Many of you may have heard of 3-2-1 Ribs, referring to ribs that are Smoked for 3 hours, Wrapped in Foil for 2 hours, and then put back on the smoker for 1 more hour. There are a ton of people who think this method is the gospel of backyard BBQ Ribs. Well, I am here to let you know that my favorite method of smoking ribs is actually the 5-1-0 method – 5 Hours on the Smoker and 1 Hour wrapped in foil to bring them to the perfect tenderness while keeping them juicy and succulent.
Give this recipe a try and you will come back to this one again and again for the BEST ribs.
Why not 3-2-1 Ribs?
The main problem I have with 3-2-1 Ribs is that most ribs will be overcooked by the time you finish the 2 hour cook in the foil. If you have extra thick meaty ribs, the 3-2-1 method might work out Ok for you, but most likely your ribs will be falling off the bone in a bad way and you will have trouble handling them prior to serving them.
By using my 5-1-0 method, you will have ribs that are perfectly tender, but firm enough to slice and serve to your friends and family. They will love your Ribs!
What are 5-1-0 Ribs?
OK, so lets detail out the cooking process of smoking 5-1-0 Ribs, so you can nail perfect ribs every time in the backyard. The basic setup instructions are below for experienced backyard smokers. Read on for a very detailed description of every single decision along the way.
5 Hours (Smoking): Season your ribs, Setup your smoker for indirect cooking at 250°F, and smoke your ribs for 5 hours. Turning / Rotating your ribs a few times and spraying your ribs with a thin mop sauce to keep moisture levels high.
1 Hours (Wrapped): Wrap your ribs in a double lined foil packet, with a little extra moisture. I like to use a mix of beer, apple juice, and apple cider vinegar and spray the ribs heavily on each side as I wrap them in foil. Smoker still at 250°F. You can use butter, but I feel like it is excessive with a fat marbled meat.
0 Hours (Sauced/Finishing): Instead of placing the ribs back on the smoker after unwrapping, we are going to serve these ribs after resting them for 15 minutes or so. If you want to sauce your ribs before serving, this is the time to do it!
Your smoked ribs should bite off the bone perfect at this point. If the ribs are less done or more done than you want the first time you try this, adjust your cooking temperature up or down to speed up or slow down the cook. All smokers are a little different, but I find 250°F to be a good starting point for these cooking times. You can also cut the smoking portion of the cook to 4 hours or less if your ribs are on the small side.
Handy Tools for 5-1-0 Ribs
If you have a smoker, which I am assuming you do. The only real tools needed to smoke these ribs is a good food safe spray bottle and some foil. You can find food rated spray bottles for a few bucks on amazon or your local food supply store.
Detailed Process for Smoking Amazing Ribs using the 5-1-0 Method
Picking out Quality Pork Ribs
First, you have to pick out Quality Ribs. You can use Baby Back Ribs or St. Louis Spare Ribs. However, I am a true believer that St. Louis style spare ribs will give you a better smoked rib every time if you have a good supplier.
Whatever style of rib you choose, try to buy ribs that have some fat marbling through them, not big hunks of fat showing in portions of the rib. You want the fat for the flavor,of course, but look for the marbling of fat.
The other thing I try to look for is consistent thickness throughout the rib rack. Try to avoid ribs that are really thick and narrow on one end and wide and thin on the other end. The more uniform the rib rack, the easier it will be to cook evenly.
Looking at these two racks below, I like the look of the lower rack better, as it does not have a large fat deposit in the center like the upper rack. If you see large fatty chunks like this, carefully cut off the top layer of the fat cap.
To Remove the Membrane or Not?
On the bottom of your ribs, there is typically a silver skin looking membrane attached. I have experimented with keeping it on the rib rack or taking it off and both actually achieve really good results. I would encourage you to try both ways to see if you find a large difference. Most of the time I will keep the membrane on the ribs if it is still intact when I purchase them. I feel like it keeps the moisture in during the smoking process a little better.
If you want to take off the membrane, dry your ribs off with a paper towel and then use a butter knife to separate the membrane from the bone/meat in one area. Then you can use the paper towel to grab the membrane and rib it off. It can be a little tricky the first few times.
Rub your Ribs with a Tasty Dry Rub
Before smoking the ribs, apply a liberal amount of Dry Rub to the top side of your ribs and a thinner coating on the bottom of your ribs. You do not want the rub to be “cakey”… if it does not naturally stick to they rib, then you have enough rub on the meat already.
Below is a really good simple rub that I use for a lot when smoking ribs. I have done taste tests between this rub and store bought rubs with friends I have over, and this rub is usually the winner!
- 0.5 Tablespoon Sea Salt
- 0.5 Tablespoon Celery Salt
- 1 Tablespoon Coarse Ground Pepper – one grain finer than cracked
- 1 Tablespoon Ancho Chile Powder
- ½ tsp Garlic Powder
- ½ tsp Onion Powder
- Optional – 0.5 teaspoon of Cayenne Pepper for an extra Kick
The amounts above will be enough for 2 racks of ribs for sure. Give this rub recipe a try and you will keep a big bottle of it in the cupboard from now on.
Do I need a Binder for the Rib Rub?
No, you don’t need a binder. Although you can use a binder to try and add more flavor, you do not need one for the rub to stick to the meat. The rub sticks just fine without a binder. Sometimes I will use a hot sauce as a binder, to kick up the spice level of the ribs, but that’s about it.
Smoker Setup for Ribs
Heat your smoker up to 250°F. If you are using a charcoal smoker, like a big green egg, then just add one dry small chunk of wood to the top of the charcoal about 15 minutes prior to putting the ribs on the smoker. I prefer cherrywood for the flavor and the color and smoke ring it adds to the pork.
Set up a water pan below the grill grates you are smoking your ribs on. I will usually pour 2 light beers in the water pan as I place the chunk of wood on the charcoal to start, and then let it ride after that.
Make sure you are measuring the temperature of the grill at the grill grate level, using a quality temperature monitor. Do not trust the thermometer attached to your grill.
Smoke the Ribs for 5 Hours
Smoke the ribs for 5 hours. For the first two hours, do not touch the ribs. Starting at the 2 hour mar, spray the ribs every 30 minutes with your favorite mop sauce. I keep it real simple and use a mixture of Coors Light and Apple Juice.
Rib Spray Recipe: 1 Cups Coors Light , 1 Cup Apple Juice, 1/4 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar is a nice ratio that does not get too sweet.
At the 3 Hour Mark, I flip the ribs meat side down until the 4 hour mark, still spraying the ribs every 30 minutes. Finish the last hour meat side up, spraying another few times.
Wrap in Foil for 1 Hour
Lay down a large sheet of foil, two layers thick, then place your ribs meat side down in the foil. Spray the bone side with your mop sauce heavily, then flip the ribs over and spray the meat side pretty heavily as well.
Note: You can add honey, butter, BBQ sauce, or anything else you want to experiment with to the rib packet. However, I really prefer using a light handed approach, preserving the flavor of the pork, dry rub, and smoke flavor.
Fold the foil over and crimp all sides to seal the foil pouch. Put the ribs back on the smoker for one hour. I like my ribs Meat Side Up for the 1st 30 minutes and then finish meat side down for 30 minutes. Rest in the foil meat side down as well so the meat can soak up any juices left in the foil.
Other Rib Recipe Resources and Tips
If you try this recipe and love it, share it with your friends. Leave me a comment if try it or have any questions along the way. – Keegan
21 Responses
My pellet smoker takes at least 5-10 minutes to reheat to cooking temperature each time it’s opened. With this method I would be opening the smoker at least 6 times. Will I need to add extra cook time on. The methods I’ve learned was to Not turn or open the smoker during the process. Also not sure how you get the charring look without using sauce or not putting sauce on until after you take them off the smoker.
If it drops 50 degrees and then ramps back up, you are probably fine to keep the same cooking times. Just try to get your spray bottle ready and get in there fast and get out, to limit the drop. The first time you try this, you may want to start one hour early, just in case you need a little more time. If you use a charcoal smoker, you will get the char / bark on the ribs over a 5 hour cook no problem. On pellet smokers, you may not get quite that much bark. That being said, if you have not tried this type of rub, you may bet better bark than you have been getting in the past. If you do not have a charcoal smoker… I would look at getting one if you love smoking meat. I think it will take your cooks to the next level.
Sorry friend, when using pellets all you have is a glorified easy bake oven. It is IMPOSSIBLE to get that “smoke” flavor from a pellet of compressed sawdust. I have owned a pellet grill and although it did a great job cooking food, that “smoke” flavor never came through no matter the “P” setting or the Amazing Smoke Tubes which were designed to give you more smoke flavor. If you were getting enough of that smoke flavor from the beginning, one wouldn’t need those tubes. If you want real smoke flavor you have to use chunks or splits of wood.
You sound fun to be around
Hello.
You may want to invest in a different pellet smoker. I recommend Recteq. I’m sure your closing the lid as you foil or butcher paper your ribs. I’m normally doing (4) slabs and I take them off (2) at a time. Wrap, take other (2) off and add the (2) I just wrapped. Almost zero drop in temp.
The 3-2-1 ‘method’ was always intended to be a guide, not a recipe. It’s a good entry point for beginners as smoking meat can be intimidating for some, but once you have the basics – that whole process goes out the window.
I agree… pretty much all recipes are good starting points if you are new to the game. I do think most 3-2-1 recipes out there incinerate the ribs a bit if you go by their times and temps though.
Thanks for the recipe. I have been smoking a long time with the traditional method and look forward to trying this. I use an electric Masterbuilt. What would be your suggestion for the amount of wood to use? thanks in advance.
Hi David, if you are talking about an electric smoker that you add wood chunks to, I would error on the lower side first. So, start with one small chunk of wood. Then add another an hour later, then again for the 3rd hour. I would try that and see how it works out and adjust on your next cook. You do not want to over smoke them, as they will get bitter.
So are grill like a PELLET GRILL would be ok to smoke ribs?
Thanks,
David C
Sure, you can smoke ribs on a pellet grill. I personally like the charcoal smokers better, but many people love pellet smokers.
You can cook them on a pellet grill but forget the smoke flavor as you can not attain that smoke flavor from compressed sawdust.
Not true. Invest in a good pellet smoker and you get great results. I used charcoal for years but now use a Yoder pellet grill.
Am just starting competition pork rib cooking.
Any suggestions on meat selection, marinade,dry rub?
Hi Larrry, thanks for the question. If you are starting in competitions, then I would use a salty / spicy dry rub and then add more sweeteners for the 1 hour foil wrap. So, you can use some brown sugar and butter when you wrap the ribs or butter and honey. For rib rubs, here are some of my favorites https://searedandsmoked.com/best-bbq-rib-rub-recipes-from-sweet-to-spicy/
The question I have, for those of us that have pellet smokers, is how to add more smoke flavor, without buying new equipment?
i have never used them before… but you will find people that like the “smoke tubes”. I cannot say one way or the other.
Followed this recipe and my family (including my picky kids) devoured them. They came out absolutely perfect!
We use a tube with our pellet smoker and it adds lots of smoker flavor.
I appreciate the recipe! I got a Pit Boss premium standup pellet smoker. I have been experimenting with it for a year now and my method has been pretty much 5.0.1. Start by prepping the ribs, cut out the excess fat, remove the membrane if you want but I have tried both methods and it has yielded great results. I have tried the dry rub method but I have also tried the wet marinade brown sugar bourbon, pepper, garlic powder, salt and an entire bottle of Modelo Negro beer. I mix it all together and since my ribs come individually wrapped in a vacuumed sealed bags, I put the ribs back in the bags and pour the marinade in and seal the bags with clamps real tight and let them marinade all night. Setup your smoker temp to 250deg. Get your ribs laid out on 18” x 12” x 1” trays, meat down and bring them to the smoker. If you have deeper trays it would be better because you will use the marinade. Pour the marinade over the ribs, one tray is big enough to fit two ribs in it. The ribs will smoke for 5 hours meat down. Remove the tray closer to the heat source and flip the ribs meat up you may want to add a preferred BBQ sauce at this time but I have omitted this stem since you cooked the ribs on the marinade and they will be delicious enough. I have wrapped the trays with aluminum foil before but my results were the same regarding the moisture level of the ribs. I chose not to wrapped the ribs and meat up smoking for the final hour it provided the perfect browning. Repeat the process with the second tray. After the hour you can take them out and enjoy!
Thanks for sharing… I can tell you are very passionate about your ribs!