BBQed some Country Style Ribs

I was at Food Lion the other day and they had Country Style Ribs half price, so I grabbed a 4lb box.  What the heck, right?  They’re cheap.

For those that don’t know, Country Style Ribs aren’t ribs.  They’re from a pork butt cut into pieces, and pork butt isn’t butt, it comes from the shoulder.  Got it?

This is the way I cooked them.  I really fluctuated between grilling them and BBQing them, high heat versus low-and-slow.  I went low-and-slow.

I used some pork rub and let them sit for a few hours in the fridge.  About an hour before cooking them I took them out of the fridge to bring their temp up some.

I prepped the Weber Smokey Mountain (WSM) by filling the charcoal ring up with Kingsford (K) and a hunk of hickory in the middle for that smokey flavor.  I’m going to use the Minion Method (MM) to cook.  I used a chimney starter with about 25 briquettes in it to get started.  This is where my problem started.  I should have used 10-12 briquettes and knew that, but for some reason I didn’t.  This led to temps around 35*-50* higher then I usually cook.

Once the coals were hot I poured them over the unlit charcoal and assembled the WSM and waited for the acrid smoke from the K to clear and the temps to come up.

A short time later my wife started complaining about the campfire smell throughout the house.  OOOOpppsss… I left the screen door window open and it’s only about 15′ from the WSM.  Yep, the house smelled and I was in the dog house.

I put the “ribs” on with a remote thermometer, but I was really going to go by time and feel.  The therm was a backup.

After about 2 hours I foiled the “ribs”, added some apple juice and put them back on.  I basted with apple juice mixed with some of the rub every now and then.

A couple hours later they were getting pretty tender so I began heating up my Weber Performer for some direct heat at the end.  Soon enough I had those coals super hot so I assembled everything, pulled the “ribs” off the WSM and seared those babies as best I could.  You see, for the most part they were falling apart, so not everything got the high heat treatment.

I served with a baked potato and all the fixins.

Needless to say, if you’ve been reading this blog you know my wife has gone vegetarian again, so guess what I’ll be eating for the next few days.

When I do them again I’ll be sure to cook at a lower temp and use more rub.

All-in-all for 50% off I’d say the Country Style Ribs are worth giving a shot.  They’re especially useful if you don’t want to spend 12-14 hours doing a full butt.