Herbed Ribs Smoked with Onion and Garlic

I know most people when they think of smoking ribs they think of hickory, mesquite, apple or cherry.  Not the fruits, in the case of the latter two, but the wood.  And 99% of the time I do to, but I’m here to show you how you can smoke with something other than wood – namely onion and garlic that will infuse the meat with a flavor that seems so obvious once you taste the results.

Have you ever had a White Castle or Krystal belly bomber?  They cook the burgers over a bed of onions so the meat is infused with that flavor.  This is the same concept, only on a grill with both onions and garlic. The aroma alone is enough to try this. Your neighbors will be stopping by in droves to see what that heavenly hint of onion and garlic in the air is coming from.

Let’s start with the herbed ribs.  I did two slabs of baby backs that I brined overnight.

Brine Ingredients:

2 slabs baby back ribs, membrane removed
1 quart apple juice
1/4 cup salt
3 tbsp minced garlic
10 turns of black and white pepper

Remove the membrane from the back of the ribs and put all brine ingredients in a plastic bag. Churn around the bag until the salt dissolves and put in the fridge for 3-12 hours.  I did these overnight.

The next day, they were removed from the brine and patted dry with paper towels:

Ribs in the Brine

Pat Dry

Ingredients:

2 slabs of baby backs (brining optional)
1/2 cup garlic infused olive oil (regular oil can be used instead, in which case, add a tbsp of minced garlic)
1 tbsp Italian herbs (in this case Penzey’s)
1 onion, thick sliced
2 ears of garlic, cloves separated

Ingredients

Slice the onion. Don’t worry about leaving the skin on:

Give me a minute. I think I’m going to cry…

Take the garlic cloves out of the ear and put in a bowl, again, don’t worry about the papery skin:

Sweet Jeebus, that’s a lot of garlic!

Place the onions in with the cloves and submerge in water:

Set that aside and for about 30 minutes.  You could leave them in the water for a couple hours if necessary.

Combine the oil and herbs in a bowl:

Herbed Oil

Now brush the herbed oil onto the bone side of the ribs first:

One of my favorite words comes to mind – slather

Then hit the meat side with the oil:

More slathering

Always apply sauce or a rub to the bone side first so that the curve of the bones will keep the rub or sauce up off the cutting board when you flip them.  If you do meat side first, when you flip them over to do the bone side, the sauce or rub will stick to the cutting board when you go to put them on the grill and require a third coating.

Here are my two slabs ready for the grill:

Slathered

I set up the grill for my standard two zone grilling, coals on one side, meat on the other:

On the grill

There’s a third slab on the grill (bottom right) which I was using to develop another rib recipe. It’s not quite perfected yet, so more on that later.

Now, instead of throwing on a chunk of wood to smoke the meat like I normally do, I toss a handful of the onion and garlic onto the coals:

Smoking with Onion and Garlic

I closed the lid and my grill leveled off around 290 degrees.  My goal was between 275-325 degrees and a cooking time of 2 hours.  This is called the high heat method, but medium heat is more appropriate.  If I were doing spares, I would increase the cooking time about 30 minutes.

The smoke from the onion and garlic is practically invisible.  I took a bunch of different pics with a bunch of different settings on the camera and none of them showed the smoke at all.  The smoke is really, really faint so don’t let that worry you.  You will definitely smell the onions and garlic smoke or vapor.

After 1 hour, here’s what the onion and garlic look like:

Spent

And here are the ribs:

Browning nicely

A close up of the ribs on the left:

Wow, does that look good

As long as I have the lid open, time to hit those herbed ribs with some more oil:

Remember to do all maintenance at one time as long as the grill is open

I can’t help it. More slathering

I’m a firm believer of doing all I can every time I open the lid to reduce the number of times I have to open it.  The temps have been holding steady and my coals still look pretty good, so I’ll just add some more onion and garlic:

Refreshing the smoke

At 90 minutes the temps started falling so I decided to open the lid to add more coals.  The ribs look like this:

Oh, Lord, we got ourselves some ribs!

The ribs are coming along nicely. Check out these on the top shelf:

Yeah, that’s nice

I want to focus on a particular aspect of the above pic:

When doing ribs, always, always watch the bones

That’s some nice separation on the end of those ribs.

I hit the herbed ribs with more oil:

I’m not saying it this time, but I want to

And back to why I opened the lid in the first place, more coals and some more onion and garlic:

Refueled and ready for the stretch run

Now, I’ve got a bit of a problem. I’m in the back yard, where I have no cover and this is what it looked like out front at the 1 hour mark:

Ruh roh…

And 30 minutes later  (when I cracked the lid to add coals) it looked like this:

Double ruh roh

I rolled the grill around front, to the edge of my front porch so at least I could stay dry while I grilled:

Always be VERY careful when moving a hot grill

I timed it well, because within five minutes, my grill looked like this:

I’m GRILLIN’ in the rain. Just GRILLIN’ in the rain. What a glorious feeling. I’m happy again.

And here’s out front:

I’d take this over 105 degrees any day

The 2nd and 3rd pictures above this one, shows that my grill has an offset smoker box, yet I put the coals in the main chamber.  Why?  Because I can’t get the temps in the main chamber above about 200 if I use the firebox, so I rarely use it anymore. Now that I have a two toddlers, I just don’t have the kind of time to smoke ribs for 6 hours.  And the product is fantastic after just 2.

Speaking of after 2, are the finished herbed ribs:

Shadowy ribs

How could you not be craving these ribs right now?

I think either of these methods would be too subtle for ribs.  The herbed oil doesn’t add a ton of flavor by itself, and the smoking with garlic and onions don’t add a ton by itself either, but the combination of the two makes an excellent rib.  If you’re a lover of heavily sauced ribs, this might not be the recipe for you, but if you are looking for something different that really shows off the flavor of the pork itself, then this is your recipe.  I really enjoyed these, and Andy and Mike at work, who I tested them on the next day, agreed.

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

If enjoyed herbed ribs smoked with onion and garlic, and would like to see similar grilling recipes with ribs, click here.

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Click Here To Print Recipe Sheet

Herbed Ribs Smoked with Onion and Garlic

Ribs, slathered in garlic infused olive oil, smoked in garlic and onion

Author: Scott Thomas

Cuisine: BBQ

Recipe type: Ribs

Serves: 6

Prep time:  20 mins

Cook time:  20 hours

Total time:  20 hours 20 mins

Ingredients

Brine

• 1 quart apple juice
• ¼ cup salt
• 3 tbsp minced garlic
• 10 turns of black and white pepper
• 2 slabs baby back ribs, membrane removed

Ribs

• ½ cup garlic infused olive oil (regular oil can be used instead, in which case, add a tbsp of minced garlic)
• 1 tbsp Italian herbs (in this case Penzey’s)
• 2 slabs of baby backs (brining optional)
• 1 onion, thick sliced
• 2 ears of garlic, cloves separated

Instructions

Brine

1. Combine all the ingredients in a bag, shaking well to make sure the salt is dissolved
2. Place in the refrigerator for 2-12 hours
3. Remove from the brine, rinse clean and pat dry with paper towels

Ribs

1. Mix the oil with the herbs and brush onto the bone side of the ribs
2. Flip the ribs over and repeat on the meat side
3. Prepare the grill for two zone/indirect grilling with coals and smoke wood (or in this case onion and garlic) on one side and nothing on the other
4. The target temperature of the inside of the grill is 275-325
5. Place the ribs on the side with no heat and a layer of onion and a handful of garlic cloves on the side with the coals and close the lid
6. Add more onion and garlic when the feint smoke dies down and brush more oil on the meat side each time you open the lid
7. When the meat pulls away from the bone a half inch, the ribs are done (about 2 hours)
8. Remove from the grill, let rest for a few minutes, slice and serve

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1. 

   Barb says:

   May 21, 2013 at 6:48 AM

   I may have the opportunity of getting a dead dwarf peach tree to remove from next door. How long does wood have to ‘age’ before it’s used? I don’t know how long it’s been dead – or does the wood have to be green for smoking? We’ve never smoked before (obviously) but it sounds amazing. Thanks. B

   reply
   • 

     Scott says:

     May 22, 2013 at 9:43 AM

     Barb,

     I’ve smoked with wood cut off the tree that morning. There is a heavy debate about seasoned vs. green wood. I’ll defer to Myron Mixon, the winningest competition BBQer in the world. He used the greenest peach wood he can when he competes. That being said, all commercially available smoke wood is aged. So basically, you can smoke with it right now or five years from now. Good luck with your first smoke!

     …….Scott

     reply