Spare Ribs on the Big Green Egg with Recipe and Pictures from My Experience

Spare Ribs Prepped and Ready

To continue what I was cooking last weekend (see last weeks post), I did spare ribs on Sunday. My first time doing spare ribs and probably my fifth or sixth time trying ribs in general. The past attempts had provided tough, dry, and dry ribs. I was not sure how this would go, but I used a recipe I found on Big Green Egg Forum and combined with another recipe I found on The BBQ Buddha. 

I started out planning to do the recipe from the forum which is referred to on the forum as Micky's Turbo Ribs. This recipe consists of the following:

• 350 indirect for 1hr 40 min. 
• Before cooking: Pull membrane, mustard, and add rub. 
• Put on at 350 and leave the alone for about that time. 

Although as I was getting started, I found another recipe that I thought would work better for the large slabs of meat I had to cook for the day.

I completely changed over to using The BBQ Buddha recipe which calls for grill to be at 350 degrees on indirect cooking. Preheated the BGE to 350 degrees while I prepared the meat, rub, and the spritz.

1. Trim fat, pull membrane, remove flap meat, and prepare for mustard and rub.
2. Slather with mustard as a binder for the rub.
3. The rub consists of salt, pepper, and paprika
4. Leave the ribs untouched on the BGE for one hour without opening the lid. After one hour, start spritzing. Springs consists of the following.
• 1 cup of apple juice
• 1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar
• A few dashes of hot sauce
• A few dashes of Worcestershire sauce
5. Begin spritzing with the spray every 30 minutes until done.
6. I set a timer and checked the ribs every 30 minutes spraying with the above spritz.
7. At the 3 hour mark, I checked to see if I could see the bones sticking out or how the meat would bend when I picked up with the tongs. Good indication the meat is done. I did leave on for another 30 - 40 minutes continuing the spritz.
8. Pull the ribs when they are done. Let rest before cutting them up. I applied BBQ sauce after I cut them up and while I ate the ribs.

Ribs After One Hour

While I had planned to do Micky's Turbo Ribs when I started, I think changing over to the The BBQ Buddha worked out well for me. I do not think the large spare rib racks would have cooked as needed with Micky's Turbo Ribs recipe, so I am glad I changed over to the other recipe just as I was starting to prep. It was a game time decision to change over to the other recipe.

The spare ribs were so large that they did not really fit on the grill. You might not be able to tell, but the ribs are laying on top of one another in the picture to the left. Meat hanging off of the edge of the grill on all four corners, but it seemed to work. After an hour I was spritzing the meat lifting the top layer and getting moisture to the second rack. 

Spare Ribs Split Up to Levels

After about 90 minutes of cooking, I was able to add a second level and put each rack of ribs on their own level. I thought this would help to evenly cook both racks of meat. The rack that was on the bottom the first 90 minutes of cooking, I put on the top rack. After the first hour, i was spritzing as I mentioned and then after 90 minutes, I split up the two racks and continued the spritz on both racks.

After about two hours, I started checking the ribs by picking them up with the tongs to see how they felt. Continued the spritz, but kept them on for another hour and half or so going by touch of how they looked and felt with the tongs.

Ribs are Done!

Pulled them when I could see bend in the ribs and bones were exposed. Let them rest for 15 - 20 minutes before I started to cut them up. Sampled some of the meat as I cut them up and tasted good. I realized after the fact I did not take any pictures of the cut up meat, but that will be for next time when I try this again.

The meat tasted good. Depending on the meat, I had some that the meat fell off of the bone and others that were a little tough. I think this could have to do with whether it was the meat on the top or bottom to start the cook. I did have someone recommend in the r/biggreenegg post I did about my cook that they recommend using skewer to fit more on to the grill. Of course others recommended using racks to fit more on to the grill, but others, including The BBQ Buddha, do not like to use racks. I certainly had an issue where the meat was too large to fit on the grill for two of them. It created a lot of food to eat, but it was a little difficult to work with the meat on the grill. I think I will try the skewer the next time I try ribs.

I had a fun time throughout the weekend doing different cooks. I really enjoyed the wings that I did and had those for leftovers for days. I want to do wings again and I plan to do ribs again too with some of the adjustments I listed above for the next time I do ribs. I had a fun time doing all of my cooks while Carrie was out of town and now to do some cooking while she is back home and can help me to enjoy what I cook.

Until next time, have a great week and I will talk to you next week.

Poor Mans Burnt Ends with Chuck Roast on Big Green Egg

Grill Ready for Cooking

I found a recipe a while back for Poor Mans Burnt Ends, so I decided to give it a try last weekend. I ordered the rub and BBQ sauce from the Pitboss Grills web site as it sounded pretty good. I had read through a few other poor mans burnt ends recipes and this one sounded the best. We got a little over 3 lb chuck roast. I was excited and got the grill going mid-morning. The recipe said it would take eight hours, but that was on a smoker they were using so it was not going to take as long for my cook.

Followed the recipe to a tee doing the rub all over the chuck roast to start. I set the BGE up for 275 and it stuck on that target temp throughout the cook. The whole cooking process took about four hours.

Chuck Roast Half-way Through Cook

After putting the chuck roast on the grill, I let it sit untouched for a little over two hours when the target temp finally hit 165 degrees. It smelled so good as it was cooking as I could smell the rub that was being cooked and smoking as it went along.

We had a rain storm just as it was supposed to be hitting the target temp which did cause the grill temp to drop a little as I was away from the grill and could not adjust the vents appropriately, but it quickly regained the target temp and finished out to remove the chuck roast from the grill.

After 2 hours and 30 minutes

After two hours and thirty minutes, I removed the chuck roast from the grill.  I wrapped it in aluminum foil and placed it back on the grill for another hour to reach a target of 195 degrees. Again, it smelled heavily as it finished up the last part of the cooking. 

Once the target temp of 195 degrees was hit, I removed from the grill again and let it sit for 15 - 20 minutes before cutting it up into cubes. Placing the cut up cubes into an aluminum foil pan where the meat was covered in brown sugar and the BBQ sauce. The whole tray was placed back on the grill at 275 where it sat for another hour.

Partway through final stage

The goal was to cook the cubes meat in the brown sugar and BBQ sauce until the BBQ sauce became thick from being cooked. This did take a little over an hour to occur. When I opened the grill, which was still set at 275, to check the meet after an hour the BBQ sauce was bubbling as it cooked the meat. The meat was tender to the touch and had a nice color as it finished up on the grill.

As I removed the meat from the grill and brought it inside, it was all Carrie and I could do to not sample it hot off of the grill. So, we let it sit for a few minutes, maybe 15 minutes, and then sampled one piece. Tender and tasted good. We decided we were not big fans of the BBQ sauce but then when we had leftovers the next day, it tasted much better. Next time we do this cook, we will use a KC BBQ sauce.

Dinner is Served

Carrie made roasted potatoes and then Brookville Hotel Sweet and Sour Coleslaw which went along really well with the dinner. The meat was prefect and we had leftovers to last us for two or three more meals. 

Overall, I liked the process. As I mentioned, I would change out the BBQ sauce and also the rub would be different. The meat turned out really well and I would do the whole process again. The nice thing is that I could fit probably three chuck roasts on the grill if I needed to make a lot for an event.

Until next time, have a great weekend and a wonderful week...

Grilled Pork Tenderloin and Asparagus on Big Green Egg Last Sunday… It Was So Good!

Decided to do some grilling last Sunday, March 26. It had been a while since I had grilled. Oliver was helping me get everything ready by being the lookout for the back yard as I got the grill ready. As soon as I come through the family room with the bag to do the fire, he leaps off of the couch and is ready to go outside with me. It was a bit chilly on Sunday, but we did not mind, and every time I went in, or out, of the house, Oliver was right there to help.

Carrie had picked up a pork tenderloin at the store, so we did some seasoning so we could marinate the two pork tenderloins in a plastic bag for a few hours before grilling. Prepped some asparagus to go on the grill too. I realized as I am writing that I neglected to get a picture of everything done plated. I always miss out on doing the final picture as excited to get to eating. Oliver and I had a grand time grilling. He patrolled the people walking and made sure I was doing everything properly. Carrie had bought some IPA beers for me when we were in St. Louis, so I was enjoying those while I grilled. It was so good! I want to grill more!

It had also been a while since I had used the Meater Block, so this was a chance to use those for this cook. Carrie likes pork a little more done, so I set both for a little longer on the grill. Once again, Meater did great and the pork was nice and juicy. The asparagus on the grill turned out really good too. A little crunch, but really good flavor. A little oil, salt and pepper, and right on the grill made for a delicious compliment with the pork tenderloin.

The meal was so good, we are planning to grill again today. Getting ready to head to the store to pick up groceries and we plan to get the pork marinating earlier this time. I will try to capture how we do the marinade so I can include that for next weeks update. I also plan to include a picture of the completed meal before I start chowing down. 

Oliver was so sleepy after helping with the cooking, he fell asleep shortly after we finished with dinner. His tongue out and sacked out while we cleaned up and watched television. Poor little guy worked so hard making sure I was doing everything correctly outside, he slept most of the night as we hung out in the family room. I am sure Oliver will hep today when I cook too and good thing I have a full bag of lump for the grill ready to go.

Hoping this weather sticks around as it is so great outside. The grass is greening up and will start to grow soon. I noticed my first mosquito yesterday afternoon while sitting outside on our patio. Good thing we have Mosquito Joe coming this week to start treatment on our yard. If you have not tried Mosquito Joe, I recommend you do so. When we were not using Mosquito Joe to treat our lawn, I could barely go in our back yard without getting eaten up. We have been using Mosquito Joe for three or four years now. 

I hope you have a great day and be sure to cheer on the Royals today at 1 pm. We need a win badly and also need run support. We are 0 - 2 to start the season and have a total of zero runs in those two games. It has been a rough start, but as they say, there are a lot of games to play.

Have a great week!

Grilled BBQ Chicken Tenders Saturday Night

Again, I do not have any pictures from grilling last night. I think this is primarily due to the fact that after grilling I am starving and want to eat. So, no pictures from last nights feast!

It was a basic grilling of chicken tenders. I did them over high heat burning in the grill marks on each side. As they were about done, I slathered on BBQ sauce. They turned out very nice with Carrie and our friends enjoying them to the point of finishing them off completely.

We also did corn on the grill. Again, very basic with corn wrapped in foil. Nothing else on the corn. Threw them on the grill for about 30 minutes and they turned out great! I enjoy corn on the cob anytime, but on the grill it really brings out the flavors.

I think I said in my last BBQ post that I would take some pictures. I promise there will be pictures with the next BBQ.

Happy grilling!