Hot honey spare ribs are going to be the talk of your neighborhood once these sweet heat spares come off the grill. First, rub the pork spare ribs in a BBQ rub of paprika, ancho, cumin, salt, garlic powder, and dried orange peel. Then let the slab smoke in cherry wood for a couple hours. Additionally, instead of a classic butter and brown sugar wrap, we are going in with hot honey to bring some sweet and heat then grating a little fresh orange zest to finish them off with notes of citrus.

Another spin on these ribs is the cook temperature and time. I know they say “good things come to those who wait”, but sometimes I don’t want to. Although why wait when you can make something great in half the time? We are going to cook our spare ribs at 300F for 2.5 hours. This is known as the High Heat Method.

What is the High Heat Method for Grilling Ribs?

The majority of pitmasters out there smoke their ribs around 225F. Generally speaking, they do so for 6 hours in what is known as the 3-2-1 method. Here at GrillinFools.com, we are big fans of the high heat method, which is actually more like the medium heat method but that doesn’t have the alliteration of high heat. The high heat method involves smoking meats at 300F-350F. Actually, we find that we get fantastic bark and great smoke penetration in a fraction of the time by smoking ribs at 300F.

Hot Honey Spare Ribs Ingredients:

• 1 rack of St. Louis spare ribs
• 1 tbsp paprika
• 1 ½ tbsp kosher salt
• ½ tbsp ancho powder
• ½ tbsp garlic powder
• 2 tsp oregano
• ½ tbsp onion powder
• ½ tbsp cumin
• * 2 tsp dried orange peel
• 4 tbsp butter, sliced into 8 pats
• Mikes hot honey, about ¼ cup
• 1 naval orange

Why Cook St. Louis Style Ribs?

There are two main reasons to do St. Louis style ribs. First, they cook evenly because the slab is trimmed out to be symmetrical. Second, spares are usually cheaper than baby back ribs and if you trim them yourself, you can save a little money. Indeed, we can help. We have a full tutorial here on how to trim out St. Louis style ribs to help you save some cheddar and make sure you don’t have any thin dry portions of your ribs.

How to Smoke Hot Honey Spare Ribs

Remove the membrane and season with the BBQ rub and place the slab of spares on a 300F grill and smoke indirect, meat side down for an hour. After 1 hour, flip the ribs to be meat side up and smoke for another hour. Then, lay out a couple sheets of foil, layer down some butter, hot honey and rub and set the ribs meat side down. Next, wrap in the foil and place back on the grill for 30 minutes. Finally, remove the ribs from the foil, drizzle the sauce from the foil over the ribs and close the lid to allow the sauce to tack up for 10-15 minutes.

Prepare the Grill

Set your smoker to 300F. If using a Kamado grill, be sure to set it up for indirect cooking.

The best method to get the full smokey flavor for the entirety of the cook is to make a charcoal and wood chunk sandwich. Lay down a bed of coals, throw in 4-8 chunks of wood, then top it off with more charcoal. Therefore, you will get gorgeous smoke the whole cook without any acrid flavor.

Then, create the BBQ rub by mixing the salt, paprika, oregano, garlic, onion, ancho, cumin, and dried orange peel:

If you cannot find dried orange peel, do not worry. Just add extra zest into the wrap at the end and they will be great.

Always Remove the Membrane: A Paper Towel is your Friend

If you buy the ribs already trimmed to be St. Louis style, you probably still need to take off the membrane on the bone side. Thus, grab the edge of the corner with paper towels for grip and pull back slowly:

Then, season both side of the ribs, reserving about 1.5 tbsp of rub for our wrap:

Next, put the ribs on the 300F grill, meaty side down for 1 hour:

After an hour, flip the ribs and cook an additional hour:

Next, prep the wrap by laying down butcher paper or foil.

Line the butter down the center, before sprinkling the reserved rub

Grate about 1 tbsp of orange zest on top, and finally drizzle the hot honey down:

Place the ribs, meaty side down onto the butter and seasoning:

Next, wrap tightly and place it back on the smoker for an additional 30 minutes, meaty side down:

Remove the ribs from the wrap, then place them onto the grate, meat side up. Importantly, drizzle the sauce from the foil over the ribs.

Additionally, cook a final 10-15 minutes to firm up the sauce

Finally, allow the ribs to rest for about 10 minutes, slice and serve:

Hot Honey Spare Ribs Recap:

These ribs are a well nuanced and balance of sweet and heat plus all the flavors from that BBQ rub. Indeed, hot honey spare ribs will definitely wow friends and family alike. And in half the time of the 3-2-1 method.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below or send me an email.

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Recipe Card:

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Hot Honey Spare Ribs

Spare ribs smoked with the high heat method, foiled with hot honey and butter to make the perfect sweet heat combo of hot honey spare ribs

Course Barbecue, BBQ, Entree, Main Course, Ribs

Cuisine American, American Fare, Barbecue, BBQ, Grilling, Pork, Pork Ribs, Ribs, Spare Ribs

Keyword Foiled Ribs, Heat, Hot Honey, Hot Honey Ribs, Hot Honey Spare Ribs, Kamado, Kamado Grill, Mike's Hot Honey, Pork, Pork Ribs, Pork Spare Ribs, Spare Ribs, St. Louis Style Ribs, Sweet Heat

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 3 hours hours

Resting Time 10 minutes minutes

Servings 4 People

Equipment

• 1 Microplane
• Butcher paper or foil
• Smoke wood We used cherry

Ingredients

• 1 rack St. Louis spare ribs
• 1 tablespoon Paprika
• 1 ½ tablespoon Kosher salt
• ½ tablespoon Ancho chili powder
• ½ tablespoon Garlic powder
• 2 teaspoons Oregano
• ½ tablespoon Onion powder
• ½ tablespoon Cumin
• 2 teaspoons Dried orange peel
• 4 tablespoons Butter
• ¼ cup Mike's Hot Honey
• 1 Orange

Instructions

• Set the grill up for indirect or two zone grilling with a target temperature inside the grill of 300F
• Trim the slab to be St. Louis style and remove the membrane.
• Combine the salt, paprika, oregano, garlic, onion, ancho,cumin, and dried orange peel to create the BBQ rub and apply liberally on both sides of the ribs. Make sure to reserve 1.5-2 tablespoons of rub for the foil wrap.
• Place the seasoned ribs on the grill, meat side down for 1 hour
• Flip the ribs over and smoke for another hour
• Lay down a couple sheets of foil or peach butcher paper and set four pats of butter, the reserved rub and the hot honey. Place the ribs, meat side down on the line of butter, seasoning and honey. Wrap the foil around the ribs and place back on the grill, meat side down for 30 minutes.
• Remove the ribs from the foil, place them on the grill bone side down and drizzle the sauce from the foil over ribs. Smoke for another 10-15 minutes to allow the sauce to tack up
• Remove from the grill, allow to rest for 10 minutes, slice and serve

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Author information

Scott Thomas

Scott Thomas, the Original Grillin’ Fool, was sent off to college with a suitcase and a grill where he overcooked, undercooked and burned every piece of meat he could find. After thousands of failures, and quite a few successes, nearly two decades later he started a website to show step by step, picture by picture, foolproof instructions on how to make great things out of doors so that others don’t have to repeat the mistakes he’s made on the grill.

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