Asian Baby Backs

We used the Chinese Five Spice in a recent post where we made a glaze of orange soda and hot sauce and slathered it on some chicken wings.  Since then I’ve wanted to use it again in a recipe so I decided to incorporate it into a rub.  I made this a couple of times and tested it out on some coworkers and got some really good reviews so I decided to post it since Mike and Andy liked it so much…

Rub Ingredients:

Chinese five spice (found in most grocery stores)
Brown sugar
Granulated garlic (or garlic powder)
Paprika
Salt and pepper (both black and white)

No amounts.  I’ll explain that in a minute.

The rub is as simple as it is good because the Chinese Five Spice has such great ingredients.  It contains cinnamon, anise, cloves, fennel and pepper:

Combine equal parts brown sugar, granulated garlic and the Five Spice plus a half part of the paprika.  About two teaspoons of the first three ingredients (and one of the paprika) is all you need for one slab of ribs:

I coated each side of the ribs with coarse salt and freshly ground black and white pepper before I liberally applied the rub.  Why two kinds of pepper?  Because each hits different parts of the tongue so it adds a little depth of flavor.  Adding white pepper is completely optional.  Also, apply the salt, pepper and rub bone side first so that when you flip the ribs over to do the other side, the rub stays on the meat rather than the cutting board thanks to the arc of the bones that elevate the meat off the cutting surface.  Do the meat side first and when you flip them over, a lot of the rub will stick to the cutting board.

I set the Grill Manufacturer That Shall Not Be Named up for two zone grilling which means coals and smoke wood on the left and nothing but the meat on the right:

What type of wood is that?  The wood that I felt completed the Asian theme — Plum:

Seemed appropriate to me when I saw the plum at the local fireplace/grill store.

The coals are on the left so my ribs go on the right, bone side down to make sure the rub stays on the ribs rather than stick to the grill grate:

I know it doesn’t look like much of a fire, but the flash washes out the red coals so here’s a pic without the flash so you can see that the left side is indeed red hot:

You’ll also notice that the end of the ribs closest to me in the picture is a little closer to the fire than the upper end:

That’s because that end much thicker than the other end so I want it closest to the heat, but not too close to lose the indirect effect I’m going for.  You’ll also notice that the grill grate is lifted up over the coals and the wood.  That’s so I can add more charcoal and smoke wood easily should either run low.  Now it’s time to put the lid on.  Make sure to position the top vent right over the meat so the smoke has to travel over the meat to get out of the cooking chamber:

I’ll be using the high heat method here which is between 300-325 degrees.  I realize that doesn’t sound very high.  Sounds more like medium, but so many people go with 200-225 for 4-5 hours that this is high by comparison.  They call it the High Heat method because medium heat method doesn’t sound as good. This method gives me a great smoke ring and gets the ribs done to perfection in two hours.  Now for me, perfection is not fall off the bone ribs.  They will be tender and juicy but not fall off the bone.

If you want fall off the bone, at the 90 minute mark wrap the ribs in foil with a little liquid inside (beer, wine, soda, syrup will all work) and put back on the grill and indirect them for 45 minutes.  After 45 minutes, remove from the foil and indirect for another 15 minutes to firm up the rub and the ribs will be fall off the bone every time.

Here are the ribs at the 1 hour mark:

Since I don’t want the bottom left of the slab of the ribs to burn, I rotated them so the bottom right was closest and added some stuffed tomatoes in tin foil nests to the grill (more on those in a future post):

Here are the ribs at the two hour mark:

How do I know their done?  A couple of ways.  For one, I’ve done this method hundreds of times.  The other way I know is the ribs told me.  They told me when the bones started showing themselves:

But how do they look on the inside:

What’s the verdict?

Good flavor in the rub? Check.

Nice smoke ring? Check.

Juicy and tender? Check.

Would I do them again? Absolutely check.

Now comes the question about the plum wood.  How was it? It’s a mild wood but not as mild as apple but doesn’t quite have the bite like cherry.  I would place it pretty close to peach which is one of my favorites.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave them below or shoot me an email.

If you would like other rib recipes, click here.

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