Smoked Buffalo Party Ribs

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These smoked buffalo party ribs start out as a common slab of St. Louis-style ribs, and that's where the “typical” ends and the amazing begins!

Cut them up into individual ribs, slather them with Frank’s Red Hot sauce and barbecue rub, smoke them to the perfect level of tenderness, and then serve them up with buffalo sauce and ranch. You thought buffalo wings were good; these are next level!

Helpful Information

• Prep Time: 20 minutes
• Cook Time: 4 hours 30 minutes
• Smoker Temp: 225°F (107°C) then 250°F (121°C)
• Meat Finish Temp: 195°F (79°C)
• Recommended Wood: Oak

What You'll Need

• St. Louis-style ribs – These are spare ribs that have been trimmed, squared up, and made “prettier”. You can buy them already ready to go or just buy some spare ribs, trim off the brisket bone and square up the ends; good to go.
• Franks Red Hot – We use this as a binder to help the rub to stick, but we also use it to make our buffalo sauce (recipe below).
• Jeff's original rub – The rub that was originally made for ribs, and of course, we're going to apply it generously on all sides of each and every rib.
• Butter – Use the real stuff and let's make some delicious buffalo sauce.
• Honey – Used to remove a little of the tang from the Franks Red Hot in the buffalo sauce.
• Foil Pan – I use a half-size pan to place the ribs in once they smoke for three hours. This is a great way to do some braising and tender up the ribs.
• Heavy Duty Foil – Just enough to cover the foil pan tightly
• Ranch Dressing – What's smoked buffalo party ribs without a little of that zing you only get from high quality ranch dressing?
• Parsley – Just a little of it, chopped up to garnish the finished ribs.

What's so great about Smoked Buffalo Party Ribs?

Well, this is a multi-part question: first, the buffalo part means we use buffalo sauce on them to give them that traditional buffalo flavor, which happens to work really well on tender, smoky ribs.

Second,  the fact that they are party ribs means we have cut them up into individual ribs before we apply Jeff's original rub and before we smoke them. This gives us more flavor, more smoke, and is a really nice presentation for a party like a football party or get-together.

How to Make Smoked Buffalo Party Ribs

Step 1: Prepping and Slicing the Ribs

Place your St. Louis-style ribs on the cutting board or counter, meaty side down. You will notice a thick plastic-like membrane attached to the bones. Use a spoon, butter knife, or your fingers to peel a piece of that up, and once you have enough to grab, get ahold of it with a paper towel and pull it clean off.

Now, using a sharp knife, slice between each bone to end up with 12 or 13 individual ribs.

Step 2: Binder and Rub

Drizzle Franks Red Hot onto each of the ribs and use a brush or your hands to make sure each rib is well coated with this binder. This helps Jeff's original rub to stick really good. We don't want that stuff falling off!

Apply the rub generously to all sides of every rib bone.

Leave the rib bones alone for a few minutes while you go get the smoker ready. During this time, the rub will soak up a little of that hot sauce and become a paste which “binds” itself to the meat.

Step 3: Prepare the Smoker

Lately, I have been using the Camp Chef Pro almost exclusively. It's not your typical pellet smoker since it has a wood chip/chunk drawer that pulls out and allows you to add actual wood to the smoker.

This is genius and it works like a charm to infuse real wood smoke flavor into the food just like you'd get in any other type of smoker that uses wood chips or chunks.

I won't go too deep into this since this is a recipe and you guys are here to learn about smoked buffalo party ribs, but I will tell you that the best way to start out on the Camp Chef Pro is to fill the wood chip drawer with pellets at the same time you start up the smoker. You can also do this when you place the meat on the smoker as I did below.

Open the fire valve by turning the handle to the 3 o’clock position for about 10-15 minutes, then close it up by turning it back to the 6 o'clock position.

This is not necessarily for smoke right now, it's to create a bed of hot coals inside that drawer.

Then once you add the food to the smoker, you can open that drawer and drop in a handful or two of dry wood chips (fire valve can remain closed) and then close the drawer back up for at least 30-45 minutes of real wood smoke. Possibly longer depending on various factors.

Setup your smoker for cooking at 225°F (107°C) to start with. I like to use oak pellets, wood chips, chunks, splits, etc. for these ribs but you can use whatever smoking wood you have available.

Once the smoker is up to temperature and you have smoke flowing, it's time to add the buffalo party ribs to the smoker.

Step 4: The Smoke

I am a big fan of keeping the smoker as clean as possible and not spending hours scrubbing the grease and grime from my smoker grates. For that reason, I love to use a pan with a rack for these smoked buffalo party ribs. The rack allows the smoke to kiss the meat on every side and catches all of the drippings. Perfect!

You can also place the ribs directly on the smoker grate if you prefer. Leave a little space between each one for maximum smoke penetration.

Leave the ribs alone for about 3 hours and just keep that smoke flowing!

Step 7: Make the Buffalo Sauce

Add the following to a bowl or container:

• ½ cup Franks Red Hot
• ½ stick (4 TBS) melted butter
• ⅓ cup honey
• 1 heaping TBS Jeff's original rub

Mix everything together really well to combine. Set aside.

Step 5: Wrap and Braise

After three hours, the ribs have a nice bark, and you can bring them into the house.

it's time to place the ribs in a pan for some braising, tenderizing action.

Place a layer of the ribs in the bottom of the pan and slather on some buffalo sauce. Place another layer of ribs in the pan and slather on more buffalo sauce.

Drizzle on some honey to balance out the flavors.

Cover the pan tightly with heavy duty aluminum foil and place the pan in the smoker.

Crank the heat up to 250°F (121°C) and don't worry about the smoke. You just need heat now.

Let them braise for about one hour then check the temperature of the rib meat with a digital probe meat thermometer or Thermapen. You are looking for 195°F (91°C) for a good tender rib that's not completely falling apart.

If they need more time, cover them back and up and give them another 15 or 20 minutes. Then check them again.

When they are done, bring them in and shut down the smoker.

Step 6: Serve them Up

Remove the foil from the top of the pan and place the ribs onto a platter in a single layer.

Drizzle on your favorite ranch dressing, garnish with a little chopped parsley and call dinner.

Enjoy!

Jeff’s Handcrafted Seasoning and Sauce!