Saucy Smoked Beef Ribs

Serve these tender, melt in your mouth Saucy Smoked Beef Ribs at your next backyard barbecue. The mesquite smoked ribs are finished with a sweet and sassy homemade Kansas City style barbecue sauce that will have everyone licking their fingers and reaching for more!

If there’s one thing I love, it’s beef in the smoker. If you have time, these low and slow beef ribs are a relaxing way to spend day. However, sometimes a quick smoke can be just as tasty. Try these Best Smoked Meatballs, ready in just over an hour. Both beef recipes are great with a side of Chipotle Pinto Beans with Peaches.

Disclosure: This post is made possible by Alberta Beef Producers & Crosby’s Molasses. All opinions and experiences are my own.

Saucy Smoked Beef Ribs

These Beef Ribs smoked with mesquite are the crowning glory of any barbecue. They are, in a word… truly memorable. The low smoke temperature and long smoking time result in incredibly tender and juicy meat with a pronounced smoke ring. There’s no mistaking the wonderful flavour of the mesquite smoke enveloping the melt-in-your-mouth meat.

Speaking of mesquite, this unique wood is also used in the creation of chipotle peppers, which are essentially mesquite smoked jalapeños. Their mild, smoky heat is delicious with beef… and strawberries!

While these BBQ beef ribs are delicious on their own, the final application of barbecue sauce elevates them to another level. The strawberry chipotle barbecue sauce is inspired by the sweet, smoky, tangy, and slightly spicy flavours of Kansas City style sauce.

In the tomato-free sauce, strawberries provide sweetness (along with brown sugar), a touch of acidity (with apple cider vinegar), and a base for the aromatics and spices. The final key ingredient is fancy molasses. The bittersweet notes in the molasses balance out the sourness of the strawberries, rounding out the sauce in the most wonderful way.

Ingredients for Saucy Smoked Beef Ribs

Please note that quantities for the first four ingredients (for the beef ribs) are not exact. In other words, measure them with your heart. For this reason, it is very easy to double the recipe to smoke as many ribs as will fit into the smoker.

As a guide, the amount of mustard depends on how large the rack of ribs are, and how much coverage you want. Feel free to use the rib process photos as a guideline for how the ribs should look before they go in the smoker.

• Beef Back Ribs
• Yellow Ballpark Mustard
• Salt
• Pepper
• Olive Oil
• Onion
• Garlic
• Smoked Paprika
• Garlic Powder
• Cinnamon
• Strawberries
• Apple Cider Vinegar
• Crosby’s Fancy Molasses
• Chipotle Peppers in adobo
• Brown Sugar
• Worcestershire Sauce

In this homemade sweet and tangy barbecue sauce, tomatoes are replaced by strawberries. They provide a touch of sweetness, along with acidity and body. Strawberries marry well with smoked Spanish paprika and smoky chipotle peppers which also bring a little spicy heat.

The acidity level of the strawberries, combined with the apple cider vinegar can be intense but helps to keep the meat juicy and tender. Adding fancy molasses to the barbecue sauce tones down the acidity in the sauce and provides a unique sweetness (along with the brown sugar).

The final flavour notes are those of umami, provided by the aromatics (onion and garlic) and Worcestershire sauce.

What are Beef Back Ribs?

Beef back ribs come from the area located just behind the shoulder of the cow. They are the long bony portion that is removed from prime rib roasts. Back ribs are generally 6-8 inches long with a curved bone. A full rack of beef back ribs contains 9-12 ribs (similar but larger than a rack of pork ribs), depending on how the butcher cuts them.

Most of the meat is removed to go along with prime rib roasts, leaving a small layer of meat on top of and in between the rib bones. Back ribs cook quicker than meatier ‘short plate’ or ‘brisket on a stick’ ribs which come from the 6-10 lower rib area (behind the brisket).

Feel free to use this beef ribs recipe to smoke back ribs, short plate ribs, or beef short ribs, adjusting for time as needed.

How to Make Strawberry Chipotle BBQ Sauce

While it is not critical, I do encourage you to make the Strawberry BBQ sauce a day or so ahead of time This allows the flavours to come together, creating a more uniform flavour. However, feel free to make the sauce once the ribs are in the smoker to reduce prep time.

To make the BBQ sauce, drizzle olive oil in a medium saucepan. Add diced onions and cook over medium heat, stirring often until the onions become soft and translucent. Add minced garlic and sauté for another minute.

Next, add the dry spices (smoked paprika, garlic powder, and cinnamon) to the onions. Allow them to sauté for another minute or two. Deglaze the saucepan with 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar, then add the chopped strawberries and chipotle peppers. Finally, add the molasses, Worcestershire sauce, and brown sugar.

Stir the mixture well and allow it to simmer over low heat until the strawberries release juices and the mixture reduces by half or slightly more (about an hour). Taste and adjust seasoning, if needed. Allow the chunky barbecue sauce to cool, then process in a blender until smooth. Refrigerate overnight.

When all is said and done, you’ll have 4 cups of this versatile barbecue sauce. Use your new favorite barbecue sauce on everything from grilled burgers and meatballs to pork chops, pork tenderloin, and grilled chicken.

How to Smoke Beef Ribs

Prepare the smoker or pellet grill to reach a temperature between 250 F – 275 F.

Preparing the Ribs

Next, remove the membrane (or silver skin) on the back side of the ribs. Removing the membrane is important for several reasons. One is that it can act as a barrier to rubs (or mustard) and salt, making it difficult for the flavours to penetrate the meat. Also, during the smoking process, the membrane becomes tough and is unpleasant to chew.

To remove the membrane, place rack beef ribs on a clean work surface, bone side up. Use a spoon to loosen a piece of membrane large enough to grab on to. Next, place a piece of paper towel around the membrane edge and use it to pull the membrane back and off the entire length of the ribs.

Discard the membrane. Trim rib fat from the meaty side, if needed (some fat is great because fat equals flavour!)

Spread the mustard over both sides and ends of the ribs. Season liberally with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

The 3-2-1 Method for Smoking Beef Ribs

Many beef rib recipes follow the ‘3-2-1 Method’ which outlines a three-hour smoke period followed by two hours of wrapped time and one last hour of cooking time with applied sauce. Use this method as a guide only, as meat can vary in so many ways the affect cooking time.

Ribs may be ready to wrap earlier (or later) or require less time in paper wrapping. Though it is difficult to measure temperature while ribs are wrapped, a general two hours cooking time is reasonable. Finally, apply the barbecue sauce and take the ribs off when the sauce has become shiny and sticky. It may not take an entire hour to do so.

Place ribs on smoker grill, meaty side up. Add a few handfuls mesquite wood chips/pellets to the smoker. Smoke at 250 F – 275 F until they reach an internal temperature of 165 F – 170 F (3-4 hours).

Wrap the ribs in unwaxed butcher paper then return them to the smoker. Smoke for another 2 hours at 250 F – 275 F or until they reach approximately 195 F – 200 F). Use this temperature as a guide only as texture and tenderness are much more important.

Remove ribs from paper and slather with Strawberry Chipotle BBQ Sauce. Return the smoker and cook for another 30-45 minutes more cooking time (or until the sauce is cooked and the ribs are sticky).

Serve hot with extra BBQ sauce for dipping.

Hi! I’m Bernice Hill and I’ve been the sole recipe developer, photographer, and writer at Dish ‘n’ the Kitchen for the past eleven years. It is my pleasure to share easy to follow recipes that are delicious, nutritious, and approachable for the whole family.

If you make this Saucy Smoked Beef Ribs recipe, please leave a recipe rating and/or comment describing your experience. Don’t forget to share your photos and tag me on Instagram. I hope you like this recipe!