Smoked Beef Ribs Recipe with Texas Style Rub

This smoked beef ribs recipe has everything we love about ribs, and is so easy it's perfect for beginners. Give it a try today! This smoked beef ribs recipe with Texas style rub has everything we all love about ribs.

Tender beefy ribs coated with a spicy Texas style rub are slow cooked with smoke and served up so tender and juicy. It's so delicious, and it's easier than you think. So let's get into it!

For a meat lover, there’s not really a wrong way to cook ribs. You can overcook it. That’s a given. But it’s not generally a point of contention how the meat gets prepared.

That is, of course, until somebody brings up a smoked beef ribs recipe. When a smoker enters the arena, all bets are off.

Smoking is now the only option for preparing meat. The reason is clear. That deep smokey flavor embedded in the soft, tender tissue. Smoked just right, beef ribs will fall off the bone.

You have to put it in your mouth fast, or it will drop to your plate before you get it there.

It’s so succulent and yet that lovely crust of spiced Texas rub gives it such mouth-watering texture, you can’t imagine doing anything else to a rib but smoke it so lovingly.

My first tip of the day for sensational smoked beef ribs is that when you smoke any kind of meat, you want to take it very slowly.

Keep the heat down low enough that the meat can take its time to cook and really saturate with the flavors of your choice of wood.

The smoke penetrates the well-seasoned surface of the meat best this way and that’s how you get that real smokey flavor packed into every sensational bite.

Table of contents

• Smoked Meat for Beginners
• Smoked Beef Ribs Temperature
• How Long to Smoke Beef Ribs at 250
• What Will I Need to Make This Smoked Beef Ribs Recipe with Texas-Style Rub?
• How to Prep Ribs for Smoking
• Do I Have to Use a Specific Kind of Wood?
• How Do I Store the Ribs?
• Can Smoked Beef Ribs be Reheated?
• Smoked Beef Ribs Recipe with Texas Style Rub
• Smoked Beef Ribs Recipe Ingredients
• How to Smoke Beef Ribs
• Try This Smoked Beef Ribs Recipe

Smoked Meat for Beginners

If you’ve never smoked meat before, it requires a little bit (not too much!) of TLC when it comes to giving it a consistently high level of moisture.

The Smoked beef ribs need a nice steam bath so they can remain tender and juicy as the smoke continues to seep into the meat. The way to do that is just to check that the steam pot in the smoker has plenty of water and refill it when necessary.

One component of smoked beef ribs that you don’t want to forget is the rub. The smoked flavor is nice, but it’s your rub spices that give your ribs the nice outer texture and savory scrumptiousness.

It’s always best to have a good rub on hand and ready to use. This bold and tasty Texas-style rub is easy to make and it keeps for a year in the right conditions.

All you need is an airtight container and a dark place such as a pantry or a kitchen cabinet. Nothing fancy. Make a lot of rub in advance since it keeps for so long. It keeps the cost down when you can buy the rub ingredients in bulk.

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Smoked Beef Ribs Temperature

Smoke the beef ribs on 225 degrees for 6 hours or until smoked beef ribs reach an internal temperature of 203 degrees 0r 200-205.

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How Long to Smoke Beef Ribs at 250

For years we smoked our beef ribs at 250 degrees for about 5 hours but now we smoke at 225 degrees for 6 hours and LOVE the results so much more. I highly recommend you try it yourself. I think you'll be glad you did.

Make sure to check the water level and wood every 45-60 minutes, until they reach an internal temperature of 203 degrees.

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What Will I Need to Make This Smoked Beef Ribs Recipe with Texas-Style Rub?

Right to the point. Let's specifically discuss what you’ll need to have in order to make these Texas-Style smoked beef ribs. There are two main components to making this recipe everything it should be.

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Smoked Beef Ribs Rub

This is the best smoked beef ribs rub that we have ever tried and I urge you to consider trying it at least once.

• ground black pepper
• granulated sugar
• onion powder
• kosher salt
• mustard powder
• cayenne pepper
• garlic powder
• chili powder

The Texas-style rub and the ribs themselves. Most of the recipe is all about this delectable rub, which requires you to have granulated sugar. This is what will caramelize and make that lovely sticky crust on the surface of the rib.

Other important spices for the rub include ground black pepper, kosher salt, cayenne pepper, dark chili powder, garlic powder, mustard powder, and onion powder.

When it all blends together in one uniform rub it coats your beef with the most incredible bite of impossibly good flavor.

On top of the ribs and the ingredients for the Texas-style rub, you’ll need the right supplies to smoke your ribs up right. Most of the equipment isn’t all that exotic.

You’ll need mixing bowls, tongs, a baking tray, and a meat thermometer. Of course a smoker and wood are absolutely essential.

Make sure you have everything you need before getting started, so you don’t have to stop what you're doing and create some kind of last-minute solution.

The best way to get everything you don’t already have is through Amazon. When buying wood, make sure you select the pellets or chips that your smoker is designed for. You don’t want that surprise just before you get smoking.

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How to Prep Ribs for Smoking

Ribs don’t need a lot of prep. There are two schools of thought for how to apply the rub. You can either massage the rub into the meat (hence: rub), or you can dust the meat liberally with the rub and let it settle in as it cooks.

The purpose behind not rubbing it into the meat is to avoid clogging the pores and thus trapping flavors out. This is especially important when smoking meat because the permeation of smoky flavors is so important.

Sprinkle on your rub and let it sit for about 30 minutes before you put it in the smoker.

If your ribs have that membrane on the back that gets chewy and tough when you cook it, take it off easily, by sliding a table knife between the membrane and the rib and gently prying it loose.

Use a paper towel to grip one end of the membrane and pull tight as you slide the knife in the opposite direction.

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Do I Have to Use a Specific Kind of Wood?

Of course not! We used oak in this recipe because it's the traditional choice for Texan food. The wood you choose has an impact on the flavor in the smoke, so what matters most is that you like it.

Oak tends to be on the mild side, If you can’t find oak but want an appropriate substitute, try cherry wood.

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How Do I Store the Ribs?

Storing smoked beef ribs is easy and expected. You’ll probably be cooking up a lot of ribs at a time, too many for a single serving.

Unless you are feeding a large family or hosting a party you will likely need to pack some of your ribs away. They last for up to 5 days in the refrigerator, as long as you keep them in an airtight container.

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Can Smoked Beef Ribs be Reheated?

Of course! The only concern with this smoked beef ribs recipe is that they will never be as good as when they first come out of the smoker, especially if you have to reheat them in the microwave.

If you reheat on the grill, or in the oven, preheat it while the ribs come up to room temperature for the best results. The ribs will reheat fast.

Make sure to add just a little moisture to them and wrap them in foil. Use a tight wrap for the oven and a loose one for the grill since they heat food differently.

You don’t need a lot of heat to warm them to temp. Take them out after 5-10 minutes.

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Smoked Beef Ribs Recipe with Texas Style Rub

This recipe is so easy and so delicious. The thing about smoking meat is that it's a lot simpler than people realize. The ingredient list isn't super long, and the cooking itself is mostly just a matter of waiting. It really is a super easy way to cook!

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Smoked Beef Ribs Recipe Ingredients

1 rack of beef ribs

Smoked Beef Ribs Rub

• ground black pepper
• granulated sugar
• onion powder
• kosher salt
• mustard powder
• cayenne pepper
• garlic powder
• chili powder

For Smoking

• Water
• Wood Chunks or chips, pre-soaked, or pellets (whichever your smoker uses)

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How to Smoke Beef Ribs

You'll find the complete recipe in the card at the end of this post, complete with amounts and times. However, I wanted to give you the highlights here so you could see just how easy this recipe really is. Here's what you'll do.

• Make rub
• Season both sides of ribs using as much of the rub as possible
• Preheat your smoker and fill steam pot with water and fill your smoker with wood (chunks, chips, pellets, or whatever your smoker requires)

How Long to Smoke Beef Ribs

• Smoke ribs for 6 hours at 225 degrees, checking water level and wood every 45 minutes to an hour, until smoked beef ribs reach an internal temperature of 203 degrees or somewhere between 200 and 205 degrees
• Carefully remove ribs from smoker and allow to rest for 15 minutes before serving

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Tips

While smoking is actually a lot easier than people think, there are a few things to keep in mind to make sure you make the best ribs possible. In fact, there are three things that are important to remember:

1. Low and slow is the best way to smoke meat. This really allows the flavor of the seasonings and the wood to penetrate into the meat and it becomes packed full of flavor!
2. Always make sure to check the steam pot and fill with water as needed. It is important to maintain a high moisture level within the smoker.
3. The rub can be made ahead of time and kept in an airtight container in a dark place (inside a cabinet is fine) and will keep for about a year.

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Try This Smoked Beef Ribs Recipe

You'll be glad you did! This smoked beef ribs recipe comes out so juicy, tender, smoky, and full of amazing flavor thanks to the spices in the rub. Everyone will be begging for more!

It's a recipe that takes very little actual cooking time and just hours of waiting. And if that's the hardest part of a recipe, I call it a winner! So try your hand at smoking. You'll be glad you did.

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