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It’s tough to get some time to listen to your heart in your busy schedule. But in this busyness, you must take the time to listen to your mind. If you are a food lover (especially grilled food) and looking for how to cook ribs on a charcoal grill fast, you are on the right track.
I am a grilled meat enthusiast and used to eat 2-3 times a month. I learned some tactics to cook ribs on charcoal within a few hours to save time.
Now, I will share the way out of quick ribs cooking on your charcoal grill for you. Give me three minutes to explain the process.
Moreover, I have kept a FAQ section in the last part of my words to provide some extra information about cooking ribs.
Let’s get started, shall we?
Tools You’ll Need To Cook Ribs
You can’t continue your cooking with only grills, charcoal, and cooking ingredients. Besides them, you need some essential grilling accessories to make the cooking process handy and pleasant. Here are some tools that you will need
- A set of tongs, spatula, and spoon to hold the hot ribs.
- A digital meat thermometer to check the grill’s the inside temperature
- Some dishes bowl to marinate ribs, and keep the ingredients.
- A brush to coat oil on the ribs.
- A pair of hand gloves to protect your hand from the cooking heat.
- Some serving plates to serve the grilled ribs before friends and family members.
How To Cook Ribs On A Charcoal Grill Fast – Step By Step Process
Now, it’s time to get ready for all the ingredients with their accurate measurement to start the main grilling. Authentic ingredients with accurate measurements will make your food taste, zesty and yummy.
In the same way, inaccurate ingredients with inaccurate measurements will make your food tasteless and unsavory.
Ingredients You Need
- Salt – 2 tbsp
- Sugar- 1 cup
- Olive oil – 6 tbsp
- Paprika – 1 tbsp
- Pepper – ½ tbsp
- Soy sauce- ¾ cup
- Cider vinegar – 6 tbsp
- Chicken broth- ¾ cup
- Chili powder – ½ tbsp
- Garlic cloves- 3 pieces
- Garlic powder – ¼ tsp
- BBQ sauce – 1 bottle (optional)
- Baby back ribs – 2 pieces with 4½ pounds
Let’s describe the step-by-step instructions to fast ribs grilling.
- Prepare the ribs
First, you have to cut the membrane of the ribs to remove the extra fat from it. For this, you need to insert a sharp meat-cutting knife within the ribs and membrane.
When the membrane will come out from the meat, hold the tissue paper in your hand and pull the membrane and it will loosen up. When you deal with a sharp knife, be careful; otherwise, you may cut your fingers.
- Prepare the charcoal
It is the last stage of preparation; you can go to the primary cooking process after that. You will find a chimney in your charcoal grill where you have to put the briquettes charcoal or hardwood lump charcoal. Or even you can mix lump charcoal with briquettes to get unique flavor.
You have to push some rolling papers into the chimney, and this pressure will help the charcoal to get into the bottom side of the chimney.
Now, make a fire on the charcoal and let it 20 minutes to make enough heat to place the ribs on the grill.
- Marinate the ribs
The meat is delicious. But if you marinate the ribs, that will enhance their taste several times because, at that time, the spices will insert into every tissue of the ribs.
Take a small bowl and pour the marinade ingredients one after another, such as chicken broth, soy sauce, sugar, olive oil, vinegar, garlic cloves, and other things. Then make a paste with all those ingredients.
Now, keep the prepared ribs on the baking dish and coat the spicy paste into the ribs. After that, keep the ribs on your refrigerator for overnight or two hours in case of a hurry. Wait to marinate the ribs.
- Now, start smoking ribs
In this step, first, wear your hand gloves and start prominent grilling. That’s why you can set the temperature at 200° Fahrenheit for 15 minutes to preheat and for one and a half an hour to grill.
Lower heat helps to keep the ribs moist while smoking. And the higher you heat, the more chance of uneven cooking of the ribs. So it is best to cook it at a lower temperature.
When the grill is preheated, place the ribs onto the grates of the smoker. Don’t forget to use a long-handled tong to place the ribs because the grill is already hot enough to burn your hands.
After half the cooking time, open the smoker’s lid and turn over the ribs with a tong so that the opposite side will get heat to cook, and in the meantime, check the temperature with the thermometer. This will offer you an even cooked delicious ribs rack.
- Check the ribs
After finishing the set time, take a fork or toothpick and insert it into the ribs to check as the ribs have cooked or need several more minutes to cook.
There is also another way to check the doneness of cooking, and that is if the meat of the ribs falls from the bones, you can easily understand the ribs are perfectly cooked. If you think the ribs are almost done, turn off the fire of your grill.
- Rest and serve the ribs
It’s the time for you that you are eagerly waiting and counting the moments to taste the ribs’ zesty flavor.
But, wait some more minutes and let them cool down so that your tongue can tolerate the heat. Otherwise, you will burn your tongue.
After coming the ribs into tolerable heat, slice the ribs like bread and then serve in front of all the hungry stomachs. If you want, you can apply some non sweet bbq sauce over the rib’s slice; it will multiply the grilled ribs’ taste.
Topcellent Tips:
- Keep your kids and pets away from the grilling space.
- Always observe the inside grilling temperature to avoid higher or lower temperatures.
- When handling fire, and sharp utensils, take enough precautions to avoid any unwanted incident.
How To Cook Ribs On A Charcoal Grill In Foil?
You can use foil paper and it is the standard method of grilling. It also ensures you a better smoky flavor. For this, you have to wrap the marinated ribs with foil paper like a packet and place it into the grill.
Close the lid, ignite the charcoal, and cook the ribs for 1½ hours. After completing the set time, remove the ribs from the grill and let it rest for 10 minutes to cool down to make it ready to eat.
Related: How To Reheat Ribs And Keep Them Moist (8 Most Useful Methods)
How To Smoke Ribs On A Charcoal Offset Smoker?
When you use both wood and charcoal as fuel in your charcoal grill, that will offset the smoker.
In this case, set the grilling temperature to 200-225 degrees Fahrenheit. Then place your ribs on the grill’s grates, and cook them until getting a juicy and smoky flavor.
Recommended Products For Cooking Ribs On Charcoal Grill
If you want to wish for a better grilling experience I recommend these three products to keep. Because those accessories will assist you in making you a pro griller from a beginner griller.
Meat Cutting Knife: You know the membranes are too slippery, so you have to use a boning knife to remove the ribs’ membrane.
Ash Tool: After burning the charcoal, they produce ashes. So if you use an ash basket to collect the ash, it will prevent your grill from getting too messy.
Smoker Box: If you love the smoky flavor in your smoked ribs, you can use a V-shaped smoker box in your grill. It will offer you the maximum smoky flavor.
Things To Consider Before Start Cooking Ribs
Cooking is an art, and if you want to be a pro of this mastery of art within a speedy time, you must have some preparation.
Otherwise, when you start cooking and can’t get essential accessories besides your hands, you get irritated. The things you have to consider before starting cooking
- Charcoal
Charcoal is the first and foremost thing that you must keep ready before starting cooking. There are two kinds of charcoal; one is charcoal briquettes, and another is hardwood lump charcoal.
The briquettes charcoal burns very slowly so that you can get a long time of heat from it and the hardwood charcoal burns too fast so that you get a high amount of heat from it.
You can use one according to your preference between these two types of charcoal. Make ready which types of charcoal you want to use for firing your grill.
- Ribs
Then you need to select the ribs which taste the best. There are three types of ribs having different flavors. One of the familiar and easy-finding ribs is Baby Back Ribs. If you love lean meat, then it will be the perfect ribs for you.
The spareribs are large meat with flat bones. These ribs have more extensive connective tissue, and you need to cook them for a long time.
Louis-Style Ribs don’t have any rib tips and have a rectangular shape. If this is your first time grilling, you have to avoid these ribs because it needs tricky cooking.
How Long Does It Take To Cook Ribs On A Charcoal Grill?
First, the grilling time depends on the type of ribs. If you use baby back ribs, it takes less time than spare ribs. Cooking ribs on a charcoal grill approximately take 1½ to 2 hours.
When you start cooking, give slow and steady heat for 30-50 minutes, then turn the slow heat into high heat for the rest of the time.
How long do the ribs take to grill at 350 degrees?
The more you provide a high temperature on your ribs, the lower it takes time to cook. You can cook baby back ribs within 2 hours and country-style ribs within 20-30 minutes at 350 degrees temperature.
How do you speed up cooking ribs?
If you use some extra ingredients in your ribs, those will speed up your cooking time. For this, make a mixture of brown sugar, olive oil, vinegar, scallions, chili powder, and Cayenne pepper.
After that, marinate your ribs for overnight or two hours if you are in a hurry. This process will help you to speed up your ribs cooking.
Should I wrap my ribs in aluminum foil?
The one-word answer is yes. You should wrap up your ribs with aluminum foil. The aluminum foil will help you to get the right color for your cooking ribs and a soothe smoky flavor. Nevertheless, it will speed up cooking, so you need less time to cook.
