Hot & Fast Ribs on the Kamado Joe Classic III

Time: 3.5 hours

Temp: 300°

Meat: St. Louis cut Pork Ribs

Rubs: Meat Church Holy Cow & Honey Hog Hot

The pellet grill was always my go to cooker for pork ribs. The ease of use and predictable results attracted me to it. Maybe a year after I picked up my first pellet grill, I upgraded from an old weber kettle to a Kamado Joe Classic III. I loved everything about the Kamado, but when I'd try low, and slow bbq on it my results were usually too smoky. I tried different methods until I finally landed on one that worked perfectly, and that is the recipe I'll give you today!

First thing's first. You're going to want to place your wood chunks (I used a Cherry split) on the bottom underneath all the charcoal. This is going to do a couple things.

1. It will allow the wood to fully ignite instead of smoldering on top.

2. When the smoke from the wood passes through the burning charcoal it'll burn out any impurities which will leave you with that thin blue smoke we're all after.

The trick here is also to smoke at higher temperatures. See the Kamado style grills are incredibly efficient and while they'll hold that 225° all day long, the charcoal isn't combusting quite clean enough to give you good quality smoke. This will usually result in a harsher tasting meat. Smoking at 275°-300° will give you fantastic smoke, but it won't taste like you're licking charcoal.

Once you place your smoking wood at the bottom of the grill, pull your charcoal on top. Open the bottom vent all the way and light the grill. Leave the lid open for 5 minutes as the charcoal ignites. Once that 5 minutes is up, toss in your Kamado Joe Slow Roller on the bottom. Then add the divide and conquer rack and put the deflector plates in the middle. On top of that you fan place your drip pan if you have one to keep things clean. Having two heat deflectors in place keeps the meat away from the direct heat allowing for a perfect convection cook. Place the grates on top and close the lid but swing the top vent fully open. Give this another 10 minutes or so.

Once you come back to the grill and see the temperature around the 400° mark and the dome is hot to the touch, you're good to close the vents. You want the dome to be good and heat soaked so that the temperature doesn't fluctuate much through your cook. I like to leave the top vent half open, and the bottom vent around 2 fingers wide. This holds right around the 300° mark. Let the grill settle and make any fine adjustments before you put the meat on.

Now for the ribs. My preference for Kamado ribs are the St.Louis style. They've got more fat throughout so they stay juicier than back ribs. Pull off the membrane and top well with your favourite bbq rub. I usually go with Meat Church's Honey Hog Hot and Holy Cow for the rubs, but I'll also toss on some course black pepper to help build that bark. You can use yellow mustard as a binder, or really anything you like. You won't taste it in the end product but it will help your rub stick better.

Place your ribs on the Kamado and don't lift the lid for 2 hours. Check the thermometer from time to time to ensure the temperature is staying where you want. Once you hit the 2 hour mark it's time to wrap. I like to use the thick bbq foil with my ribs. You can use butcher paper, or you can even go no wrap, but in my experience you'll get a juicier end result by using foil. Plus it speeds things up if you're in a time crunch.

Wrap them up in 2 layers of foil and walk away. They should only take 1 more hour to finish up. At the 1 hour mark pull them out of the foil and place them meat side down on the grates. Sauce the bottom, then flip and sauce the top. Let that sauce tack up for 10 minutes, then you're ready to pull them. Bring the ribs inside and let them rest. Once they've cooled, slice them up and enjoy some of the best ribs you've ever had!