GrillinFools
Garlic and Herb Ribs
The vast majority of the time when I grill ribs, I hit them with some salt and a BBQ rub, smoke them for a couple hours (around 275-325), and serve. Sometimes, I like to slather a slab with sauce and get all sorts of messy. But one of my favorite ways to grill ribs is to make garlic and herb ribs. One of the problems with doing the garlic and herb thing properly is it takes some time to pick up and prepare all the garlic and herbs. But luckily, I found a way to make buying the ingredients and prepping said ingredients super easy and quick. Enter Dorot Gardens (pronounced Du-Row-T) who make these prepackaged frozen cubes filled with fresh herbs, garlic and onion. I was able to prep these ribs in less than 10 minutes and didn’t have to chop a single onion. Score!
Garlic and Herb Ribs Ingredients:
- 1 slab pork spare ribs trimmed to St. Louis style
- salt
- Uber coarse bourbon smoked pepper (sub fresh ground pepper)
- 3 cubes Dorot Gardens basil
- 2 cubes Dorot Gardens parsley
- 4 cubes Dorot Gardens garlic
- 3 cubes Dorot Gardens onion
- ¼ cup olive oil
Here are those Dorot Gardens cube packs front and back:
Once one of the cubes have had the contents removed, the top of the packaging lays back into place sealing the package off. Slap the lid back on and return it to the freezer for future use.
How to Grill Garlic and Herb Ribs:
Let’s start with those ribs. Remove the skin off the bone side of the ribs (a paper towel is your friend here) and then trim any excessive fat:
Rib Prep
To trim them St. Louis style means cutting off the curved edge at the end of the bones that contains all the cartilage as well as the ribs on each end. One end will be the little skinny ribs and the other will be the super thick ones. Removing these creates an even thickness throughout the length of the slab which promotes even cooking:
Then season with salt and that ultra coarse ground, bourbon smoked pepper. If that can’t be found on those innerwebs, substitute any heavy coarse pepper:
Here’s a look at the pepper we used:
***Pro Tip ~ Always start on the bone side first when seasoning ribs.
That way, when the ribs are flipped over to season the other side, the natural concave of the bones will keep the meat, and that seasoning, elevated above the cutting board and thus negate the necessity for reapplying the seasoning that would stick to the cutting board otherwise.
How to Grill Spare Ribs
Now, set up the grill for two zone or indirect grilling which means fire and smoke wood on one side and the meat on the other:
And here’s a close up of that pepper on the ribs:
Target temp inside the grill is 300F:
The wood!
The smoke wood we used for this post was oak, but it could just as easily be pecan, apple, cherry, peach. For a very comprehensive list of different smoke woods and what they pair well with, check out this link.
You will also see a small aluminum pan sitting over the fire in a few of these pics. I’m a big believer in adding a water pan when slow smoking on the grill.
Time to get our garlic and herbs on!
Now, let’s make up the garlic and herb glaze for those ribs. Plop the content of those Dorot Gardens cubes into a microwave safe bowl:
Then drizzle in that olive oil over the contents of those garlic, herbs and onion cubes:
Then pop that bowl in the microwave for 15-20 seconds and stir it up. It should look like this:
What herbs are good for ribs?
Once the ribs color up a bit and the bones start to show (after an hour or so on the grill) time to slather on some of the garlic and herb glaze:
Here it is in all its ooey, gooey, garlicky, oniony and herby (is that a word) gloriousness:
After 2 hours on the grill, and an hour after the garlic and herb mixture was applied, the bones are peaking out and we are looking good:
At a little over 2.5 hours, our ribs are sitting about 190F which is short of fall off the bone but still tender and juicy but with a firmer bite, which is how I prefer my ribs. They call that competition style:
What is the secret to tender ribs?
Low and slow. We need to break down the connective tissues while keeping the meat juicy. We smoke the ribs slow which breaks those connective tissues down and keeps the moisture in.
Them ribs is done!
And here are our ribs ready to slice:
And finally, sliced:
Garlic and Herb Ribs Summary:
So how were our Dorot Gardens Garlic and Herb Ribs? In a word? Ridonkulous. OK, maybe that isn’t a word. Fantastic? Fabulous? Wonderful? Sublime? I know, I know. That’s not one word, but after ridonkulous was ruled out, I had to go with more than one. So first off we have some wonderfully smoked and juicy ribs. But then we have this fresh garlic, herb and onion glaze laid over the top that that takes these ribs to a whole new place. One can only do so much paprika based rubs. I absolutely crave these ribs every now and again to break up the rubbed or sauced ribs I cook so often. These are almost a delicious BBQ palette cleanser, if you will. I know I will!
Thank you
I’m proud to partner with Dorot Gardens on this post. Their product is simple and at the same time absolutely brilliant. I love not only the flavor and quality but also the ingenuity. And as I always say, I don’t work with anyone unless I absolutely believe in their product. I believe in Dorot Gardens. Just wait until I do a turkey and a beef tenderloin with their stuff! That’s right, I’m gonna win Thanksgiving and Christmas!
Aaand here we have the Thanksgiving turkey recipe and the beef tenderloin.
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Garlic and Herb Ribs
Ingredients
- 1 slab pork spare ribs trimmed to St. Louis style
- salt
- Uber coarse bourbon smoked pepper (sub fresh ground pepper)
- 3 cubes Dorot Gardens basil
- 2 cubes Dorot Gardens parsley
- 4 cubes Dorot Gardens garlic
- 3 cubes Dorot Gardens onion
- ¼ cup olive oil
Instructions
- Skin and trim the pork ribs into St. Louis style spare ribs
- Season both sides of the slab with salt and the bourbon smoked pepper, starting bone side up
- Prepare the grill for two zone grilling otherwise known as indirect grilling
- Target temperature inside the grill is 300F degrees
- Add smoke wood to the fire and place the ribs on the other side of the grill and close the lid
- Place the Dorot Gardens garlic, herbs and onions in a microwave safe bowl and add the olive oil
- Microwave the bowl for 15-20 seconds and then stir into a delicious slurry
- After the spare ribs have been on the grill for an hour and have begun to brown up, slather with the garlic, herbs and onion mixture
- Once the ribs reach 185-205 (2.5-3 hours), remove from the grill and slice
Video
Here are some more glamour shots of this rib cookout:
Scott Thomas
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