Here is simple and easy to make homemade barbecue sauce recipe anyone can make quickly. You can play around with different ingredients and the measurements. There are literally thousands of BBQ sauce recipes out there and there is a good chance you can come up with one that all your friends will love. A good bottle of homemade barbecue sauce makes a great gift and being that you made it yourself adds to the occasion.
2 cups Ketchup
1 Large onion chopped
1/3 Cup Apple cider vinegar
1 table spoon Worcestershire sauce
1/3 cup brown sugar
Chile powder to taste (optional)
First sauté the onions and then lower the heat and add the other ingredients and mix until it thickens. Another suggestion is add about teaspoon of liquid smoke. This gives a mild authentic flavor on just about anything you put it on.
You can try to adding other spices and develop your own great tasting sauce. The possibilities are endless.
The Weber 22 1/2 inch Performer Charcoal Grill has been one of the best selling grills for about four years now (read customer reviews). One of my favorite things about this grill is that is it’s automatic charcoal lighting system that is gas assisted. That means no more using lighter fluid which is a big NO-NO in my book. A good chimney starter is always the way to go.
If you have used a Weber One Touch, which is probably one of the most popular grills of all time, then you will be right at home with this grill. The Weber Performer just builds off of the rock solid performance from the One Touch.
One of the biggest problems with the One Touch was that there was no work area provided. Weber fixed that problem with this grill by providing a very spacious work/prep area as part of the grill.
As will all Weber grills this is made with quality parts and nice thick materials for the grates that are porcelain coated.
Clean up is a snap, just remove the ash catch and dump your ashes. It is as easy to clean up as it is to start up.
Included is also a dry storage bin that hold 20 lbs. of charcoal. No more forgetting that your coals are sitting outside when it starts to rain.
Over all this is one of the best grills you will find for the money and is still one of the highest rated grills over the past 4 years. You will be hard pressed to find another charcoal grill with this many features for this price. (Shop at Amazon)
Features include:
Charcoal grill with gas-ignition system; briquettes ignite with the push of a button
For really good ribs, it is best to make some good prior planning. It is always best prepare your ribs the evening before you are going to cook them. Letting your rub set in overnight makes a big difference in the taste. Always remember never be shy with the rub. You can make your own rub or buy a good pork rub from the grocery store.
Some things you will need
Pork Spare Ribs 5 to 7 pounds
Dry Pork Rub (generally any rub from the grocery store works fine)
Wood for smoking ( oak or hickory)
Olive oil
Honey
Brown sugar
Apple cider vinegar
This is a great recipe that I have used for years and is easy to do. This recipe is for about 5 lbs. of spare ribs. You can expect your cook time for smoking ribs to be about 6 hours. A larger rack will still take about the same time.
With ribs you also don’t really “have” to have a traditional smoker although they work the best. You can do this on a normal grill just make sure you heat source and wood is on one side and the ribs are as far from that source as possible on the other side.
Buying Your Ribs
When finding your ribs at the grocery store try to get ribs that have never been frozen. This may be hard to do in some places but fresh never frozen ribs will turn out much more tender than ribs that have been frozen. If your ribs have been frozen don’t worry, it won’t make a huge difference and will turn out just fine following this recipe.
Prepping or Trimming your Ribs for the Smoker
Here is where a lot of people tend to disagree with prepping. There is a membrane on the underside of the ribs that most folks will tell you that needs to be removed and I agree. However, this step is completely up to you but I think it makes a difference in the way they will taste. If you buy St. Louis trimmed ribs then it most likely this membrane has already been removed. It can be a little tricky to remove your first time so below is a video of how to remove the membrane from spare ribs.
One other thing about trimming meat this will go across the board and anything that I post on this blog. Leave ALL the fat on. Fat is flavor and a natural way of keeping your meat juicy and tender.
Seasoning your Ribs
Here is what you want to do. Rub down your ribs with a rib rub the night before and put them back into the fridge. Take them out 1 hour before you put them on the smoker and apply a light layer of brown sugar. This layer of brown sugar will caramelize and make a glaze over the ribs and this need to happen before they go on the smoker. The one hour waiting on the smoker allows the ribs to get close to room temperature which is important for most meat before being smoked and makes more tender meat.
Smoking the Ribs
As far as wood goes, a good mix of white oak and hickory make for a good flavor for ribs. No mesquite, it is too strong and will over power your ribs. Actually, I really don’t recommend mesquite for anything, it has a very strong smoke flavor and it is easy to overdo it.
The biggest thing to remember is make sure your smoker stays around 220 to 225. This is very important and will insure your ribs turn out nice a tender. Also higher temperatures will burn the brown sugar and that will affect the flavor of the ribs.
Place the ribs right on the grates bone side up. Smoke the ribs for about 6 hours and actually may take a little less time.
The rule of thumb is 1 hour per pound but I have found that a 7 lbs rack of ribs will cook in about the same time as a 5 lbs. rack give or take 15 minutes. Make sure you keep your eye on your cook temperatures and I can’t stress that enough.
Apply a mop sauce about every hour to your ribs. More often won’t hurt but just don’t overdo it.
Basic Mop Sauce Recipe
Mix about 2/3 cup of apple cider vinegar and a third cup of olive oil and apply with a brush on both sides. You can play around with it a bit and add some spices to the mop sauce as well.
During the last 30 minutes of cooking flip the ribs over so that the bone side is down and apply a finishing sauce. You can mix about ¼ cup honey and ¼ olive oil and apply to the top of the ribs. This will make a nice glaze and give your ribs some really great flavor.
This is my guide to a Texas style smoked brisket. I can’t say that it has won any major awards except I’m often asked to do a brisket for family gatherings and that is reward enough for me. There are no secrets just some tried and true methods that I pay close attention to and I believe that makes the difference. My biggest tip for a good smoked Texas brisket is watching your temperatures and cook it slow and low.
When picking out your brisket at the store you may have a lot of choices on different cuts, ignore all that fancy stuff. Just pick out a regular untrimmed 12 to 15lbs. brisket and that will be enough to serve about 20 people. Anything more and you most likely will be wasting your money.
While you are out getting your brisket you might be sure to pick up some fire wood too. A bundle of fire wood will be just fine. You can flavor it up a bit with some pecan wood to accent the firewood. Most firewood is oak and that is, in my opinion, the best flavored smoke. Stay away from strong smoking wood like mesquite, it’s just too much and over powers the meat. Brisket when cooked right is very good and just a good hint of smoke makes extremely good.
This next part is up to you and your taste preference. I often use a rub from the grocery store and just about any brand that seems appealing to you will be fine. We are not out to win trophies just out to make one awesome tasting and tender Texas style brisket that will satisfy all your quests.
Here is a list of things you will need to get your brisket done.
Brisket NOT trimmed 12 to 15 lbs.
Brisket Rub (optional)
Wood for smoking – a bundle of fire wood will do – white oak is the best.
Charcoal
Smoker
Heavy duty aluminum foil
How you smoke your brisket differs a bit depending on the style of smoker you have. Since we are doing a basic Texas style brisket I will cover smoking one on a “Texas” style smoker. >>
If you plan on using a rub try to get it all rubbed down covering every square inch the day prior then put it into the fridge. I have read in a lot of places that you don’t need to put rub on the fat side because it will be wasted as the fat melts. I believe that is bad advice, because as the fat melts down through the meat it will flavor it some and give your brisket a nice flavor.
About an hour before cooking take it out of the fridge and let it sit. The closer to room temperature it is when you get it on the smoker the better. Beef soaks in smoke flavor best when it isn’t cold. It also makes for a more tender brisket.
The next thing you will need to do is get your smoker up to temperature and the magic number for me on my char-griller like the one pictured is 220 to 225. This will make a 12 to 15 lbs. brisket in about 6 to 8 hours, just be sure to cook it to about 160 degrees internal temperature. I have cooked it lower at around 190 to 200 for longer but didn’t notice much difference.
The best way to get your smoker temperature up is to get a good pile of charcoal going in the fire box. Once the coals are going good you put your wood right on top of the coals. Then adjust your dampers to maintain 220 to 225 degrees. I also like to cut up a couple of pieces of my firewood in large chunks and soak them in water for a day or so. These water soaked chunks make a great deal of smoke and are good to use during the first hour of cooking.
Also with cooking it for the shorter time it is possible to start it that same day you plan on eating it. A lot of people I know will cook it all night the night prior and there isn’t much fun in that.
Now that our smoker is up to temperature it is time put on our brisket. You want to put the brisket right on the grates with the thickest end towards the heat and the fat side up. You will be doing most of the smoking with the brisket in the configuration. With the fat side up it allows the juices to melt down through your brisket keeping it nice and moist.
Only leave your brisket unwrapped on the smoker for about an hour or hour and a half. The best way I can tell when it’s time to wrap it is when it turns brown. About the same color as browned ground beef.
Once you brisket is well browned it’s time to wrap it with heavy duty aluminum foil. Double wrap it and wrap it tight. Be sure you keep track of where the fat side is. After you wrap put it back on your smoker the same way you got it off.
In about 3 hours you are going to re wrap it and flip it so that the fat side is down and keep it there until your reach an internal temperature of 160 degrees. Which should be in about 3 to 4 hours.
The only thing you really have to worry about is keep your smoker at the right temperature and once you get the hang of maintaining your temperature it gets easy.
When your brisket is done take it off the smoker and set it on the counter for about 20 to 30 minutes before cutting. I have included a video to show you how to cut it just right because it is very important to cut it right or it will be like eating shoe strings. The biggest thing to remember when carving your brisket is to cut ACROSS the GRAIN.
The Bradley smoker is fairly unique in that it is pretty much fully automatic. No more having to hang around the smoker all day insuring that your wood and smoke temperatures are just right. This is because the wood is fed in automatically during the entire cooking process by its patented smoker generator. Although you must use the “bisquettes” sold through the Bradley company.
That Bradley is basically a set it and forget it smoker that does a great job at turning out juicy pork shoulders, briskets and ribs. In my opinion it does just as well as any other smoker out there. Just easier.
While using one of these I did notice that an average size 15lbs. brisket just does sneak in. If you are wanting to do one larger you may have some problems getting to fit in there. However, it holds anything else you could throw at it.
Something to keep in mind when using an electric smoker is to make sure you are using a heavy gauge outdoor extension cord as short as possible. Long extension cords or ones that are too thin will effect cook temperature because it will cut down wattage to the smoker.
Here are some key notes about the Bradley Smoker:
4-rack fully automatic food smoker with 2288-cubic-inch stainless-steel interior
500-watt cooking element; 125-watt smoking element; heats up to 320 degrees F
Door-mounted thermometer; uses wood-flavored bisquettes that burn for 20 minutes each
Runs for up to 8 hours before needing to be refueled; tray and drip bowl included
The Weber 22 1/2 inch Performer Charcoal Grill has been one of the best selling grills for about four years now (
This is my guide to a Texas style smoked brisket. I can’t say that it has won any major awards except I’m often asked to do a brisket for family gatherings and that is reward enough for me. There are no secrets just some tried and true methods that I pay close attention to and I believe that makes the difference. My biggest tip for a good smoked Texas brisket is watching your temperatures and cook it slow and low.
