Red Hot Riplets Ribs

We take a slab of pork spare ribs, trim them out to be St. Louis Style ribs, and slather them in cajun seasoning from a popular chip brand located in St. Louis – Red Hot Riplets. We then smoke the pork ribs on an Ugly Drum Smoker (UDS) for a couple hours before putting them in a foil boat with honey and butter. The foil boat ribs go back onto the grill until super tender, spicy and sweet. Well, except where we forgot about the slab for a little too long. More on that below. In the end, the ribs are served with an extra dusting of the seasoning at the end for both garnish and flavor purposes. Scroll down for the foolproof Red Hot Riplets Ribs recipe.

This barbecue recipe is the tale of two slabs. One slab came out beautifully, and the other was neglected while we were shooting another rib recipe. This happens more often than most realize here at GrillinFools.com. The poor results with the first slab are not a reflection of the recipe, just a couple guys (dad and I) who got distracted working on something else and left the first slab unattended. I hope to make sure that everyone reading this recipe will learn from our mistake so we are going to show exactly where it went south and what the results were of where we screwed up.

So what exactly are Red Hot Riplets?

They are a hot barbecue potato chip:

I thought Red Hot Riplets were available all over the country, but it seems they are a St. Louis thing. My wife gorged on these spicy delicacies for months during one of her pregnancies. And since my wife doesn’t really like BBQ (ironic, I know) I always wondered if she would eat some ribs or pulled pork if they were doused in the Red Hot Riplets seasoning. While the chips are mainly relegated to the Midwest the power of the internet has made them available nationwide with the click of a mouse. On top of that, not all that long ago, they made the seasoning that goes on the chips available, called Red Hot Riplets Dust or seasoning.  

These ribs have a nice balance of sweet and heat. So do these hot honey spare ribs. Give them a look.

Here’s the Red Hot Riplets Dust:

Thus, with the second ingredient on the food label being salt, this recipe only requires four ingredients (and some foil to make foil boat ribs)

Red Hot Riplets Ribs Ingredients:

• 1 slab of ribs
• 1 container of Red Hot Riplets Seasoning
• 1/4 cup of honey
• 4 pats of butter
• Heavy duty aluminum foil

How to trim St. Louis style ribs:

For the first slab we cooked with this recipe we simply took a full slab of spare ribs and trimmed them out to be St. Louis style ribs (of course, since Red Hot Riplets are a St. Louis product). The reason we take spare ribs and turn them into St. Louis style ribs is it turns the slab into a perfect rectangle and thus the slab cooks evenly. And it’s incredibly easy to do this.

Here’s a whole slab of spare ribs:

Truth be told, we already trimmed the above slab out and simply put the ribs back together to take the pic.

Here are the cuts:

Go ahead and go back to the first pic and look close for the cuts. I’ll wait. 

Now that we have them trimmed out to be St. Louis style, we still have to skin them, so flip them over to the bone side and pull the membrane (hint, paper towels really help grip that slippery membrane):

If any excessive globs of fat exist on the meat side, trim those off. This slab was pretty clean so I had no meat side trimming.

Now season the slab. Start bone side up (this is so the natural curve of the bones keep the seasoning off the cutting board and thus it doesn’t stick and require re-applying later).

Then flip the ribs over and season the meat side:

But don’t forget the sides:

And the ends:

And the slab is ready for the grill:

Anybody else hear the theme song to the Lion King?

Rib Grilling Instructions:

Time to go onto our rectangle drum smoker at Dad’s house:

Don’t forget that meat we trimmed off the slab.

Season it up and add it to the grill:

I love to use those trimmed off pieces to sample rubs I want to try without having to use an entire slab (which is not cheap right now). 

If you notice that pan below the ribs. That does a couple of things. One it deflects the heat around and away from the ribs (so they can slow cook) and it holds about a half gallon of water which keeps the chamber humid.

Indeed, a humid chamber is a good thing in terms of slow smoking barbecue. 

Here we are looking good, our bones are starting to peek out a little and we want to get our foil boat ready at this point:

And here’s where S&!+ went south!

Take a couple sheets of heavy duty foil and lay them down and form a foil boat (more like a barge) that is a little larger than the slab. Also put the honey and the butter in it:

Then set the ribs in that foil boat (barge) meat side down:

And place the foil boat/slab of ribs back on the grill:

Now this is where we blew it.

Dad and I were shooting this recipe in the backyard, while the ribs above were cooking in the front.

So while we were shooting these rib pics by the lake:

Sadly, these ribs were burning in that slurry of sugary honey (and butter):

Are they supposed to look like that? Uh, nope!

So a couple days later dad sparked up a second slab.

Although he left that pointy end on the slab so they weren’t quite St. Louis style, but they were close.

Let’s pick up the process with the slab #2 in the foil boat (barge):

Now on the drum smoker:

This time, Dad paid more attention to these ribs than he and I did with the other ribs we burnt to a cinder.

It doesn’t take long for those bones to start really peeking out in that barge simmering in honey, butter and pork grease:

Finally, after close to an hour in the foil barge these ribs are done:

That’s how it should look! Nice job dad!

Indeed, we like to pile them all up on a platter:

And then pour that honey, butter, pork grease slurry over the top of the ribs:

Next, hit them with another shake of the Red Hot Riplets seasoning:

And one more hero shot:

Red Hot Riplets Ribs Summary:

So how were they? The heat of the seasoning is mitigated by the savory of the ribs and the sweet of the honey. In fact, the sweet/heat combo is absolutely wonderful. I need to do these ribs again soon! 

If you have any questions about these Red Hot Riplets Ribs, feel free to leave them below or send me an email.

Nobody sponsored this post.

Also, if you could leave us a great review with lots of stars that would be most appreciated!

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

Red Hot Riplets Ribs Recipe Card:

Print Recipe

Red Hot Riplets Ribs

Ribs slathered with a spicy seasoning then placed in a foil boat with honey and butter to finish these sweet heat ribs we call Red Hot Riplets Ribs

Prep Time20 minutes mins

Cook Time3 hours hrs

Course: Entree

Cuisine: Barbecue, BBQ, Ribs

Keyword: Foil Boat, Foil Boat Ribs, Gorgonzola Butter, Honey, Pork Spare Ribs, Red Hot Riplets, Ribs, Spare Ribs, St. Louis Style Ribs, Sweet Heat

Equipment

• Heavy duty aluminum foil

Ingredients

• 1 slab St. Louis style ribs Trimmed
• 1 can Red Hot Riplets Seasoning divided
• ¼ cup honey
• 4 pats butter

Instructions

• Trim the slab of ribs
• Season the bone side first with enough Red Hot Riplets seasoning to coat
• Flip over the ribs and season the meat side
• Make sure to season the sides and ends
• Prepare the grill for indirect grilling
• Place smoke wood on the fire and ribs on the grill (we used oak wood)
• Smoke for 1.5-2 hours then form a foil boat (think barge) with a couple pieces of foil with a inch lip around the edges
• Add the honey and butter to the foil boat
• Place the ribs meat side down in the foil boat, leaving the top of the foil open
• Place the ribs, foil boat and all, back on the grill
• Smoke for another 45 minutes to an hour
• Remove from the heat, slice and drizzle with the honey/butter slurry from the foil and dust with more of the Red Hot Riplets seasoning

Video

More Pics of the Red Hot Riplets Ribs

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.

See Full Bio

BBQ Grilling

Related Posts

Foil Boat Ribs

An Alternative to the 3-2-1 Method for Grilling Ribs

Garlic and Herb Ribs

Pumpkin Butter Ribs

This article was initially published on: June 15, 2022