Atlanta chef David Rose’s sriracha-honey barbecue ribs combine smoked baby back ribs with a sticky, sweet-and-spicy glaze and his 2-2-1 method for cooking tender ribs at home. The five-hour recipe layers flavor at every step, from a dry rub spiked with za’atar and Chinese five-spice to cherry wood smoke, apple juice and honey, and a barbecue sauce with sriracha and rice wine vinegar.
There’s a lot going on in that last sentence because there’s a lot going on with these ribs.
Rose, an Atlanta chef, cookbook author and television personality, isn’t relying on the barbecue sauce to do all the work. The ribs pick up smoke during the first part of the cook, sweetness while they’re wrapped in butcher paper and heat and acidity only toward the end, when the sauce is brushed on twice to create a sticky glaze.
The method itself is surprisingly straightforward. Rose uses the 2-2-1 method for baby back ribs: two hours smoked, two hours wrapped and one final hour unwrapped.
He shared the technique with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution earlier this summer when we asked him how to smoke better ribs. This recipe takes that same method and gives it a much bolder flavor profile.
What is 2-2-1 method for smoking ribs?
The 2-2-1 method gets its name from the three stages of cooking: two hours smoked uncovered, two hours wrapped and one final hour uncovered.
Rose cooks the baby back ribs over indirect heat at 225 degrees. During the first two hours, cherry wood provides the smoke while the exterior begins developing bark, the dark, intensely flavored crust that forms on the surface of the meat.
Then the ribs are wrapped in butcher paper with apple juice and honey for two hours. Wrapping helps limit moisture loss and tenderize the meat.
For the final hour, the paper comes off and the ribs go directly back onto the grill. This gives the exterior a chance to firm up again before Rose adds the sriracha-honey barbecue sauce.
Why wrap ribs when smoking them?
Wrapping changes what’s happening around the meat.
Left uncovered, the surface of the ribs continues losing moisture. Wrapping them in butcher paper slows that process and traps some of the moisture coming from the pork. Rose also pours apple juice and honey over each rack before sealing it in butcher paper.
It’s important to use butcher paper rather than aluminum foil or another substitute. Unlike foil, butcher paper is porous enough to allow some steam to escape, which helps preserve more of the bark developed during the first two hours.
You’re trying to make the meat tender without steaming away the crust you just spent hours building.
At what temperature should you smoke baby back ribs?
Rose smokes these baby back ribs at 225 degrees over indirect heat for the entire five-hour cook.
That low temperature gives the ribs time to tenderize and take on smoke without cooking the exterior too quickly. Rose uses cherry wood, which produces a relatively mild smoke that works particularly well with pork and makes sense with the apple and honey that round out this recipe.
Once the ribs are on the heat, resist the temptation to keep checking them.
As Rose told the AJC when we talked to him about his rib technique earlier this summer: “If you’re looking, you ain’t cooking.”
Opening the grill repeatedly releases heat and smoke. Check the ribs when the recipe tells you to. Otherwise, leave them alone.
Credit: David Rose
Credit: David Rose
How do you keep smoked ribs tender and juicy?
Rose builds moisture management into several stages of the recipe rather than trying to fix dry ribs at the end.
During the first two hours, he spritzes the ribs with apple cider vinegar. Then each rack gets apple juice and honey before being wrapped for the middle portion of the cook. Wrapping slows moisture loss as the meat continues to tenderize.
But tender shouldn’t mean mushy.
Good ribs should release cleanly when you bite them while still keeping enough structure to stay on the bone. If the entire rack collapses when you pick it up, you’ve gone past tender.
When should you put BBQ sauce on ribs?
Wait until the end.
Rose’s barbecue sauce contains ketchup, honey and molasses, all of which bring plenty of sugar to the party. Those sugars can scorch during a long cook, so he doesn’t add the sauce until the final 20 minutes.
He brushes both sides of the ribs with sauce, waits 10 minutes, then gives them a second coat.
Those two applications cook the sauce onto the ribs, creating a sticky glaze while allowing the smoke and spices underneath to remain part of the flavor instead of burying everything under barbecue sauce.
What makes these sriracha-honey ribs different?
The rub is where Rose takes an interesting turn.
Along with brown sugar, smoked paprika, black pepper, garlic and onion, he adds za’atar and Chinese five-spice. Za’atar is a Middle Eastern spice blend that usually consists of thyme, oregano, tangy ground sumac and toasted sesame seeds. Chinese five-spice is a mix of star anise, cloves, Chinese cinnamon, fennel seeds and Sichuan peppercorns.
Flavors are added in layers rather than piled on all at once. Cherry wood provides smoke. Apple juice and honey bring sweetness during the wrapped stage. The finishing sauce combines honey and molasses with sriracha and rice wine vinegar, giving the ribs heat and acidity along with the sweetness.
Each component enters at a different stage of the five-hour cook. That’s what keeps these ribs from simply tasting like barbecue sauce.
Credit: Kathyrn McCrary
Credit: Kathyrn McCrary
Sriracha-Honey BBQ Baby Back Ribs
Ingredients for ribs
- 2 racks baby back ribs (about 3 pounds)
- 2 cups apple juice, divided
- 2 tablespoons honey, divided
- ½ cup yellow prepared mustard
- ⅓ cup apple cider vinegar in a spray bottle
- 1 cup cherry wood chips, soaked for 1 hour in 2 cups water
Ingredients for rub
- 2 tablespoons kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
- 1 tablespoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon granulated garlic
- 1 teaspoon granulated onion
- 1 teaspoon za’atar
- 2 teaspoons Chinese five spice
Ingredients for barbecue sauce
- 1 cup ketchup
- ¼ cup sriracha
- ½ cup honey
- ¼ cup rice wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon molasses
- ¼ teaspoon granulated garlic
Directions
- Prepare the grill for indirect cooking at 225°F.
- Remove the membrane from the back of the ribs and pat them dry with paper towels.
- To make the rub, combine all of the rub ingredients in a small bowl and mix well.
- Lightly coat both sides of the ribs with yellow mustard.
- Generously season both sides of the ribs with the rub. Let the ribs rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.
- Drain the wood chips and add them to the hot coals.
- Place the ribs in the center of the cooking grate and smoke for 2 hours, spritzing with apple cider vinegar once every hour.
- Meanwhile, prepare the sauce by combining all of the sauce ingredients in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
- Reduce the heat and simmer for 4–5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens slightly.
- Remove the sauce from the heat and allow it to cool to room temperature.
- After the ribs have smoked for 2 hours, double-wrap each rack in butcher paper, without sealing. Pour 1 cup apple juice and 1 tablespoon honey over each rack before sealing tightly.
- Return the wrapped ribs to the grill and continue cooking for 2 more hours.
- Carefully unwrap the ribs, remove from the paper and return them directly to the grill. Cook for 1 additional hour.
- During the final 20 minutes of cooking, brush both sides of each rack with the BBQ sauce. After 10 minutes, follow the same method to apply a second coat to create a sticky, caramelized glaze.
- Remove the ribs from the grill, let them rest for 10 minutes, then slice and serve hot.
Makes 6 servings.
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