Pork ribs love citrus. It helps make them tender and it helps layer in more flavor. Check out this recipe that brings in orange juice and pineapple for this no-fail 2-2-1 rib cook!

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2-2-1 Tropical Ribs

Take your taste buds for a tropical vacation with these 2-2-1 side ribs incorporating flavors of pineapples, oranges and honey!
Course Main Course
Cuisine bbq
Keyword pineapple, pork ribs, ribs, smoked ribs
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 5 minutes
Servings 4 people (1/2 rack each)

Equipment

  • A smoker - charcoal, pellet, wood, so long as you can control the temperature it doesn't matter!

Ingredients

The Beginning

  • 2 St. Louis cut side ribs
  • Meat Church Holy Gospel

The Foil

  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 2 tbsp orange juice
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup butter - chunks
  • 1/4 cup Blues Hog Original
  • 4 slices pineapple
  • 1/2 Onion Sliced thinly
  • 1 Clove Garlic Sliced thinly
  • 1 Zest of 1 lime

The Finish

  • 1 cup Blues Hog Original

Instructions

The Beginning

  • Start your smoker, you want it to have time to reach 225-250° before the ribs go on.
  • Peel the membrane off the back side of the ribs. Using paper towel for leverage can help big time if you find it hard to get a hold of it to pull it off.
  • Liberally cover the ribs with Meat Church Holy Gospel rub. Start with the bottom, then finish on the top and set aside until your smoker reaches temperature.
  • Once your smoker reaches the temperature, put the ribs on. They are best smoked with a fruit wood like peach, or apple, but you're not going to go wrong here. Experiment. Maple, hickory, oak - ribs will take it all. Put the ribs, unwrapped directly on the smoker grill. Set a timer for 2 hours

The Foil

  • After 2 hours, the ribs should have a nice colour - mahogany, reddish. This is the time to get on the bus to flavour town by wrapping them in foil with the foil ingredients to layer in extra flavour.
  • Pull out a length of tinfoil that is about 30% longer than the ribs. Down the center place 4 1/4 inch slices of pineapple, large enough to cover the bottom of the ribs. On top of the pineapple, spread about half of the sugar, 1/2 of the honey, onion, garlic, lime zest orange juice and 1/4 of the blues hog. Place the ribs on top of the this gooey goodness, meat side up. On the meat side, add remaining sugar, honey and butter. Wrap the foil tight repeat with second rack of ribs and place the ribs back on the smoker for another 2 hours.

The Finish

  • After another 2 hours of hanging out at the flavour town bath and spa, the ribs are super tender and on the home stretch. At this point you want to open the foil, but leave the ribs sitting in the goodness that has gathered on the bottom of the foil. Let them hang out like this, foil open, for 45 minutes.
  • Ok, it's sauce go time. Only 15 mintues to go. Remove the ribs from the foil and place them on a wire rack. Brush a layer of Blues Hog Original on the bottom and top of the ribs, and return directly to the smoker grill. At this point, you want to raise the temperature so the sauce will set. 275-300° will work perfect for this.
  • After 15 minutes, remove the ribs from the smoker. To make them easier to slice, brush a small amount of Blues Hog Original on a cutting board, and place the ribs meat side down. This will let you see the direction of the bones while slicing.
  • Serve and enjoy!