Rotisserie Ribs: A Fun Spin on Classic Ribs

You’re planning on cooking ribs this weekend, right? Excellent! Are you cooking them on a rotisserie? No? Why not?!? It’s a fun, interesting, delicious way to cook them and you should totally try it! If you’re not sure how, don’t worry—we’ve got you covered. Get out your RFX MEAT™ and RFX GATEWAY™ so you can spin the ribs without wires getting in the way and fire up the spit. Let’s get cooking!

Get the tools used in this cook now:

How to cook ribs on a rotisserie

Cooking ribs on rotisserie is not all that different from other methods, but there are differences. First, of course, there’s the spit/skewer. Obviously, we can’t go all the way through the bones, and putting the spit only through the center of the rack would be far too floppy. Instead, we sew or weave the spit through the rack of baby backs, piercing it about 3 times. This results in a snake of ribs, slithering down the spit.

We recommend seasoning after skewering, for obvious reasons.

As for the rotisserie, we used a kettle grill, with a small fire of lump charcoal burning off to one side in a basket (an aluminum tray in the center caught drips from the ribs, keeping our grill cleaner.) We ran the smoker between 275 and 300°F (135 and 149°C), tossing a small piece of cherry wood on the coals when we put the meat on. We set up our RFX™ system with a high-temp alarm at 203°F (95°C) and let the ribs spin. That was it. It took about 4 hours for the ribs to get up to temp, then we checked them for tenderness and temperature with Thermapen ONE, took some pictures (it was for work, after all), and ate them.

Why RFX is perfect for this cook

Wires wires wires. You just can’t cook on a rotisserie with a wired probe. With its excellent range and materials penetration, the signal from RFX meat will reach RFX gateway with no problem, so you don’t have to worry about dropped connections while you relax and wait for your ribs. Insert it between bones up to the recommended insertion line and let it notify you when the ribs get up to temp.

Why cook ribs on a rotisserie? Is there an advantage?

Yes, there are advantages. For instance, even though we cooked these ribs naked the whole time with no wrap, they were still done in about 4 hours. That’s not a huge time savings over other methods, but it’s something. Also, they look great. Aside from the wiggly-snake shape, I don’t think I’ve ever made ribs that just looked as once as these. The bark was perfect, the smoke color was neither too deep nor too pale, and there were no spots that stayed wet during the cook, affecting the overall color. They baste themselves evenly through the cook so spritzing isn’t necessary. And the ease of cooking, once the thing was set up, was fantastic.

No wrap, no spritz, no turn, to flip, no fuss. Just ribs. Spinny, delicious ribs.

But are there disadvantages, too?

Yes, there is one disadvantage. But only one, as far as we could tell. On a kettle grill at least, you can only fit one rack at a time. So you can’t cook for an army of friends, or even a large family. But if you only need one rack of ribs for, say an evening catching up on your streaming by yourself, or a a dinner for two when the kids are all off doing something else, it’s fantastic.

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In the end, this is a fun, interesting way to cook ribs that does and excellent job of cooking them evenly with beautiful color. With the wireless capabilities of RFX, it’s also one of the easiest methods. There are dozens of great ways to cook ribs, and this is one that I look forward to trying again. Give it a try, and see what you think. Happy cooking!