Smoked Rib Tips Recipe

Smoked rib tips are juicy, flavorful bites of pork, slow-cooked until tender and caramelized with a sweet and smoky bark. Perfect for BBQ lovers, these meaty morsels are irresistible served with your favorite sauce or straight off the smoker.

Course BBQ, Grilling

Cuisine American, Chicago

Keyword Smoked Rib Tips Recipe

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 4

Servings Servings

Calories 467kcal

Author Bon Appeteach

Ingredients

3 lbs. Rib Tips cut from spare ribs or pre-packaged
1 cup BBQ Rub use your favorite
1/2 cup Apple Juice for spritzing
1 batch Chicago Mild Sauce or BBQ sauce

Braising Liquid

1 cup Apple Juice
1 stick Butter cubed
3 tbsp Honey
1/4 cup Brown Sugar
1 tbsp BBQ Dry Rub

Instructions

Preheat the smoker to 250 F. and set for indirect heat.

Prep the Rib Tips

Pat the rib tips dry with paper towels. Generously season all sides with BBQ rub, pressing it in for good coverage. Let them sit at room temperature while you heat the smoker.

Smoke the Rib Tips

Place rib tips directly on the smoker grates. Smoke for about 2.5–3 hours, spritzing with apple juice every 30-45 minutes to keep them moist. Monitor the rib tips until they hit an internal temperature of 165 F.

Wrap/ Braise

Once they develop a nice bark and hit around 165°F internal temp, you can wrap them in foil pan with the apple apple juice, butter, brown sugar, honey, and additional BBQ rub to help tenderize (optional for faster cooking and juicier tips). Make sure to cover the top of the pan tightly with foil to trap the steam.
Continue smoking until they reach 195–203°F, about 1–1.5 more hours.

Sauce & Finish

Unwrap (if wrapped), then brush on your favorite BBQ sauce (I love the homemade mild sauce for this. Let the rib tips smoke for another 15–20 minutes to set the glaze.
When they are probe tender, remove them from the smoker and let them rest for 10 minutes. If the ribs tips are whole, slice into pieces and serve with more sauce and enjoy.
Serve with extra sauce, pickles, fries, or white bread for that classic BBQ feel.

Notes

To cut your own rib tips, remove the cartilage running through the bottom portion of a rack of spare ribs (this creates a square cut to your ribs known as the St. Louis style). You can smoke the whole piece of rib tips or slice into 2 inch pieces to individually smoke them (as pictured).

Nutrition