Ribs on the Weber Ranch Kettle

This cook was done on my Ranch Kettle and consisted of a mixed bag of pork ribs. I had two of those great big Kroger “Bronto” spare ribs which I cut down to a St. Louis cut, one slab of loin backs, two slabs of St. Louis cut spares and to make this a full cook, one slab of 2.25 and down St. Louis cut spare ribs out of a new case I just purchased a couple of days ago. This is a total of 8 pieces which did include those rather large rib tip scraps from the Bronto ribs.  



I prepped the ribs and then sprinkled on a generous amount of Smokin’ Guns Hot and then some Cimarron Doc’s rub. 



Rolled the kettle out and got the covers off and then prepped it for a big rib cook. 



I used four of the Weber charcoal rails or fences on two side of the cooker as this setup will give me a very even cook as I don’t like to have to more my meat all around the grill to get even cooking. I then added a half chimney of cold Stubb’s briquets to each side of the cooker. 



I added two full size pans and poured in a little over a cup of water to each to help prevent any drippings from burning. Placed the cooking grid back on the cooker and fired it up with about a 1/3 chimney of hot charcoal to each side of the cooker. I then added a couple chunks of hickory to each side of my fire and I was ready for the ribs. 



Loaded my meat and started the cook. Ran the kettle with the top vent wide open and just used one of the lower vents to control my temperature. Got it dialed in at about 250 degrees measured on the cooking grid. 



At about three hours into the cook, I wrapped my ribs with some goodies which included a little apple juice, some agave syrup, some clover honey, and some brown sugar. I am trying to keep the calories down on this cook!

With this mixed bag of ribs and the different thicknesses, I didn’t expect all of them to get done at the same time and they didn’t.  I had ribs in the foil, ribs out of the foil and getting glazed all at the same time on the cooker.  Kinda kept the old fellow pretty busy at the end of the cook. 



My ribs just off the kettle.



Pulled rib meat from the rib tips from my Bronto spares.  This is my treat from this cook as it is my favorite with some cole slaw on a sandwich.

I sure enjoy cooking on the Ranch Kettle.

Jerk Chicken, Potato Bombs, and ABT's

This cook was done on my Weber Jumbo Joe kettle running a split fire (direct & indirect)  using lump charcoal with a fist sized chunk of hickory for my smoke wood. 



I prepped 4 chicken legs, 3 chicken thighs, and one chicken breast which I cut into 2 pieces with my favorite jerk chicken marinade recipe and placed them into the fridge for an overnight stay.

The potato bombs were prepped by using and apple corer to take a plug out of the middle of the potato. I then used the same corer to take some plugs out of a couple of cheese blocks for my filling. Placed the cheese inside the potatoes, cut the plug I removed from the potato down to about 1/2” long to plug the bottom of the potato and then brushed on some peanut oil. Next step was to sprinkle on some sea salt, granulated garlic, and some black pepper and then wrapped them in bacon and used a toothpick to hold the bacon in place.

I prepped about 14 ABT’s with some smoked shredded chuck roast, cream cheese, SGH rub, and a bacon wrap. I figured I would be short on room so I had the Wife do most of them in the oven. I did get 4 of them into the kettle later into my cook. 







Poured in a full chimney of lump and got my fire ready for the meat.

I started my chicken pieces over a very hot direct fire to give them some char marks and blacken them up a little. I then placed them on the indirect part of the cooker to finish them up. 





I took the Wife’s chicken off the cooker when it was done and I started my very hot jerk glaze to my pieces to finish them up.





The results of my cook looked good. 







Plated for serving....made a nice meal. I used that very hot 3 alarm cheese from Sam’s Club in my potato bomb and it was great.

Turkey Ribs / Cobb Grill

Always looking for some more heart healthy items to cook on the grills and smokers and came across something called “Turkey Ribs” or “Gobblem Ribbz” as they are listed on the box. 

I found these turkey ribs at GFS and had to purchase a case as that was the only way they would sell them. The case weighed 20.84 pounds and had 28 ribs packaged in sealed bags. Of course to be ribs, they do have some of the scapula bones in each piece. They are precooked and can be fixed in a number of ways and there is some information on the web site on their preparation. 

The cost of the case of meat was $3.19 a pound to many would seem expensive.  However, they are cooked and this makes them more of a bargain in my book. If I purchase a whole turkey at say $.99 cents a pound, and then cook it, I will get a yield of about 35 percent of the original weight. So my 20.84 pound whole turkey might net me about 35% or roughly 7.3 pounds. My whole bird will cost $20.63 and divide this by my yield of 7.3 pounds and I get $2.82 a pound so this isn’t too bad a deal compared against the pre-cooked turkey ribs. 

Let’s cook something...



Ok, to keep my heart healthy theme, I decided to do some low calorie veggies to go with my heart healthy and low calorie turkey ribs. I cut up a potato, some celery, bell pepper, and carrots. I forgot the onions! I also made up a little poultry broth from a low salt  bouillon cube for my veggies. Since I planned to do this cook on the Cobb Grill in the moat, I wrapped three packets of the veggies in foil along with a couple of tablespoons of broth in each packet. 



I cut my 13oz turkey rib out of the bag and sprinkled on a very light coat of SGH rub and it was ready for the smoker.



Fired up the grill and when it was ready, I added a small chunk of hickory and placed my packets of veggies around the fire in the moat for cooking. 



Placed my ribs on the cooking rack in the cooker and just ran the cooker at about 250-275 degrees for the cook. Heck, all I am doing is adding a little smoke and heating up the ribs. 



After a short cook, including glazing the ribs with a light sauce, I took the ribs off the cooker. I decided to let the veggies go a little longer as I didn’t think they were done.



This is what my meal looked like coming off the cooker. I pulled the ribs into three pieces for serving.

I wanted a low calorie gravy of some type for my meal so I took the half cup of the left over bouillon cube broth, added another cube, about one more cup of water, about 1-1/2 tablespoons of cornstarch, a pinch of thyme, a pinch of white pepper and thru it all in a pan and made the gravy for the meal. 





The turkey ribs were pretty good and did come out somewhat moist and tender but I think it needed something else. It was kinda bland in the taste department so I will try something different on the next cook. The veggies and gravy were fine. 

Smoked Mac n Cheese and More

I like to fool around with simple tailgate style dishes that can be done in smaller grills or smokers and think the Mac n Cheese dish is about as good as it gets. I also did a few loin cut country style ribs and a quartered potato with this cook. 

This cook was done on my Green Mountain Davy Crockett pellet grill.

This Mac n Cheese recipe is very rich and is done from scratch without cooking the macaroni first. You just throw it all in a pan and then on the grill. 

Ingredients:

3 cups elbow macaroni
1/2 stick butter
4 cups whole milk
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 8oz package of shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 8oz package colby jack cheese
salt
fresh cracked black pepper
tin foil half pan




These are the ingredients I started with.



I just poured the 3 cups of elbow macaroni into my pan.



Added the melted butter over the macaroni and then the sharp cheddar and colby jack cheese. 



Added the whole milk and the heavy whipping cream and then the salt and pepper. 



I sprinkled on some SGH rub on my loin cut country ribs and then brushed peanut oil on my quartered potatoes and then added salt, pepper, and thyme. To be able to use a half pan in my Davy Crockett, I have to have it on my lower grid as it is too large for the top grid. Since I didn’t want any drippings going into my Mac n Cheese, I had to use a pan for my ribs on the upper grid.



I fired the cooker up and brought it up to about 250 degrees measured on the lower grid and then let it go thru a few cycles to be sure it as burning clean. I just want to add a hint of smoke to this dish. I loaded my three treats on the cooker.

I stirred the Mac n Cheese at about 1 hour into the cook and then at about 1-1/2 hours and found it about ready. I let it go a total of about 1:45 hr and it was done to my liking. 



The Mac n Cheese just off the cooker....I like bacon and Jalapenos in my Mac n Cheese so I added that for the picture. I then crumbled the bacon up and stirred it into my dish.



I glazed three pieces of the country ribs with BH Smokey Mountain for myself and left two of them dry for my bride.





Served it up with some fruit and it made a nice meal. The Mac n Cheese was wonderful and just so simple to make. We froze about half of this recipe.

Memphis Style Stuffed Ribs

I have been wanting to try this on my Cobb Grill for several months and finally got around to doing it. 



First up was some corn muffins as I needed some crushed up for my stuffing. 



Next up was the rib stuffing. I used about a cup of finely chopped celery, a cup of finely chopped onion, a cup of crushed up corn bread, a pound of sausage, and some spices. 



Everything was cooked in advance for the stuffing.



Loaded the Cobb with some lump charcoal and will carry it out to my cooking table.



Trimmed and skinned the ribs and added the rub.



Rolled and pinned the ribs.



Loaded the ribs about an hour before daylight. 



Since the bride wanted Memphis style, all I did after loaded them up was to spray some apple juice on them a few times during the cook.

As soon as they were getting close to done, I added the stuffing. 



My stuffed ribs just off the little cooker. 





Plated up for serving.





As served. I have forgotten just how good plain ribs are...was a great lunch.