Prep:

1. Preheat your gas grill for two zone cooking by turning the leftmost burner to high while leaving all burners on the right side off. The target grill temp should be 300°F. The burner second from left can be used to add additional heat if needed.

2. While the grill preheats, prep your ribs. Start by using a paper towel to peel the membrane from the ribs and trim any excess fat. This will allow more flavor to penetrate the meat. If necessary, cut off thinner end of ribs so they will fit on your grill.

3. Season liberally with Kinder’s Hickory Brown Sugar Seasoning directly onto the rib (see pro tip). Don’t worry about over-seasoning, you can shake any excess off the ribs before placing on the grill. Ribs can put on grill immediately after seasoning, or placed in the fridge to dry marinate until you’re ready.

4. To achieve a smokey flavor from your gas grill, wrap a handful of wood chips in foil and use a fork to poke holes in the top of the pouch to allow smoke to escape. Place pouch on hot side of the grill directly over burner. Replace with a new foil pouch whenever smoke stops. The smoke will help form a bark, add color, and give a great smoky flavor to the ribs. For ribs we love cherry, apple, or hickory wood chips.

Cook:

1. Place ribs meat side up on the cool side of the grill, parallel to burners to cook with indirect heat.

2. After 1-1½ hours check ribs for a nice mahogany bark color on the meat. This will be affected by the temperature of the grill and how much smoke is hitting the ribs.

3. When the bark is formed and has a nice color, wrap ribs in tinfoil with bones on the bottom and meat facing up. This keeps all the juices in and allows the juice to pool under the bone side. Place back on the indirect heat side of the grill and cook for an additional 1-1½ hours. This phase of cooking steams the ribs and speeds up tenderizing the meat.

4. Once ribs are fully tender, and bones are protruding ¼ -½ inch, carefully remove ribs from foil, taking care to reserve the liquid in the foil in a small bowl. Place the rack back on the indirect heat side of the grate, meat side up. Cook another 15-20 minutes to allow the bark to resolidify.

5. Mix 2-3 tbsp of liquid from the foil with 1 cup of Kinder’s Hickory Brown Sugar BBQ sauce. This mixture will give your ribs a beautiful, glossy shine. Butter can also be used if liquid from foil is unavailable.

6. Once bark is reset, baste with sauce mixture and cook an additional 15-20 minutes or until sauce is fully tacked up and set.

7. How do you know when it’s done? Bones should show a ¼ -½ inch outside of the meat and have very little tug or resistance to the meat if carefully wiggled. The temperature should roughly be 190°F to 200°F.

8. Allow ribs to rest for about 10 minutes or until they have cooled off enough to be handled.

9. To slice your ribs, look for the hills and valleys along the rack – the valleys are the bones, and the hills are the meat between. Slice by following contours of rack and slicing the hills between the bones. If you have trouble, carefully flip the rack upside down to more easily see where the bones are, taking care to not smudge the sauce too much.

Pro Tip: 

We recommend that you season the meat directly without a binder. However, if you prefer a binder, pickle juice, hot sauce, and yellow mustard are great options.