The trick to BBQ ribs is moisture, low heat, a long wait, and no sugar. Succulent ribs take patience, a whole 12 hrs of it. The key things you have to know about preparing ribs are the following: avoid direct heat; never place the meat on a direct flame. Make sure the flames are surrounding the meat or are on the opposite side of the BBQ. Always have a metal bowl of liquid on the BBQ to keep moisture circulating. Never coat the ribs with am ingredient containing sugar until the end as it will cause the meat to dry out since sugar burns easily (this means no tomato based sauces). Here's the down-low:
-2 to 3 lbs of ribs (I use beef)
-a rub (combination of spices and herbs) I combine: ancho pepper, chipotle pepper, espelette, thick ground black pepper, rosemary, coriander, dill, garlic, and chives.
-applewood (or maplewood)
-3 oz of liquid (I use apple juice).
-a BBQ sauce (this is when the sweetness can come in). I combine apple cider vinegar, honey, a combination of hot peppers (chilli, chipotle, espelette, ancho, etc), garlic, and herbs (coriander, dill, thyme, etc). You can add crushed tomato for flavour.
1. Prepare your ribs. Cover you ribs in the rub thoroughly.
2. Prepare your BBQ. Make sure there is enough coal to burn for 12 hours (you may have to replace it once) or enough propane in the tank. Make two hand full size balls of applewood chips in aluminum foil with holes to throw onto the BBQ. Get a nice flame from the coal and smoke coming from the wood chips. Put the bowl of apple juice onto the grill as well (make sure the bowl is oven safe).
3. Once the BBQ is ready, put the meat on, fat down, away from the direct heat. Close up that BBQ, while still allowing for airflow in order not to kill the flame.
4. I recommend checking the ribs after a couple of hours to see if they aren't drying out, to see if the bowl needs more juice, etc. If the ribs seem to be drying out, I recommend taking them off the heat and covering them with aluminum foil. Check the ribs and the BBQ every so often.
5. Make the BBQ sauce: combine all BBQ sauce ingredient into a saucepan over low heat and cook for 20 minutes.
6. At the last hour or two (hour 10 or 11), put the ribs into aluminum foil if you haven't already and pour some apple juice or beer onto the ribs. Put it back on the BBQ.
7. After about half an hour to 45 minutes, cover the Ribs in your BBQ sauce and place back on the BBQ. Cook for about another 15 minutes in or out of the aluminum foil depending on their moisture.
After the laborious process, you can enjoy the sweet sweet taste of succulent ribs.