Bacon Pineapple Ribs

When you saw the title Bacon Pineapple Ribs, you expected to see bacon wrapped ribs, didn’t you? We’ve done that a couple times. Somewhat standard bacon wrapped ribs as well as jerk bacon wrapped ribs. But we aren’t going to be wrapping these pork ribs. We’re going to cook up a few slices of bacon, then pour the bacon fat into a pot with pineapple juice, garlic, and honey, reduce it, and slather that deliciousness onto the ribs. Did I mention I will hit the ribs with some jerk seasoning before they hit the pellet smoker?

Bacon Pineapple Ribs Ingredients:

• 2 slabs of baby back ribs
• Salt
• Black pepper
• Your favorite spicy rub (I used a jerk rub)
• 6 slices bacon
• 6 oz of pineapple juice
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 2 tbsp honey

Ribs Prep:

Let’s start off with a slab of ribs. For this cook, I only made one slab, but the ingredients are enough for two slabs:

First, we need to skin those ribs. Flip them over to the bone side and peel the thin membrane off the back.

Pro Tip #1~ Paper towels are your friends. Use a paper towel to get a grip on the membrane and peel it back

Season the Ribs

Pro Tip #2 ~ Always season the bone side of ribs first so that when you flip the ribs over, the natural concave of the bones keeps the rub off the cutting board.

If you do the meat side first, when you flip the ribs over to season the bone side, rub on the meat side is going to stick to the cutting board. When you go to put the ribs on the grill, there will be a clean strip down the middle running the length of the ribs with no rub and nice line of rub on the cutting board

First, season the bone side with the salt, pepper and rub:

Now take care of meat side:

Go outside and start the grill. These ribs need to be cooked indirect which means coals on one side and the meat on the other, in a kamado with a plate setter, or in this case on my pellet smoker.

I set the temp at 300F.

Bacon Time!

While the grill heats up, cook the bacon in a pan:

When all that glorious fat has been rendered out, remove the bacon from the pan and allow the pan and fat to cool:

Once the bacon fat has cooled down a little bit, pour it into a pot with the pineapple juice, honey and garlic:

How to grill Bacon Pineapple Ribs:

Set the grill to 300F (+/- 25F) and put the ribs on the grill (in this case a pellet cooker):

Oh, don’t forget to put the pot with the bacon pineapple slurry in the grill too.

We want the slurry to simmer and reduce:

I’m all about that Baste, that Baste…

After an hour the sauce will be reduced somewhat and the rub will have melded with the meat.

If the reduction were to be applied earlier, the rub would wash off:

Continue to baste the ribs every 15 minutes.

Sexy Ribs!

How sexy does this slab look?

But wait, that slab gets better:

Once the bones peek out 1/4 to 1/3 of an inch, the ribs are done. If you want fall off the bone ribs, smoke for another 30-45 minutes, while continuing to baste every 15 minutes

Time to slice the ribs:

And a close up:

But what about the smoke ring?

Bacon Pineapple Ribs Summary:

The sweetness of the pineapple and the savory of the salty pork fat counter the spiciness of the jerk seasoning beautifully. It makes for a wonderfully complex flavor profile.

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

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Print Recipe

Bacon Pineapple Ribs

Jerk ribs, slathered with a bacon, pineapple reduction

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time2 hours hrs 15 minutes mins

Total Time2 hours hrs 30 minutes mins

Course: Entree

Cuisine: Barbecue

Servings: 4 People

Ingredients

• 2 slab baby back ribs
• salt
• black pepper
• your favorite spicy rub I used a jerk rub
• 6 slice bacon
• 6 oz pineapple juice
• 1 tsp garlic minced
• 2 tbsp honey

Instructions

• Skin the ribs and season the bone side with salt, pepper and the spicy rub
• Repeat on the meat side
• Start the grill with either indirect heat, the meat above a plate setter in a kamado or in this case on my pellet smoker - target temp is 300F degrees
• While the grill heats up cook the bacon in a pan
• When the fat has been rendered out, remove the crispy bacon and allow the grease to cool
• Pour the grease into an oven safe pot with the pineapple juice, garlic and honey
• Place the ribs and the pot with the bacon pineapple slurry on the grill
• After an hour, baste the ribs with the bacon pineapple reduction
• Baste every 15 minutes until the ribs are done which is when the bones peek out 1/4 to 1/3 of an inch or about 2 hours and 15 minutes
• If you want fall off the bone ribs, keep smoking another 30-45 minutes, continuing to baste every 15 minutes
• Remove from the grill and serve

Scott Thomas

Scott Thomas, the Original Grillin’ Fool, was sent off to college with a suitcase and a grill where he overcooked, undercooked and burned every piece of meat he could find. After thousands of failures, and quite a few successes, nearly two decades later he started a website to show step by step, picture by picture, foolproof instructions on how to make great things out of doors so that others don’t have to repeat the mistakes he’s made on the grill.

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BBQ Grilling

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This article was initially published on: January 13, 2022