Glazed and blazed beef ribs? Did we burn the beef ribs? No, but we did break out the blowtorch again. Did I mention bourbon was involved in this beef ribs recipe? I recently headed over to Grillin’ Fool Tom’s grilling domain to collaborate on a recipe he developed for smoked beef ribs. Hmmm, let’s see. Two fools, bourbon, and a blowtorch…what could possibly go wrong? Join us for a journey to where beef ribs have never gone before. We’ve never applied a glaze to smoke beef ribs until now.

Glazed and Blazed Beef Ribs Ingredients

1 rack of beef ribs 4-5 lbs. cut into sections as shown
Kosher salt
Coarse ground black pepper

We used a 2/3-1/3 mixture, 2/3 pepper and 1/3 salt as the glaze contains salty ingredients. We’ll get to the glaze a bit later

How to prepare beef ribs

Season the beef ribs with the pepper and salt:

Season the beef ribs good, real good:

How to Grill Beef Ribs

We fired up Tom’s kamado and dropped in a couple nice chunks of post oak. If you’ve never heard of post oak, that’s OK. It just means you aren’t from Texas. White oak is a great substitute. We placed the plate setter in the cooker to deflect the heat around the soon to be glazed and blazed ribs. If you don’t have a kamado, simply put the coals and smoke wood on one side and the meat on the other. Target temp inside the cooker is 300F degrees:

Beef ribs are also called steak on a stick!

Beautiful beef nestled in for a savory, smoky journey:

While the beef ribs smoke, let’s go make that glaze.

Glaze Ingredients:

1 cup reduced sodium soy sauce
1 cup fresh orange juice or juice from a large orange
3-4 tbsp of your favorite barbecue sauce
¼ cup hoisin sauce
3 tbsp honey-substitute agave nectar or brown sugar
3 tbsp mirin or rice wine vinegar
1-2 oz bourbon (be sure to save some for the cook)
Red pepper flakes to taste or your favorite spicy fresh pepper
1 2-3 inch chunk of fresh ginger sliced into discs.
Reserve scallions and toasted sesame seeds for garnish

We’ll wait while you zoom in on that big jug of barbecue sauce.

Are you able to read what is written there? It’s labeled Pig Potion #9. That’s Pig Potion Number Nine and not Pig Potion Hashtag Nine. That jug of southern delight was given to Grillin’ Fool Tom by his brother-in-law Greg (not Grillin’ Fool Greg-it gets confusing when we gather to que). That Greg was on the sauce team of a long time Memphis-in-May competition team and brews up a batch occasionally for Tom. No, we don’t have the recipe. He won’t divulge the secret ingredients to anyone. It happens to be one of the best sauces we’ve ever tasted. Use whatever you like in terms of barbecue sauce for this beef ribs recipe.

Beef Ribs Glaze Recipe

Let’s prep the sauce/glaze. Orange juice first:

OJ into the sauce pot:

Carefully measuring the treasured Pig Potion #9:

Slicing fresh ginger:

Adding the bourbon:

Cook sauce over medium heat stirring often and reduce to a slow simmer for 20-30 minutes to thicken a bit. Reserve a cup for dipping or pouring over the platter later. Oh, and the aroma that filled the kitchen from the simmering sauce was simply scintillating!

Beef ribs after an hour

After an hour this is how the ribs are lookin’:

And this is how they’re cookin’:

My trusty Thermapen (which is a must have and an ideal gift for any backyard pitmaster) says they need another 20 degrees or so and which is where I planned on wrapping them in butcher paper, peach variety of course, to finish the cook. That didn’t happen. We departed the grill site to grab a fried fish lunch at a local establishment named The Cat and the Fiddle.

Should I wrap my beef ribs in foil?

This is the point where I would wrap in foil if I needed to speed the process up. The downside of wrapping in foil is the bark doesn’t develop when in the foil and whatever bark is already there will get soft and a little mushy. If you have the time, skip the foil and let the heat, smoke and rub form that wonderful crust on the outside of the ribs.

Two and half hours into the process

An hour and a half later the beef ribs looked like this with all that glorious bark:

Now we’re ready. How do we know? The bones told us

The bones know

The bones know when the ribs are done. The overhead view better shows the bones:

Beef ribs pulled from the kamado with an internal temp of 206 and time to meet some serious heat.

Here’s an end view just prior to applying the sauce to be glazed with the blowtorch. I can say that the ribs were pillowy soft and oozin’ juice when pulled from the kamado.

Glazin’ time

A thin layer of sauce is applied. We’re going with a light coat so we don’t overpower the beef. We really want the meaty beef and post oak smoky flavors to come through.

Brush it on good, brush it on real good!

Blazin’ time

This is where we take this beef ribs recipe to a whole other level with this glaze for our smoked beef ribs. Why does this always seem to be our favorite part of the cook? Grab that plumbers torch and apply the flame carefully. Just enough to caramelize the sauce into a thin glaze. It is easy to burn the sauce with the sugars involved in the mixture. We overdid it on a bone or two while attempting to get a good photo:

Glazed and Blazed Beef Ribs — Mission accomplished on the good photo

Check out that puddle of flavor coming from the glazed rib. That’s when a hunk of good sourdough
bread is needed to soak up that goodness.

Plated

Here’s the plated ribs with scallions and toasted sesame seeds added for garnish. The knife and fork? Didn’t really need the knife or the fork for that matter but they help make a good pic. Dive in with both hands and face first please.

Just look at these massive hunks of beef. I think it’s like perfectly smoked brisket on a bone:

Glazed and Blazed Beef Ribs Summary

So how was it? The appearance was dark but not burnt, otherwise known as bark. A dark mahogany might best describe the ribs. The glaze added to that effect. How did the ribs taste? A rich, meaty beef flavor, definitely smoke-kissed by the post oak, that we absolutely loved. We are now hooked on post oak which is our new favorite wood for beef. The glaze was unique to our taste buds and added a slightly sweet teriyaki ginger flavor with a touch of heat to the ribs. This beef ribs recipe was a lot of Austin and a little bit Asian or what we call fusion confusion. The glaze added a light crispy crunch to the glorious bark of the beef that was just right. We both agreed that wrapping or foiling wasn’t necessary as the tenderness scored a 9. In barbecue judging a 9 is what most of us call a 10 or in the words of Grillin’ Fool Tom “melts in yo’ mouth like buttah on a hot summer day”! We had never had a glaze for smoked beef ribs until now and we will in the future.

If you have any questions or comments, send me an email or leave them below.

Also, you can follow us on our GrillinFools Facebook page, Instagram, and YouTube feeds

Print Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Glazed and Blazed Beef Ribs

Beef ribs slow smoked on a kamado grill and then glazed with an asian sauce and blazed with a torch to make Glazed and Blazed Beef Ribs

Prep Time20

Cook Time2 30

Course: Entree, Finger Food, Main Course

Cuisine: American, American Fare, Barbecue, BBQ, Beef Ribs, Finger Food, Grilling, North American, Ribs

Keyword: #Grilled, Barbacue Beef Ribs, Barbecue, BBQ, BBQ Beef Ribs, Beef Ribs, BGE, Big Green Egg, Charcoal, Charcoal Grill, Glaze, Glazed, Grill, Grilling, Kamado, Kamado Grill, Ribs, Smoked Beef Ribs, Smoked Ribs

Servings: People

Ingredients

Ribs

4 to 5 lb rack of beef ribs cut into sections as shown
kosher salt
coarse ground black pepper

Glaze

1 cup reduced sodium soy sauce
1 cup orange juice (from 4 oranges)
3 to 4 tbsp your favorite BBQ sauce
¼ cup hoisin sauce
3 tbsp honey (substitute agave nectar or brown sugar)
3 tbsp mirin or rice wine vinegar
1 to 2 oz bourbon (be sure to save some for the cook)
crushed red pepper flakes to taste (or your favorite spicy fresh pepper)
2 to 3 inch fresh ginger sliced into discs
green onions for garnish
toasted sesame seeds for garnish

Instructions

Ribs

Season the ribs liberally with salt and pepper and put them in a 300 degree smoker
Smoke the ribs until they reach an internal temperature of 203F (same as brisket)

Glaze

While the ribs are smoking, prepare the glaze by combining the glaze ingredients in a bowl and mixing through
Heat the glaze over medium heat until it thickens a bit
Reserve scallions and sesame seeds for garnish
Coat the ribs with the glaze and then bust out the blow torch
Using just the tip of the flame, run the heat across the ribs to caramelize the ribs
Garnish with the scallions and sesame seeds