Smoked Baby Back Ribs

Hello Folks,
This recipe has been requested by many friends so doing my best to reproduce it. There are literally thousands of sites with thousands of recipes for baby back ribs. You can take this recipe and modify it to your taste by adding ingredients to the Rib Rub. This recipe and the techniques will provide the basic foundation for smoking ribs and meat in a Brinkman Water Smoker. I received the smoker as a gift on my 40th birthday 4 years ago and yesterday the smoker finally broke down after being manhandled for so long. This smoker will last forever if you take good care of it. I didn't. It was left out during Summer, Winter, Rain, Hail etc. You can go to this excellent site on how to modify the smoker to use less charcoal. I will be buying another smoker soon and will certainly modify it according to the directions on this site.
http://brinkmansmokermods.com/default.aspx

Happy Smoking!!

Ingredients

• 2 whole slabs pork baby back ribs

Dry Rub:

• 8 tablespoons light brown Sugar tightly packed
• 3 tablespoons kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon chili powder or adjust if you like more or less spicy
• 1/2 teaspoon Ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper or adjust if you like more or less spicy
• 1/2 teaspoon rubbed thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground juniper berries (optional)

Directions

In a bowl, combine all dry ingredients and mix well. Place each slab of baby back ribs on a piece of heavy-duty aluminum foil, shiny side down. Sprinkle each side generously with the dry rub. Pat the dry rub into the meat. Refrigerate the ribs for at least 12 hours and up to 24 hours.

Remove ribs from the fridge at least an hour before you start your smoker . Take a chimney coal starter (please, please don't use lighter fluid). Fill the bottom part of the chimney starter with newspaper and fill the top portion with charcoal briquettes or mesquite. Light the newspapers on fire. Wear gloves to prevent your hand from getting burnt. I put my chimney starter on my smoker. See photo.

While your charcoal is getting started, take the water pan from the smoker and add about 5 bottles of beer (cheap ones are fine). You can use water if you like but I like the flavor I get from beer. After adding beer in the water pan, add coarsely chopped onions, celery, carrots, garlic and whatever else you like. I have added apples, oranges etc. Experiment and let me know what worked better for you.

By now your coal should be burning and ready to go. Pour the charcoal in the smoker pan and add more charcoal as this fire will need to burn for at least 4 to 5 hours.

Put the cylinder on top of the charcoal and drop the water pan into the cylinder. Put the round grill on top of the water rack. Your first set of ribs are ready to be placed on the grill.

Put the second grill in the cylinder for your second set of ribs.

Now your lid is ready to go on the smoker and it's time for the ribs to cook in the indirect heat for at least 4 hours. The beauty of this smoker is that you can practically never over cook the ribs. The longer you cook them the better they taste and literally fall of the bone. There are some folks who suggest that an hour or two before removing the ribs from the smoker you should baste them in BBQ sauce or other mops with apple juice etc. I am not a big fan of it but you can try it out if you like.

The temperature gauge should start showing ideal in about 15-20 minutes. Now throw in some wood chips of your choice that have been soaked in water through the aluminum door on top of the burning charcoal every 30 minutes. I love applewood chips but you can use alder, mesquite, hickory or whatever else you like. Again, experiment with different flavors.

Your labor of love is about to be paid off. You can at this point serve the ribs right away or you can put them in foil and reheat them later on your gas grill or oven. Enjoy and please ask me any questions or if you have any feedback.

My dog is ready for some ribs!!!

Smoky Glazed Asparagus

I used this marinade of this recipe on other veggies as well. If you like you can substitute Mayonnaise with Sour Cream and you will get pretty much the same result.

Ingredients

1. 1/2 cup mayonnaise
2. 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3. 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
4. 1 garlic clove, crushed
5. 1 tablespoon sweet smoked paprika
6. 2 teaspoons kosher salt
7. 1 teaspoon cumin seeds (I like to lightly crush them in a mortar pestle or coffee grinder)
   
8. 1 pound thick asparagus, trimmed
9. 2 tablespoon Mustard (gray poupon) or 2 tablespoon Black Mustard Seeds Crushed ** Added by me*** Not in the original recipe

Directions

1. Light a grill. In a shallow dish, whisk the mayonnaise with the oil, lemon juice, garlic, paprika, salt and cumin. Add the asparagus and toss; let stand for 30 minutes.
2. Grill the asparagus over moderately high heat, turning, until tender and blistered in spots, 6 minutes; serve.

Chicken Tikka Recipe

Ingredients

6 Pounds Chicken Thighs (Boneless) (Do Not Substitute with Breast meat)

¾ Cup Minced or Shredded Ginger

½ Cup Minced Garlic

1 Pound Sour Cream

50g Shan Tandoori Chicken Masala (available at all Indian Spice Stores)

100g MDH Tandoori Chicken Masala (available at all Indian Spice Stores)

3 Tablespoons Garam Masala (available at all Indian Spice Stores)

4 Tablespoons Amchur (Dry Mango) Powder (available at all Indian Spice Stores)

3 Tablespoons Black “Kalonji” Seeds (Optional)

4-5 Tablespoons salt or according to taste

3 Tablespoons Red Chili Powder according to taste

4-5 Tablespoons paprika for color or you can use red/orange color instead

DIRECTIONS:

Wear Gloves. Soak wooden skewers in water. Wash and pat dry chicken thighs. Drying the chicken is an important step as it allows the marinade to bond to the chicken. Cut chicken into bite size pieces that will fit on the skewers (not too small otherwise they fill fall off the skewer). Leave some fat on the chicken as it contributes to tenderness of the meat.

Put chicken pieces in a large bowl. Mix all ingredients together in the bowl with the chicken. Skewer the pieces of chicken and marinate overnight (at least 12 hours and up to 24 hours).

Grill the skewers on either a gas or a charcoal grill until the chicken is cooked through.

Please control the heat level of the Red Chili Powder according to taste. If you want your chicken spicier, you can increase the number of teaspoons of chili.