Baby Back Ribs on an electric grill
One of the things I had been meaning to try on my electric grill was grilling ribs. Electric grills are designed with a single heating element so indirect cooking, usually good for ribs isn’t possible. I found an approach on Weber’s site that I used as a starting point since it’s a direct grilling method. I’ve seen other methods that start with cooking ribs in an oven or using a slow cooker, but I didn’t want to add any extra heat to my kitchen on a hot day. And I was looking for a fairly simple, few-step electric grill approach.
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I started with preheating the electric grill to medium heat and soaking some applewood chips. From the supermarket, I picked up a package of pre-cut baby back ribs (about 7 ribs) to try. I seasoned them with garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper, and salt that I rubbed in on both sides.
I split the ribs until two packets of double-thick (or heavyweight) aluminum foil. I cooked them on the grill for 30 minutes, flipped them over, and then cooked them for another 30 minutes. Once done, I removed the ribs from the grill in order to prepare for the finishing steps (aka BBQ sauce!!).
I drained the wood chips and put them into a heavy-weight aluminum packet with holes punched to allow the smoke out. I put the packet in the middle of the grill and waited for that to start smoking. In the meantime, I removed the ribs from their packets and coated them with BBQ sauce (such as Stubbs).
Once the wood chips started smoking, I put the ribs back on the grill and cooked for 5 minutes. I then flipped them and added more BBQ sauce and cooked for another 5 minutes. Once the ribs reach 160 degrees, they’re done.
Overall I was very happy with the result and would do this again.
Tip: Consider putting the wood chip packet on the electric grill when you flip the ribs (or maybe about 15 minutes after you flip the foil packets). It can take a while for the wood smoke to kick in so if you want to save yourself time, start heating those chips sooner.
Note: A question came up about how long the grill can be used. This took approximately 2 hours and it ran fine the whole time.
