blackened seasoning went down on the bone side of the beef plate ribs. With large beef plate ribs such as these, you need to be very liberal with the seasoning application.
Step 6: For Blackened ribs, this step is important. On the meat side of the ribs before the seasoning went down the ribs were brushed with melted butter.
Step 7: Once the melted had been applied on the beef plate ribs the seasoning went down on the meat side of the ribs, again, very liberally. The seasoned ribs were then covered and left for one hour at room temperature for the seasoning to penetrate the meat.
Step 8: For this recipe, the ribs were cooked on a gas grill with a smoke box. The important point is whether you’re using a gas grill/pellet smoker etc, for Blackened ribs, you want to use Hickory.
Step 9: With the grill pre-heated to 300 degrees, the massive seasoned beef plate ribs went down onto the grates. You’ll want to avoid the direct heat of the gas burners/pellet burn pot so the ribs can cook from indirect heat. The ribs were then left to cook for 4 hours.
Step 10: While the beef ribs were smoking, the BBQ sauce was prepared in a pan, starting with a full 24 oz bottle of ketchup and half a cup of Worcestershire sauce.
Step 11: The next ingredients for the BBQ sauce were the all-important Whiskey (half a cup), followed by half a cup of White Vinegar, and a quarter of a cup of cane syrup (or similar, honey etc).
Step 12: The Whisky BBQ sauce was then brought up to a boil and reduced, you’ll want to stir it to stop it burning on the bottom of the pan. Once it has the thickness you’re looking for, take it off the heat.
Step 13: At the 4-hour mark the ribs were checked on and as you can see they were developing great color from the Blackening seasoning and smoke, while the meat was starting to recede from the bone.
Step 14: So the ribs cooked as consistently as possible, and with them being so large, at the 4-hour mark they are also rotated on the grates.
Step 15: At the 6-hour mark the ribs were checked again, and as you can see the bark had developed even more in a deep dark color and the meat had further receded from the bone.
Step 16: These beef plate ribs were not cooked to an internal temperature but to tender. As soon as the knife could easily enter the meat next to the bone, they were done and ready to come off the grill.
Step 17: When off the grill and cut into you can really appreciate just how large these beef plate short ribs were and also just how well they were cooked.
Step 18: By cooking the ribs low and slow over a total of 6 hours they were exceedingly juicy.
Step 19: And to finish up, the smoked Blackened beef plate short ribs were served with a decent amount of the Whisky BBQ sauce. In terms of backyard BBQ, it really doesn’t get much better than this.
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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