How to Smoke Beef Short Ribs

How to smoke beef short ribs, very easy with just a few tips. They are tender, giggly, and delicious when they are finished!

Picture this, today was a beautiful spring day. The morning was crisp with frost on the grass and temps around 30 degrees. The high for the day is 60 degrees.

The sun is out and there are no clouds in the sky. It was time to smoke some beef short ribs for the family. It’s not too hot and not too cold, perfect weather to fire up the smoker!

Dry Rub for Short Ribs

You will want to grab a dry rub for short ribs. We will use Butcher BBQ Steak and Brisket Rub for this cook.

It adds a combination of salt, pepper, garlic, and a hint of lemon oil for some amazing flavor.

Prep and Trim

Now if you purchase beef short ribs, they may come all intact. If you have a drum, WSM, or smaller smoker, you may decide to cut the rack in half. This will save space and speed up the cooking process.

Your beef ribs may have a thick fat cap. If so, use a sharp boning knife and trim it down so the meat is exposed.

This allows the beef rib rub to penetrate the meat and start a dry brine. The dry brining process adds tons of flavor, that is well worth it!

Apply the Dry Rub for Short Ribs

Now, generously apply the beef rib rub to all the sides. You may want to skip the underside of the short ribs. It contains a membrane, that is similar to the fat cap. The membrane is not permeable so the seasoning will not penetrate the rib meat.

The membrane is sometimes removed with pork ribs, but with beef ribs it is generally not removed. The beef rib membrane helps keep the ribs together during the cooking process.

Pro tip – Save the fat cap trimmings for sausage or rendering down for beef tallow.

Time to Rest and Prepare the smoker

Your dry rub for short ribs has been applied and we would recommend letting it sit for 45 minutes.

Fire up the smoker! Get it warmed up and let’s prepare to smoke these ribs low and slow. You will want to lock in the grate temp around 225-250 degrees.

The temps may fluctuate during the cook so don’t be concerned if your temps climb to 260-270. This is normal, especially if you use a charcoal smoker.

With beef ribs, we recommend hickory wood to complement the meat and the beef rib rub. Hickory is a stronger flavor of wood so don’t use too many chunks. Three fist size pieces or three handfuls of wood chips are what we recommend.

Let’s Start cooking the Beef Ribs

As your smoker warms and stabilizes, put the beef ribs on the smoker. Plan to smoke these ribs for about 4-5 hours. Periodically checking and spritzing with a BBQ sprayer if they start to get dry.

Texas Crutch – Wrap Those Ribs

After a couple hours and your ribs hit an internal temperature of 160-170 degrees it’s time to wrap. This is a method known as the “Texas Crutch”. When you wrap the ribs it decreases the cooking time and makes the meat extremely tender.

In this example we wrapped in aluminum foil, but you can also wrap it in butcher paper.

Pro tip – Now a lot of people will say the beef ribs are done at a certain internal temperature, 200-210 degrees. A good rule is to use a probe thermometer and probe the meat. When it is like probing butter, then they are done!

Rest those Beef Ribs

Grab a cooler and a towel and let’s rest those ribs. You will want to wrap your ribs in the towel to protect the cooler. The towel also add another layer of insulation.

Let the ribs rest for at least 30 minutes, but the longer the rest the better.

Now slice and serve!

In Conclusion

Using our dry rub for short ribs, you know how to smoke beef short ribs! It may take a few tries to get it where you want, but don’t be discouraged. Smoking meat is a process that takes time to learn and you will always tweak your process to make it better!

Now let’s get some beef rib rub and start cooking some ribs!