Smoking Ribs on a Gas Grill | Basics with Babish

this episode is sponsored by national Geographics bark skins bark skins is a new limited series that takes place in New France which is present-day Quebec in the 17th century it premieres on National Geographic made 25th the show follows the settlers and their struggles where it's always the survival of the fittest in this era for both preservation and flavor food was often smoked over an open fire that sounded a little labor-intensive though especially since the majority of us have a thing with a propane tank in our backyard but with a few simple tweaks you too can enjoy one of the first distinct cuisines of the Americas using only the humble gas grill let's get down to basics [Music] all right so folks this is not your typical episode of basics with babish this is backyard with babish where today we're gonna be exploring how to smoke on a gas grill barbecue purists will tell you that's punishable by law but at the end of the day if you give them a rack of smoky flavorful juicy ribs and they're still complaining just don't invite them over next time now you can smoke all kinds of stuff using this method but as an example we're gonna go with ribs and for ribs and most other barbecue we need a spice rub so my favorite baseline spice rub starts with about a half cup of sweet paprika maybe about a tablespoon of smoked paprika if you want to juke the smoke stats but hopefully we won't need that about a half cup of dark brown sugar maybe two or three tablespoons of chili powder and a hefty sprinkling or about a tablespoon each of ground ginger garlic powder and onion powder and then we start getting into the optional stuff how about a teaspoon or two of ground sage this along with a teaspoon or two of dried oregano can bring some nice Urbanus to the party how about a teaspoon of ground mustard seed just gonna bring a little Tang a little acidity and a half teaspoon maybe a full teaspoon of ground cayenne if you want a little heat decidedly not optional is a solid tablespoon of ground pepper preferably freshly ground but forgive me and a tablespoon of kosher so that's way too much let's just shake out about a tablespoon of that and then try to get the rest back into the box here I don't want to spill any salt that's bad luck that's not working excuse me while I go inside and very carefully drop this into a bowl and there you have it all the building blocks of a very basic Memphis dry rub a dry rub is not only necessary to build flavor but over time to develop the prized of dark that develops on the outside of smoked meat once it's all mixed together and homogeneous now's the time to give it a taste in the most efficient way possible by throwing it upwards in the air and catching it with your tongue and adjusting as necessary what does it need how's the balance between sweet and salty and savory rubs sauces and smokers alike are all subjects of heated contention so there's no exact formula here this is an opportunity to build flavors and develop your own style once you've got your rub in a place where you like it it's time make good on its name and give it a rub down on some ribs specifically of the babyback variety these are some of the quicker cooking and more forgiving ribs that you can find but we can't just rub them down and call it a day first we have to remove a papery membrane from underneath the ribs this is best done by finding the edge of the membrane using a paring knife and then using a paper towel to grip peeling it off in one smooth unusually satisfying motion be sure not to skip this step this membrane prevents fat from rendering out of the ribs and no matter how long you cook it for it will remain chewy and inedible so once that's removed your racks are ready to rock but before they head over to the heat we need to rub them down with our rub set aside about a half a cup of your rub for later use and sprinkle the rest generously all over every square inch of your ribs just sort of Pat it down and spread it out as you go to make sure that it's absorbing a little bit of moisture on the outside of your ribs and make sure that no single solitary square inch goes uncovered top bottom and sides right now is quite simply not the time to be bashful about rubbing once every facet of your racks have been stained in an even coat of crimson we're gonna let these guys sit out at room temperature for about an hour it's gonna help a sort of crust form on the outside of your ribs which will make for a stronger bark later on so while these guys sit out we can discuss how we're going to convert our gas grill into a smoker now gas grills are a far cry from an ideal smoking setup there's no wood for starters but it's also full events through which smoke can escape and the burning of propane creates a very dry cooking environment so we're gonna offset those a couple different ways first up the lack of wood we're going to cut ourselves a length of aluminum foil and on one side pile a few handfuls of small wood chips for smoking you can go with anything from Apple to pecan to cherry to mesquite I'm going with Hickory we're then gonna fold that foil onto itself and crimp the edges to make a little foil packet of wood chips and if you like you can make three or four of these ahead of time because you're probably gonna go through one every hour and a half or so once that's all crimped into a pretty little package we're gonna cut four or five vents into the tops of smoke can't escape this guy is then headed directly on top of the heat plates that sit right above your actual burners we want it as close to the heat source as possible so the wood begins to smolder and you guessed it smoke you'll also notice that we're placing it on the far right side of the grill this is so we can have all of our heat localized on the right side of the grill and place our ribs on the left side of the grill creating a BBQ essential known as indirect heat next up we're gonna compensate for the very dry cooking environment furnished by a propane grill by placing a couple disposable aluminum pans right over the wood chips and filling them halfway with good old-fashioned tap water now you could use apple juice or beer but either way these guys are gonna simmer and introduce some much-needed steam into the situation now we're gonna crank our rightmost burners over high heat remove this kind of bun warmer rack we've already got smokin hot buns if sorry close this guy up and wait for your improvised smoker to start well smoking now we don't want the wood chips to burn too hot or too fast so once they start smoking like this we're gonna turn the heat down to medium in an effort to both slow combustion and maintain a grill temperature between 225 and 275 degrees Fahrenheit once the smoke production sort of slows down a little bit and ideally turns from white to blue it's time to introduce our ribs to the situation for this you can optionally use a rib rack this is going to help the ribs cook a little bit more evenly so I'm just gonna slice these guys in half and dab the cut end and rub to make sure that we're totally covered and start to stand the ribs up vertically on the left side of the grill away from the heat in fact we want the ribs as far away from the heat as possible without touching the wall of the grill also we want the ribs oriented like this perpendicular the heat so they're getting even exposure then we're going to close the lid and from this point on make every effort to open it as seldomly as possible making slight adjustments to the burner as necessary to maintain that temperature of 225 to 275 now ideally you want to use an ambient temperature Pro for this not the built-in gauge on the grill but if you gotta use the gauge it's not the end of the world it's just not gonna give you as good results so just peek out the window every 15 20 minutes make sure that the temperature hasn't ventured too far outside that range and make minor adjustments as necessary now after an hour you're going to notice that you're not producing nearly as much smoke the first thing we're to do to remedy that is simply rotate the wood packet so it gets a little bit more varied exposure to the heat this is probably gonna buy you an extra half hour of smoke tops but eventually your fuel is gonna run out and you're gonna have to feed the beast so simply get that smoking hot bag of wood chips out of the way and drop in a fresh one you did make those ahead of time didn't you you didn't well they take like ten seconds to make so no big deal once the packet is replaced the smoke initiation procedure is very much the same crank these guys over high heat for about five six minutes until thick white smoke begins to billow out of your grill now more smoke does not necessarily equal better so for both the ribs flavor and tenderness we need to exercise temperature control if you're seeing tons of thick white smoke like this your fire is too hot turn down the flame once you see this the thin sacred blue smoke that's when you've hit the sweet spot now all there is left to do is maintain this smoke and the ambient temperature for anywhere from four to six hours replacing your wood packet three or four times depending on how much smoke flavor you want to get there is no possible way to prescribe a cook time for anything when you're smoking it's gonna depend entirely on what you're smoking what kind of meat it is how thick it is how much connective tissue there is how hot your grill is how well you've maintained the temperature a million-in-one mitigating factors all dancing together in a delicate ballet known as barbecue just try to maintain the environment as best you can refill the water pans as necessary and turn your ribs 180 degrees every 90 minutes or so to make sure that they're getting even exposure to the heat throughout this process we've got plenty of time to make a barbecue sauce another hotly contested and wildly regionalised aspect of barbecue the sweet sour and sticky substance that most of us are accustomed to is Kansas City style barbecue sauce this starts with a small 14 ounce bottle of ketchup and here we go I'm gonna try to say it correctly a quarter cup of Worcestershire sauce did I do it right I had to Google how to say it first one or two tablespoons of classic ballpark yellow mustard a little squeeze or a few dashes of your favorite hot sauce and you could use garlic powder and onion powder but I like to grate two small cloves of garlic and about a quarter of a red onion to I clean with the sauce for a little extra texture and flavor and then we got to balance that all this sour and savory with some sweet usually taking the form of about half a cup of dark brown sugar I go ahead and say hello for the first time to your new neighbors at the brown sugar as well as a few generous dashes of your barbecue rub regular sized whisk all these guys together and then just like the barbecue rub give it a taste what does it need is it too sour is it too sweet mine is a little bit too sour so I'm going to offset that with some blackstrap molasses also I want some more warmth and spice from my barbecue rub so I'm gonna toss a little bit more of that in there once it is perfectly balanced as all things should be it's time to cover it and let it simmer over a medium low heat for about ten minutes to let all those flavors get to know each other meanwhile excuse me meanwhile my ribs are at about the five hour mark and they're looking pretty pretty good we want them to hit about 200 degrees Fahrenheit at their thickest point and when stretched we want the meat to slightly separate in the bones to feel a little loosey-goosey that means that these guys are ready to finish so I'm going to remove them from the rack and place them directly on the grill grates still on the cool side of the grill then I'm gonna at them with a generous shellac of our homemade barbecue sauce we want this to form the ultra sticky caramelized layer that forms on the outside of ribs to make this happen we got to close up the grill and crank those far burners as high as they'll go until the ambient temperature of the grill reaches about 450 degrees Fahrenheit this is gonna give our barbecue that stick to your ribs and your fingers and your teeth kind of extra credit once that layer is soft and sticky but not fully hardened it's time to take these guys off the grill let them rest for about 10 minutes give them one last brush down with sauce and there you have it some almost fully legit barbecue off the gas grill I'm sure I'm gonna catch hell for saying that but if all you got is a gas grill in your backyard this is the closest you can get to the real thing you can even see that we've achieved a life pink smoke ring around the outside perimeter of the meat and when subjected to the squeezes so all the juices come out tests they pass with flying colors because these ribs receive the slow and low treatment they so dearly desire and now I get to receive the ribs I so dearly desire I hope you guys give this one a try for yourselves it's a lot intimidating and you're in a lot more control than you might imagine so this Memorial Day try your hand at some barbecue and try a new series about the birth of the Americas thank you again to national Geographics bark skins for sponsoring this episode barks canoe limited series on National Geographic based on a New York Times best-selling novel it follows a disparate group of outcasts and dreamers battling to escape their pasts while navigating brutal frontier hardships in the new world this Memorial Day channel your inner 17th century settler and fire up some meat or veggies and be sure to check out the premiere of bark skins on National Geographic on May 25th [Music]

Channel: Babish Culinary Universe

Views: 1,808,799

Rating: 4.9560375 out of 5

Keywords: binging with babish, babbish, basics with babish, cooking with babish, gas grill ribs, gas grill smoking, how to smoke using gas grill, smoked ribs on gas grill, smoked ribs, smoked ribs recipe, how to smoke ribs, how to smoke ribs on a gas grill, gas grill smoker, gas grill smoker box, how to cook ribs on a gas grill, smoke ribs, smoke ribs on gas grill, babish grilling, grilling with babish, backyard with babish

Id: sX2fsvYkKF4

Length: 12min 45sec (765 seconds)

Published: Thu May 21 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/LouBrown]

Nice job. One of my BBQ pet peeves is when people talk about fall-off-the-bone ribs like that's an ideal thing. That just means overcooked ribs to me.

Also:

Regular-size whisk all these guys together

Blasphemy.

[u/Princep_Makia1]

I mean this is a pretty legit way to do it. Lots of competitive bbqers finish their ribs wrapped in tin foil in the stove. Check out Henry soo. He cooks on a webber smoky mountain and finishes them in a stove. After about 2 hours your meat wont get any more Smokey then they are then. So babish wasn't far off and offered a legit alternative to using just a smoker.

[u/veclesus]

how did he get all that spice rub out of his beard?

[u/Hydra_Master]

I was thinking about buying one of those old-school smokers (this one specifically), But if this works well enough, I might change my mind. I honestly don't need more appliances around.

[u/[deleted]]

Damn, babish has graduated to the all clad copper core. I’m hoping one day I can afford those babies, but my D3s are pretty great now.

[u/darthjoey91]

Propane: For tasting the meat, not the heat.

[u/avsman]

Binging with Thanos has a nice ring to it

[u/unitedshoes]

This episode's sponsorship made me want to see Babish team up with... I want to say "James"?... Townsend and bust out some as-authentic-as-possible 17th century cooking.

[u/BeefErky]

Smoking with Babish