There’s a certain point every year when it officially starts to feel like summer in the South. The smoker’s going all afternoon. Somebody’s carrying folding chairs into the backyard. Drinks are cold, music is on, and dinner outside somehow turns into staying out long after dark.
Now that Memorial Day weekend is here, we asked two of our favorite Southern chefs to share rib recipes that taste like the season ahead.
Chef David Bancroft of Bow & Arrow in Auburn brings the sticky-sweet heat with honey-hot glazed ribs made for passing around a crowded table. And in Chattanooga, Chef Erik Niel of Little Coyote puts a mezcal-and-citrus spin on classic Carolina mop-style ribs that feel equal parts familiar and completely new.
Two different approaches. One very good excuse to celebrate the season.
Honey-Hot Glazed Ribs
Chef David Bancroft
Acre + Bow & Arrow | Auburn, Alabama
Chef David Bancroft is the chef-owner of Acre and Bow & Arrow in Auburn, Alabama, where he has become a defining voice in the modern Southern food movement. He is a five-time James Beard Award semifinalist for Best Chef: South and the winner of Food Network’s Iron Chef Showdown in 2017.
Ingredients
Ribs
- 2 racks St. Louis-style ribs
Dry Rub
- 1 tbsp chili powder
- 1 tbsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp thyme
- 2 tsp brown sugar
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
Honey-Hot Sauce
- 1 cup hot sauce
- 1 cup honey
Instructions
-
- Preheat your smoker to 225 degrees.
- In a small bowl, combine all dry rub ingredients and season the ribs generously.
- Place the ribs on the smoker rack and cook for 2 ½ to 3 hours, or until tender.
- Remove the ribs from the smoker, wrap in foil, and allow them to rest for 20 minutes.
- While the ribs rest, prepare the honey-hot sauce by whisking together the hot sauce and honey in a small bowl until fully combined.
- Remove the ribs from the foil and slice into individual bones. Glaze the freshly cooked ribs with the honey-hot sauce and serve immediately.
- Optional: Top with pecan streusel for extra texture and flavor.
Ribs with Mezcal Mop Sauce
Chef Erik Niel
Little Coyote | Chattanooga, Tennessee
With an agave-driven beverage program, the team at Little Coyote wanted to create a ribs dish on the smoker with a mezcal and citrus sauce mop—a nod to the Carolina BBQ tradition of “mopping” sauce onto ribs throughout the smoking process rather than serving additional sauce at the end.
Chef Erik Niel says:
“The intent of the dish is what’s cool about it — a Carolina-style mop, that we turn on its side and add Little Coyote flavors by incorporating mezcal and citrus heavily into the mop sauce. It just speaks to what Little Coyote is — paying attention to tradition and technique, and then making it our own (not out of irreverence, but out of exploration).
What would happen if we took Carolina mop sauce and put mezcal in it? As the mezcal cooks, and the alcohol evaporates, it leaves a floral glaze that is absolutely amazing.
For the home cook, it’s just as easy as making Carolina-style ribs — you’re just mopping with something else. The end result will make you feel like a superstar because it’s different from anything you’ve tasted, but not unrecognizable.”
Mezcal Mop Sauce Ingredients
- 1000g distilled white vinegar
- 500g mezcal
- 3 lemons, thinly sliced on a mandolin
- 2 tbsp cayenne
- 2 tbsp chile flakes
- 2 tbsp black pepper
- 600g sugar
Instructions for the Mop Sauce
- In a small stockpot, combine the vinegar and sugar and bring to a simmer.
- Add the cayenne, chile flakes, and black pepper, whisking to combine.
- Add the lemon slices and return the mixture to a simmer. Once simmering, remove from heat and add the mezcal.
- Set aside until ready to use.
Tips for Smoking Ribs
Smoking meats is not an exact science. There are many variables that can affect cooking times, beginning with the type of smoker you are using. Make sure to set up your smoker according to the manufacturer’s guidelines. If smoking on a grill, it is very important to cook over indirect heat.
The next variable is wood. At Little Coyote, the team uses a blend of red oak, white oak, and hickory. Hickory has a very strong smoke flavor, so balancing it with the two oaks—which have milder flavor—allows the flavor of the high-quality meat to stand out.
Using a heritage breed pork may cost a little extra, but the payoff is definitely worth it. Chef Niel prefers St. Louis-style ribs because they cook evenly and have a nice fat content that protects the meat during the cooking process.
To Smoke the Ribs
- First, remove the membrane from the bottom side of the ribs. Simply make a small incision and remove by hand. If you feel uncertain, there are plenty of YouTube videos that can point you in the right direction.
- Season the ribs with equal parts salt and pepper at least four hours before smoking and allow them to come to room temperature.
- Set the smoker to 250 degrees. This gives a little wiggle room for temperature loss when opening the smoker to mop the ribs.
- Once the ribs are ready, load them into the hot smoker and leave them alone for the first hour.
- Then, using a BBQ mop, mop the ribs every 45 minutes for 3 hours.
- If you begin seeing about ¼ inch of bone poking out, mop once more, then wrap the ribs with butcher paper or aluminum foil and place them back in the smoker for another hour or so.
- Remove the ribs once the internal temperature against the bone reaches 205 degrees and the ribs have some decent wiggle on them.
- “The end result is not to fall off the bone,” Niel says. “A properly cooked rib has bite, without the fight.”
