3-2-1 Pork Ribs

Make Falling off the bone Pork ribs every time.

These are called 3-2-1 Ribs because you cook for 6 hours total, 3 hours then 2 then 1 for each of the steps.

Ingredients

1 Rack of Pork Ribs

BBQ Rub

1 Stick of Butter

~1/4 cup of Brown Sugar

2 tablespoons Honey or Molasses (Optional)

BBQ Sauce (At least a cup)

Brine (Optional):

1/2 Gallon Water

1/2 Gallon of Ice water (Or 4lbs of Ice)

80g Brown Sugar

50g Salt

Specialty Tools

Extra-Wide Heavy-Duty Aluminum Foil

Smoker (Optional)

Water tight container that can hold the rack of ribs for brining (Optional)

You want to make ribs? I tell you how to make ribs.

Its nice on the smoker, but its not needed, you can do it in the oven.

Note, this is not of my devising, but I learned from BBQ masters. This makes falling-off-the-bone pork ribs.

For the ribs, I recommend baby back, but it'll work with whatever you got as long as its pork ribs.

For the BBQ rub, be careful you don't get something that is too sweet. I actually like to use the "Bonesucking Sauce" Rub. It has some nice citrus notes to it that I like. However, if you are doing it in the oven, I suggest using something with some smoked paprika in it to get some smokey flavor into it.

Check out my BBQ Sauce recipe for BBQ sauce for ribs.

As for amounts of stuff, I honestly haven't measured, so this is best guess.

I say 240F here. I have found that 225 is a bit too low, and 250 starts being a bit too high.

On Brining: This is an optional step. Brining gives the meat more flavor inherently by getting salt penetration a lot deeper. However, having a container it all can fit in can be a pain to find. Brown sugar is better, but you can use regular sugar. I use brining salt because it dissolves faster, but you can use any salt. I have a long tub with a lid, but if you have a very large zip-top bag you can use that fits the ribs (I recommend double bagging if you do). You also can cut the ribs in half to get it to fit better. You might make too much brine. If so, you can use it on any meat (especially poultry, always brine your bird), and just note how much you needed and just keep the ratio. However, you can always add some water if you don't quite have enough. Its more of a guide than a rule.

Instructions

1. 3 Days before, Prepare the brine by simply bringing the half gallon of water up to a near boil (or fully boil) and dissolve the sugar and salt into it. Remove from heat and add the ice water to help cool it down faster. If need be, chill overnight, you just want to get it down below 40F.

2. 2 days before, put the ribs in the brining container and pour the brine in until its completely submerged. If your container is tight, make a point to rotate the ribs or flip it over 24 hours in.

3. The night before, Pat your ribs dry with paper towels, then Liberally coat both sides of the ribs with the BBQ dry rub and then lay it on a tray with a baking rack on it to let air flow under it. Then put it in your fridge uncovered. If you used the brine, rinse off the brine in cold water before you pat it dry.

4. Preheat your smoker or oven to 240F. If smoking, I usually use either just a blend or fruit wood like apple or peach. I also try to let the meat sit at room temperature for 15 minutes or more if I can, but it doesn't always happen

5. Place your ribs into your cooking vessel and let it cook for 3 hours. Don't fiddle with it, just leave it alone.

6. After 3 hours, take it out of the oven or smoker. If you are smoking and want to move this to cooking with your oven at this point, you can, it is often easier (don't forget to preheat).

7. Lay out 2 pieces of the extra wide heavy duty aluminum foil that is plenty big to fully wrap the ribs. sprinkle out half the brown sugar, then cut the butter up into small chunks and spread it out on the brown sugar, then half the honey or molasses on top of it. Lay the ribs meat side down on this, then spread the rest of the honey/molasses, butter then brown sugar on top. Tightly wrap the ribs in the aluminum foil but be careful you don't puncture the foil (Sometimes happens with the bones). This is why there are two layers. You want this to be tight enough that the butter and juices don't drip out. Put it on a tray for ease of moving it.

8. Keeping the meat side down, cook at 240F for 2 hours. Since you won't get any extra smoke flavor with it in the tin-foil (And you don't get much more after the first few hours anyways) you can move everything inside to your oven to do this.

9. Take your ribs back out, and very carefully unwrap them and pour the meat juices somewhere. There is a ton of juice here, and I keep looking for something to do with it, but haven't quite found it yet. It probably could be turned into a lovely dipping sauce. Still working on that.

10. Carefully flip your ribs back onto a tray with the meat side up. If you are in the oven, definitely want a foil lined tray under them for ease of cleanup. They are probably almost falling apart at this point, so be careful.

11. Baste some BBQ sauce on top. its up to you how liberal you are. I like my Cheerwine sauce on here, but you really want anything with enough sugar content to make a good glaze. I use a silicone brush to do this.

12. Cook for 1 hour, still at 240, and repeat the basting/glazing process every 15-20 min until its done. Don't baste right before you take it out, you want the sauce to be a little glazed on.

Serving

Serve however you want, but I tend to do a serving size of 1/3 of a rack for 1 person. You don't need to cut these up into riblets unless you want to. You can generally just eat these with a fork.

Freezing

If you wrap tightly in aluminum foil, you can freeze a serving perfectly well and just reheat later by unwrapping the top, baking it in the oven at 300F for about 30 minutes and you can do a layer of the basting at the beginning if you think too much stuck to the foil.