As far back as I can remember, that was last century my daughters like to remind me 🤣, ribs have been a favorite BBQ dish. I’m going to show you how smoking beef short ribs is easier than you think.
✨Memphis BBQ rub✨ Dry brine✨ Smoke✨ Enjoy✨
It all starts with quality ingredients and appreciating your local butcher. Thanks, Scotty. He is the one who hooked us up with the Tomahawk steaks for Father’s Day. These beautifully meaty and marbled beef short ribs were a delight to smoke.
Recipe Highlights
Beyond the recipe: Our homemade Memphis BBQ rub tenderizes and adds even more flavor overnight in the fridge. You can choose another rub to do this, just confirm it has enough salt.
Equipment you will need: This is so straightforward just a smoker or BBQ with an indirect cooking method. Oh, I suggest a remote cooking thermometer.
Time for this recipe: Yup, it is a “low & slow”. So if you choose to do the overnight brine in the fridge, it is just under 20 hours.
Servings: These were good and meaty so one short rib for a normal appetite is a good rule of thumb. If you want to make more you are only limited by how many you can fit in your smoker or BBQ.
What makes smoking beef short ribs so easy is summed up by the following three steps. First, coat the ribs with our Memphis-style dry rub and place overnight in the fridge. Then, fire up the smoker or BBQ, and start your cook. The final part is the hardest, waiting for the ribs to finish smoking.
Jump to:
Tips for smoking ribs
Here are tips I wish I had known:
- Remote meat thermometer. This not only takes the guessing out of the internal temperature, but it also speeds up the cook. Every time you open the lid or door you lose all the heat and moisture. That leads to a longer cook.
- Check to see that they will fit. I know this sounds funny but we had scored over 11-inch tall short ribs once. What I didn’t realize was they were almost too tall to fit in the BBQ standing up. This is how I came up with the “rib teepee”.
- Dry brining the night before. Okay, I know we all forget and I have been there too. It is so worth it to let the rub penetrate to tenderize the ribs overnight. Even if it is just salt and pepper.
- Drip pan with water. I had some flair-ups in my early days. Not bad, it would just kick the temperature up 25°F – 50°F. This is when I started using a drip pan with water. The bonus is it adds moisture to the cook.
Ingredients
It doesn’t get much easier than this for ingredients. We had two racks of beef short ribs, our homemade Memphis-style dry rub, and maple wood.
Beef short ribs rub
Our Memphis-style beef short ribs rub uses spices right from the cupboard. Okay, maybe not the celery seed but it brings some BBQ magic. The salt and dry mustard are key for tenderizing during the dry brine. The brown sugar adds the right amount of sweetness and aids in developing a nice bark. The other spices round out the Memphis-style beef short ribs rub.
See the recipe card for specific ingredients and quantities.
Substitutions
The nice thing about smoking “low & slow” in general is how you can cook different rib cuts. So if you don’t have beef short ribs here are some substitutions, even pork:
- Chuck short ribs: These are similar to short ribs (rib short ribs). They come from the chuck primal cut and may have more connective tissue than short ribs from the rib primal cut.
- Beef back ribs: These are great but make sure there is enough meat on them. An interesting thing about the back ribs is they can get cooked hot and fast too.
Now here are some pork rib options. - St. Louis spare ribs: These come from the belly of the pig’s rib cage and have a good amount of meat and fat. Additionally, the rib tips are trimmed off for a nice even shape.
- Baby back ribs: They are called “baby” because of their more manageable size. They are nice and tender coming from the upper part of the pig’s rib cage.
- Spare ribs: Just like the St. Louis spare ribs they come from the belly of the pig’s rib cage. You may need to do a little trimming but now you are getting the whole rack of ribs.
Variations
Now let’s talk about variations to the beef short ribs rub. We take pride in making homemade rubs with spices you can easily find in the cupboard or at the grocery. All of our rubs/seasonings will add a distinctive BBQ taste when you are smoking.
- Tangy lemon pepper dry rub. This one is from our Tomahawk steaks. It gives a pleasant sweet taste. We use lemon pepper with onion and garlic powder.
- Classic sweet BBQ rub. This is one of our earliest rubs and a go-to for a sweet classic BBQ flavor. The celery salt and seed are the secret ingredients.
- Smoky garlic dry rub. Are you a garlic fan? This rub is for you. It has granulated garlic and garlic salt with smoked Paprika.
Smoking short ribs
If this is your first smoke or your umpteenth time smoking beef short ribs, just let the smoker or BBQ do its magic. Pick your favorite smoking wood or try a new one, that is it.
Smoke after dry brining overnight.
Rest the beef short ribs after smoking.
Enjoy your little briskets on a bone.
Keep scrolling down to get all the deets on ingredients and instructions.
What to serve with beef short ribs
Equipment
- Smoker or BBQ (BBQers need an indirect cooking method.)
- Remote meat thermometer
- Drip pan
Storage / Reheat
- Storage: If you have some extras you’ll be happy for the coming week. I store mine in the refrigerator in a Ziploc freezer bag for up to 4 days. You can freeze as well, just ensure you remove as much air as possible from the Ziploc freezer bag.
- Reheat: I use the air fryer at its lowest temperature, 175°F, for 5 – 8 minutes to slowly rewarm and not overcook the rib.
How did smoking the beef short ribs turn out? Let us know and ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in the review below and tag me @thekitchenbucketlist on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and YouTube!
Smoking beef short ribs
Equipment
- Smoker or BBQ
- Remote meat thermometer with sensors
- Drip pan
Ingredients
- 2 beef short rib racks (4 bones each)
Beef short ribs rub Memphis-style
- 1 tablespoons salt
- 2 teaspoons brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons Paprika
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon chili powder
- ½ teaspoon dry mustard
- ½ teaspoon thyme
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon celery seed
Instructions
- Unpack the beef short ribs, pat them dry with a paper towel, and place them on a tray/plate ready to season with the Memphis-style rub.
Make the Memphis-style beef short ribs rub and dry brine
- In a bowl combine all the spices and mix well to make the beef short ribs rub.
- Rub in the Memphis-style seasoning into the rib racks and place in the fridge to dry brine for at least an hour.NOTE: Our two rib racks were in the fridge for 16 hours.
- Preheat the smoker or BBQ to 250℉. BBQers use an indirect cooking method and place a drip pan with water in it. I like to add that cook's rub into the drip pan. I chose maple wood for this cook but this is totally a personal call.
Time to smoke, rest, and enjoy
- Bring your beef short rib racks out to smoke. You can place them flat, bone side down, or elevate them.NOTE: If you are doing a few racks you may need to make the "rib teepee". See Notes.
- Smoke for around 7 hours at 250℉ or until the internal temperature is between 195℉ to 205℉.
- After smoking the beef short ribs, I rest them for 15 – 30 minutes. If I can wait that long 😉.
- Time to serve these tender briskets on a bone. I do my best to cut between each rib to keep the amount of meat fairly equal. Enjoy!
Notes
- Short ribs: Each had 4 bones weighing 4⅓ lbs. and 3½ lbs.
- Rib Tepee for more rib racks: If you want to cook more you could easily get 2 or more racks of four ribs in an 18-inch BBQ. You’ll just need to make some “rib tepees”. Use a stout wood skewer to hold two racks together at the top. Double-check that you can close the BBQ lid or for smokers that you can get the racks in the smoke chamber.
Food Safety
All of us are responsible for the safe preparation, cooking, and serving of food. The Kitchen Bucket List shares with you our personal experiences in cooking and food safety. We are not a food safety site. As a convenience, we provide informative information we find from food safety sites. If you have questions about your food safety check your local guidelines and/or head over to the USDA. The “Storage / Leftovers / Rewarm” section of the posts are our personal estimates.
Here are some key things to remember:
- Like Mom always said, “Wash your hands.” It is the easiest thing to do for your food safety.
- Avoid cross-contamination between raw food items and the utensils with which they come in contact with.
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