When I was in college the food was nothing like what the students at Shepherd University get. I nearly wanted to matriculate when I read this email, recipe and saw the picture from Guest Chef Scott Anderson. – CB
Hiya CB -The semester at Shepherd University is underway I thought our incoming students would appreciate the end of summer just a bit more if we served some ribs at one of their first meals. I wanted these to be special - so I decided to smoke them on my Char-Broil Double Door Smoker. I ordered an 80lb. case of Baby Back Ribs from our butcher and had them remove the membranes and package each one individually. First I laid out the ribs in sheet pans and used my own “Chef Scott’s Rib Rub” rubbed liberally into both sides of the ribs. Next I covered them with plastic wrap and placed them in our large walk-in cooler for 3 hours to soak in the seasoning . I needed a short-cut to ensure even cooking and that all of 80lbs. would be done about the same time so I pre-cooked them in a convection oven for 3 hours at 225F degrees.
Next I removed the ribs from the large convection oven and with some creative arranging I got all the ribs into the double door smoker. I used hard wood charcoal to get the fire going in the firebox and threw hickory chips onto it to get some smoke going and then added water soaked chips to a Cast Iron Smoker Box. This worked perfectly and I added more hickory chips about every hour to keep the smoke at a constant level.
I monitored the ribs with a digital thermometer and maintained them at 225F - 250F degrees by adjusting the damper along with adding 8-10 charcoal chunks to the firebox every 30-40 minutes. I did have a brief rain shower that required some additional charcoal but the fire dropped only to 200F degrees and responded immediately when I did so.
I rotated the ribs in the smoker to make sure everything cooked evenly and after an additional 4 hours of smoking the ribs were ready to hit the table. I grabbed a large pewter platter and removed several racks to place aside for quality control…ahem…and took the remaining racks back to the University for the next day’s lunch crowd. I wanted to see how they stood up to chilling and reheating for the next day and I must say they couldn’t have been more delicious. The smoke flavor penetrated the meat nicely. The cooks portioned the racks into into 3-4 rib sections after setting the sauce to the ribs reheating in a 375-degree oven for 25 minutes. The ribs almost made it to the end of lunch but we ran out before the meal was completed and probably could have used another 20-30 pounds. In all it was a great success and I’m looking forward to more smokin’ and grillin’. - Chef Scott
If you’d like to view a printable recipe or to save one to your Free “My Favorites” account on the Char-Broil web site, just click on this link – CLICK HERE
More Rib Recipes can be found in Search Recipes in the Barbecue & Smoking pages – CLICK HERE
Everyone at the Amazin’ Blazin’ BBQ Festival is now IN…with Char-Broil and The Big Easy! The oil-less turkey fryer stole the show this past weekend – visitors to the event site could not believe that it used absolutely no oil!
