Great Value Grilling Country Styled Ribs

 How Do I Grill Country Styled Ribs?

First off, they are the meatiest of all the pork ribs. They have more meat than all but the fattest baby back ribs. Second, there are two types of pork that are sold as country style ribs, although one is not a country style rib. The fake ones are cut from the pork shoulder:

A true country style rib is cut from the loin either from the rib end or the sirloin.

They also come boneless but I prefer them bone in as the best are the ones with this little bone:

So what’s the difference?

The ones cut from the shoulder that masquerade as country style ribs are full of fat and collagen. In order to make them edible, rather than a gummy wad of pork, they must be cooked to 200 degrees. The true country style ribs need to be grilled like a pork chop and are far healthier. They also cook much, much faster.

Now that we know what they are and the difference between the two, let’s get down to grilling some bonafide country style ribs.

Ingredients:

Country style ribs
Salt
Pepper (optional)
Your favorite rub
Your favorite BBQ Sauce

I realize there are no amounts in the ingredients list here. This is more about the method than a very detailed recipe. And that method is the reverse sear. What that means is we are going to smoke and then sear the meat at the end rather than the other way around. So let’s get going and I’ll explain why this method is so wonderful.

Season the country style ribs with salt, pepper and your favorite BBQ rub. Then prepare the grill for two zone grilling also known as indirect grilling. What this means is the hot coals go on one side and the meat on the other, with a target temp inside the grill of 300. A couple chunks of smoke wood go on the coals as the country style ribs hit the grill grates on the cool side of the cooker.

Since these are true country style ribs from the loin, they won’t take long to get to about 110 degrees internal temp. You read that right. We have a couple more treatments before these are perfect and up to the proper temp, so don’t over cook them at this point.

Once they hit 110 degrees, slap them over some hot coals and get a little char action on the outside:

If I had seared the meat first, it wouldn’t take on much smoke flavor as the outside skin would be too warm. Once the outside of the meat gets above about 140, it won’t take any smoke flavor. So smoke first, to imbue the meat with that flavor and then sear to get the lovely browning and caramelizing of the proteins, but don’t sear too long. These will be perfect about 145 degrees internal, so don’t sear them all the way there. We still need to sauce them. I put my favorite on the side.