How To Cook Bbq Beef Short Ribs
Follow my ’10 Things To Remember For The Ultimate BBQ Beef Ribs’ tips and you’ll be smashing these bad boys in no time at all. Over the years and through my many beef short rib failures and success, I compiled a list that I wish I had when I smoked my first lot of beef ribs.
Smoked Beef Ribs are every carnivores dream. They look impressive, meaty and satisfying. Are they easy to make? Absolutely! BUT read my tips first and gather some patience… then have a rib-a-licious time cooking these beauties.
Beef short ribs are marbled with fat which makes them super tasty but due to the connective tissue and sinew they need to be braised in liquid or better still smoked low and slow using a BBQ or smoker. Low and slow beef short ribs need at least 5-6 hours if not more to be tender. They’re not something you should attempt when you’re in a rush. They’ll test your patience but once mastered, you’ll keep cooking these dinosaur bones and loving them!!
Grilled Short Ribs With Smoked Spanish Paprika Rub
Published: by Mike Vrobel · This post may contain affiliate links ·
Im a sucker for grilled short ribs. I saw these beauties in the meat case at my local grocery store – flanken cut beef short ribs, lined up in their trays – and I had to buy them. Had to, I tell you!
Flanken style short ribs are the style used in Korean grilled beef short ribs, cut across the bone, about ¼-inch thick. I wasnt in the mood for Korean, though We had stir fry for dinner last night. I had a taste for something a little more American, so I went with Smoked Spanish Paprika rub.
What does Flanken mean, anyhow? Its derived from the Yiddish and German word for flank, because the ribs are cut from the flank of a side of beef. Flanken was a cheap cut, because short ribs are tough and chewy. Normally it takes long, slow cooking to tenderize it. But, if the short ribs are cut thin enough, against the grain of the meat, they become perfect for grilling, with a big beefy taste.
About Beef Short Ribs
Short ribs actually aren’t just beef ribs cut into smaller portions. They are cut from the chuck or brisket areas which are tougher cuts of meat. These cuts are usually cooked low and slow to tenderize them. Think braised brisket or beef stew.
For this recipe you want the “English” cut which has bones about 4-6 inches long versus the flanken cut which is cut about ½ inch thin.
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How To Grill Short Ribs
Grilling short ribs is easy and takes hardly any time. And, oh, do they smell amazing when theyre cooking! Your neighbors will wonder what that incredible smell is.
At our house, it is always a toss-up between this recipe or my grilled pork ribs. My baby back ribs recipe is also out of this world!
How To Cook Juicy Beef Ribs
After the ribs have marinated for at least four hours, set your grill to high or medium-high with a direct heat zone and an indirect heat zone.
Grill over the direct heat for about 5 minutes per side to create a nice char on them. The honey in the marinade will help them caramelize rather quickly, so watch for that.
Next, youre going to move the beef ribs over to indirect heat and slow cook them at 275F degrees for an additional 30 minutes.
At this point, if youre cooking on a gas grill and want to get a smokier flavor, you could add some wood pellets to a smoke box or create a wood chip foil pouch, but theyll be great without the added smoke, too.
After 30 minutes, wrap the ribs up tight in some foil and continue grilling them over indirect heat for 2 hours, or until the internal temperature of the meat reaches 200-205F degrees.
This is basically the slow cooker stage. During this part of the cook, the collagen in the meat will start to break down to give you tender juicy beef ribs.
You could even finish this step in the oven, because youre essentially just braising the meat now.
When you unwrap the foil, the boneless beef ribs will be soft, and youll be left with natural juices that you can pour on top of each serving.
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Grilled Beef Short Ribs
Grilled Beef Short Ribs? I know youve seen them. Those cube like chunks of beef with the little bone on the one side? They are laced with wonderful striations of fat and look like they would be fantastic, but how do you cook them? Its actually quite simple. You take them to 195-200, or even 203 as some suggest, just like a brisket. See, theres a lot of collagen to go along with that fat which has to be melted or the meat will be chewy. To get that collagen to liquify it has to go above 195. So treat it like a brisket, except the smaller size means not having to smoke for 12 hours. I did these in under 3.
Prep The Beef Short Ribs
With any piece of barbecued meat, it pays dividends to invest a few minutes up front into preparing the meat for a long cook. With BBQ beef short ribs, theres typically not too much work to do, but lets cover some basics.
First, check for any loose or dangling pieces of meat or fat. These are sometimes a byproduct of the butchering process, and can dry out or burn over the course of a long cook. No need to go crazy detailed on this, but if there are any obvious offenders simply remove them.
Next, your short ribs may have a small fat cap on the top this is good, as it will help baste the meat during the cook and keep it from drying out. Give the fat a quick once over to check for any obviously uneven areas. Again, no need to be perfect here, but trim down any parts where the fat is super uneven. This will ensure that you dont get any cuts of your finished product with way more fat than meat.
Lastly, the underside of your ribs may have a thick, white membrane over them. If you can, slide a butter knife under this membrane and using a paper towel for grip, peel it off. Just like with baby back ribs, this membrane wont render quite as well as the meat, and could lead to some tougher bites when all is said and done.
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Best Short Rib Recipe
Grilling beef is a regular occurrence at my house. If I could get away with cooking on the grill every day, I just might! My family and I are a little bit obsessed with these sweet and spicy beef short ribs on the grill.
Try them just once, and you’ll know why: they are so tender and juicy, and the flavor is out of this world!
What really sets this BBQ short ribs recipe apart is that it uses super simple ingredients: boneless beef short ribs, a sweet and spicy steak rub you can make at home in minutes using common spices, and butter.
Not to mention, grilling beef short ribs takes less than 20 minutes. What could be better than an easy steak dinner that’s ready in no time? I especially love to make a grilled prime rib for our Holiday dinners.
Tricks To Using A Gas Grill
While you can turn out beef ribs from a gas grill that are just as delicious as the next persons, you will have to make a few adjustments. However, you cannot beat the convenience of a gas grill.
If you are new to the art of barbecuing, gas grills are more forgiving as they do not get as hot as charcoal grills. They also do not require the setup and the intense babysitting of their charcoal cousins. Finally, gas grills are much easier to clean.
The challenges you will face with a gas grill are flavor and smoke. Smokers and charcoal grills run circles around the gas grill on smoke production. You can somewhat get around this by using a smoker box or a smoke bomb.
While you can easily create juicy and tasty beef ribs with a gas grill, you may often struggle to obtain that signature barbecue flavor. Here is where the strategic use of sauce and wood comes into play.
You cannot exactly replicate the subtle blend of wood and charcoal flavors you get from a charcoal grill or the bold smoky accents from a smoker. Your ribs, however, will have a signature flavor of their own.
*Pro-tip A gas grill will not produce a large amount of smoke. Nevertheless, this is a good thing because excess smoke in a gas grill will ensure your food has a bitter flavor.
What kind of wood should you use on a gas grill? Use a dry hardwood. For beef ribs, you will do very well with mesquite, oak, or hickory. You can also try cherry.
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Purchasing And Prepping Short Rib Steak
Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt
Also sold as: galbi or kalbi , Jacob’s Ladder , asado de tira .
Where it’s cut from: The ribs. Short ribs can be cut numerous ways, but come from the area of the ribs a bit further down towards the belly than rib steaks or strip steaks . When cut into long slabs with bone sections about 6 to 8-inches in length, they are referred to as “English cut.” When sliced across the bones so that each slice receives four to five short sections of bone, they are known as “flanken style.”
Like all meat, short ribs can vary in quality. The very best short ribs come from high up on the ribs, close to where ribeye steaks are cut from. The top six inches or so is what you’re looking for. With steaks cut from this region, you’ll find a bone about six inches long, one and a half inches wide, and half inch thick along with a slab of meat sitting on top of it about an inch tall.
Some less scrupulous butchers will sell sections cut from much lower down on the rib as “short ribs.” You’ll recognize these by the skimpy amount of meat on them. Don’t bother with these, they won’t work at all . Look for meaty ribs with plenty of intramuscular fat known as marbling.
Either English or flanken cut will work just fine on the grill, but I personally prefer to buy my ribs English cut. This affords me the possibility to remove it from the bone into one, relatively thick steak, like this:
Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt
Grilling Beef Ribs Recipe On A Gas Grill
No talk of Americas love affair with barbecue would be complete without mentioning ribs. Economical, flavorful, and tender when cooked properly, this finger food is one of the mainstays of casual and steakhouse cuisine. So how do you go about grilling beef ribs on a gas grill? Its not that difficult, as long as you dont make this one mistake that can ruin everything
However, the art of barbecuing ribs to butter-soft perfection eludes many. Personal war stories abound extolling the virtues of pre-cooking ribs before tossing them on the grill. I used to bake mine for an hour, slather them with barbecue sauce, and awkwardly arrange them on my backyard grill in a haphazard fashion. They turned out chewy and flavorless.
What if we told you cooking juicy melt-in-your-mouth ribs is not only easy but fun? Grilling beef ribs on a gas grill is an especially user-friendly way to prepare a succulent and delicious meal.
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Roasted Red Pepper Polenta:
Grilling The Short Ribs
Cooking the ribs is also pretty easy. Basically, put them fat side down, on the hottest part of your grill. Dont touch them for a few minutes and then turn them to sear each side. Should take about 8 minutes to sear the ribs completely.
Then move the ribs to a slightly lower heated area. If you are using charcoal, that will be around the outside of the grill. Let them cook slowly for about another 10-12 minutes in this area. Still give them a turn every once in a while, but no need to hover.
You dont have to cover them. In fact, Gourmet advised against it!
When these guys come off they will have some crispy charred bits and some almost medium parts in the middle. Its almost a fight to get all the meat off of a rib. They are really chewy, but that is the intended texture. What do you gain in exchange for the chewiness? A very rich, meaty flavor.
Get in touch with your inner carnivore for these guys.
I didnt slather the ribs with the chimichurri. Instead people kind of spoons what they wanted over their ribs as they ate. The spicy chimichurri coupled with the strong meaty ribs is a perfect combo.
If youre bored with burgers and hot dogs, try these Grilled Short Ribs!
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Best Beef Short Ribs Recipe
Grilling out is a big deal at my house. We love to try all kinds of different recipes, like Grilled Pork Butt, Portuguese Beef Skewers, or Sirloin Cap Steak! Ive even tried Grilled Lamb Chops and Grilled Crab Legs.
My favorite part about cooking on the grill is everything you make on it is guaranteed to have so much flavor, so you can always use simple ingredients for amazing results.
That is what truly sets this grilled beef short ribs recipe apart. The ingredients are simple, but the flavors are out of this world. I guarantee you will love this recipe for boneless short ribs!
Grilled Beef Short Ribs Recipe
Last Updated on 20th July 2022 by Pauline Loughlin
What do you do with cuts of rib meat that are too short to be used for a decent sized steak? You make grilled short ribs from them? Thats exactly what these cuts of beef are- rib meat and bone that isnt long enough to be turned into a prime piece of steak, so it is sold as a different cut and labeled short ribs.
One of the things I like about this particular cut of beef is that it is easy to cook. It is small, so it cooks pretty fast. Where do short ribs come from?
The first part of the rib meant that used is make into chuck steak and have very little actual meat on them. The meat cut from the first five ribs on the cow- the very short ribs- is use to make short rib cuts. These are most often used to make grilled beef short ribs.
What kind of taste and texture do the short ribs have? The good news is that they are very flavorful. You dont have to add a bunch of seasonings to them to make them taste fine, because they are rich in flavor already.
I wouldnt say no to a well seasoned cut of short ribs, but a little salt to bring out the flavor nicely is really all thats needed. The texture is a bit tough, especially compared to other cuts of beef.
That tougher consistency means that you need to cut thee just right and cook them just right to make them easy enough to chew through without a lto of work.
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Grilled Beef Short Ribs Ingredients:
- Beef short ribs
- Andrias Steak Sauce
I almost feel like they should have dots ranging from 1-6 on the side and I should be rolling them down some green felt. They also remind me of this pic I put on :
Simply coat all six sides of the beef short rib cubes with salt, pepper and the rub:
Now time for the Andrias Steak Sauce:
I know some of you are wrinkling your nose right now. Dont think of that certain A-OK steak sauce. Think heaven. This stuff is not something you dip your steak in after you cook it because a steak needs no sauce after its cooked other than maybe a little compound butter melted on top. This is a basting and marinating sauce. Its absolutely amazing. I use it on everything from meatloaf, scallops to steaks. A poor, but somewhat adequate substitute, for Andrias is Worcestershire sauce and some granulated garlic.
I poured some on the plate and then dipped each side of the beef short ribs in the Andrias. Then I dropped the soon to be grilled beef short ribs into my smoker which was hovering right around 300 degrees:
How long does it take to get these short ribs to temp? Depends on how hot the fire is. I did them around 300 and it took close to 3 hours. If you were to do them at say 225, they would take significantly longer. The moral here is dont judge by time. Judge by temp. Get an instant read thermometer and stop taking the guess work out of your grilling. I cant tell you how much better my grilling has become since I got one.
So how did I do?
