BBQ Ribs, Grilled Asparagus & Twice Baked Taters

This past weekend we had some delicious kick off the summer grillin' food - ribs! We are still trying to get the hang of different formations on our charcoal grill but these ribs came out pretty tasty. The thinner cut came out a little bit dry so we just need to adjust the cooking time for the smaller ribs next time. The thicker cut came out great - they got a little too dark once we put the BBQ sauce on - maybe because the fire was too hot? It's a learning curve but we will perfect it eventually. Oh and we threw the asparagus (fresh from the market) on the grill after the ribs were done for only a few minutes and they came out PERFECT - they were so good! It was hard not to eat all of them before we sat down at the table. I just tossed the asparagus in some EVOO with salt & pepper, simple, yet delish!

As another side to this dish I had frozen the leftover Twice Baked Taters I made in a previous meal and they were just as good if not better than when I first made them. So, now I know that freezing potatoes works out fine. 

BBQ St. Louis Style Ribs      

Serves 2

BBQ Ribs

Grilled Asparagus & Twice Baked Taters

ingredients

• 1 rack St. Louis ribs, cut in half
• 1/4 c Dry Rub: 1 Tbsp black pepper, 2 Tbsp Kosher salt, 2 Tbsp ground cumin, 1/4 cup paprika, 3 Tbsp garlic powder, 2 tbsp onion powder, 1/4 cup light brown sugar, 3 Tbsp ancho chile powder
• Yellow Mustard
• Your favorite BBQ Sauce (I had some homemade in the freezer that I thawed out for this)

directions

1. Combine the dry rub mix in a small bowl and mix well. Rinse the ribs and pat dry with paper towels. Squirt some yellow mustard and coat both sides of the ribs. Then a heavy coating of the dry rub, make sure to get all over and press the rub in with your fingers. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate up to over night to marinate them. Reserve leftover dry rub in a sealed container in the fridge up to 1 month.

2. Set out a few large sheets of foil (we double lined ours). Place each half rack on the foil and create pouches for the ribs with the foil being sure to seal well a the top. Grill ribs over indirect heat for 1 - 1 1/2 hours depending on how hot your grill is. Open up the foil and peel back so the ribs are exposed. Carefully flip the meat over so the meat side is on top and cook for another 20 minutes until the meat is tender and the meat has shrunk back from the bones.

3. Take the ribs out of the foil and place directly on the grill grates and baste with BBQ sauce, cook for another 10 minutes until you have a crisp exterior. Ours were already crisp in the foil so we didn't have to cook for very long with the BBQ sauce. Again, our grill may have been too hot so that might be way it got a little bit too dark.

Enjoy!

This recipe was adapted from Guy Fieri (dry rub) and ME (asparagus & BBQ sauce).