Smoked Beef Short Ribs Recipe Is Full of Flavor

If you like beef, you'll love the results of this beef short ribs recipe! Slow cooked, they melt in your mouth and have great flavor. If they're not cooked right, short ribs are tough and stringy. To bring out the best that's hidden in these little beauties, you need to cook them at a low temperature for a long time.

This will break down and melt the tough connective tissue in the meat, and bring a burst of great flavor. That's the nice thing about tough, stringy meats. A  "low quality" cut of meat can end up with superb flavor!

What Are Short Ribs?

Chuck short ribs are meatier and more tender than plate short ribs, but both still contain a lot of tough connective tissues. If they are cut across the bones into strips, they are known as flanken style ribs. When the cut is made parallel to the bone, they are English style short ribs, which may or may not be boneless.

My usual plan of attack when smoking these is to cook them alongside the main attraction. The shape and size of short ribs make them perfect for filling in the gaps around a brisket or a couple of chickens, so I'll get the most out of a smoking session. And they're so good, they often upstage the main attraction and become the star of the show!

Smoky Beef Short Ribs Recipe and Smoking Instructions

I prefer to keep it simple when smoking short ribs. It's not necessary to add a lot of flavor to these little wonders.

Ingredients

For four pounds of beef short ribs, combine

• 2 tablespoons of kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons of black pepper
• 2 tablespoons of onion powder
• 1 tablespoon of garlic powder
• 2 teaspoons of celery salt

Stir the spices and salt together, then rub the dry rub mix into the meat. Allow the beef to rest in the refrigerator for a couple of hour, up to overnight. By doing this, the rub flavors will penetrate into the meat, making your ribs much more flavorful.

When cooking time arrives, place the ribs into a 225˚F smoker. Oak, pecan and apple would be great smoker woods to use for the smoky flavor you want. Mesquite would work well too, but because of its strong aroma use just half the normal amount.

Continue smoking the beef short ribs for four hours, then wrap them in foil. Return to the smoker and let them cook for another hour or two, until they are fall-apart tender.