SYD Barbecue Ribs with Pico De Gallo
As a barbecue competitor and cooking instructor, I’m often asked what my favorite barbecue is. When I say ribs, the next question is how do I like to cook them? Do I cook them competition-style? The truth is when you’re on the road competing over 30 weekends a year and another 20 weekends teaching barbecue classes, eating more barbecue is not the first thing that comes to mind. After a long weekend on the road cooking, I prefer Mexican or Japanese food. However, whenever I cook ribs for myself, I like them simple with a nice Tex-Mex influenced garlicky rub and with some spicy Pico De Gallo. No, I’ve never turned in this recipe for a contest and I’m not sure it will do well but that’s how I like my ribs when I make them for myself. When I was a student at Texas Tech in the early 80’s, I first learned how to cook ribs from one of the Mexican cooks in the cafeteria where I worked part-time. Latecia’s recipe was simple and delicious. You dusted your ribs with some salt, pepper, granulated garlic, and chili powder and grill them. Once done, the ribs were still chewy and you squeezed some lime on it and ate it with some freshly made pico de gallo. Over the years, I’ve modified her recipe to suit my tastes as they evolved as I moved out to California for graduate school after I left Texas Tech in Lubbock. Sometimes I make it with a 50-50 blend of my SYD competition Hot rub coupled with my new SYD competition Chicken rub which won the 2012 KCBS season national Chicken Championship. Sometimes I go with my simple 1985 retro recipe. Give it a go either way if you want to see how I like my ribs. Who knows, once you try it, you may find you also enjoy ribs with spicy Pico Di Gallo and a squeeze of lime juice!
- Total Time: 22 mins
- Yield: 4 1x
Ingredients
- Two slabs of Spareribs trimmed St. Louis style
- 3 tablespoons Best Foods Mayonnaise
- Apple juice
- Rub 1 – combine 2 tablespoons SYD Hot Rub with 2 tablespoons of SYD Competition Chicken Rub
Or
- Rub 2 (Letecia’s recipe) – combine 1 tablespoon Kosher salt + 1/2 tablespoon black pepper + 1 tablespoon chili powder, 1 tablespoon granulated garlic + 1 tablespoon brown sugar
Pico De Gallo
- Juice from 1 lime
- 1 small jalapeno finely chopped
- 2 Roma tomatoes, seeded, chopped
- 1/2 small red onion, peeled, chopped
- handful of cilantro leaves, finely chopped
- Pinch of SYD Hot Rub
Instructions
- Apply a thin coat of mayonnaise on both sides of the ribs. This helps to make the rub stick and tenderizes the ribs a bit
- Sprinkle an even coating of the Rub 1 (SYD rubs) or Rub 2 (Letecia’s recipe)
- Let rest for 30 mins. Start your pit and get it to 275 degrees. Toss in a couple of hickory or apple wood chunks
- Cook the ribs on a rib rack in your pit. After about 2 hours and when some bark has begun to form, spray with some apple juice from a spray bottle
- Mix the Pico De Gallo ingredients and let sit in the fridge while the ribs are cooking
- When the rib bones begin to pull back, check for tenderness by probing the meat between the bones using the back of a plastic fork
- Remove at the level of doneness and tenderness you like. I like my ribs a little chewy
- Cut the ribs into individual bones and serve with a squeeze of lime and some spicy Pico De Gallo.
- Enjoy with your favorite beer
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 2 mins
- Category: Entree
- Cuisine: American