Smokin in the Kitchen!

During the last couple of weeks at my culinary school I've been hearing my fellow students talk about these stovetop smokers that several of them have purchased.  They're talking about the shrimp, and salmon they have been smoking in these smokers, which are sold at the cooking store attached to my culinary school...which makes culinary school that much more expensive!  So I thought I would get one for my husband, and maybe that would justify the spending??

When I got home I showed it to my husband, and he was excited to use it and ran right to the market and picked up some spareribs.  We decided we would experiment with two recipes and make half of the ribs in the smoker and the other half we would boil, and then grill.  So we got them both cooking, the smoker takes a bit more time so we started that first.  Smoke started to creep out from the sides as it heated up, and I realized my entire house would smell of smoke!   I was not pleased that my house now wreaked of a hickory smoke smell and started to think this was a bad idea and were not doing this again! 

After an hour and a half the smoked ribs were ready to be grilled with BBQ sauce to finish them.  We opened the smoker and realized they were over cooked...bummer!  My husband decided, knowing they were over cooked, to grill them anyway with sauce for 10 minutes to see  how they'd taste.  He cut off the end pieces so we ended up with 1-2 ribs for each of the 4 of us (us & kids). 

We were all blown away with flavor of the smoked ribs, and even though over done, how much more tender they came out from the other ribs that were boiled.  At that moment we decided we would redo the smoked ribs again the next evening!  I know, I said I would never use that smoker in my house again, but they were so close to being so good, and we knew they would be amazing if we didn't over cook them!! 

So here's how we did em...

This time we bought babyback, or back ribs instead of spareribs...good change!

This is what the stovetop smoker looks like.  It also comes with a lid, but it didn't fit over the top of the ribs so we used foil instead.  The brand is Camerons Products, Stovetop Smoker!

First we took out the liner and the rack and added hickory smoke chips in the bottom of the pan, about 3 tablespoons full.  Then we placed the liner and rack back in the pan, and got the ribs ready.

We seasoned the three pounds of ribs with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.  Then placed the ribs on the rack and loosely covered with foil and turned on the flame to medium.  Once the smoke started to come up  we tightly closed the foil and started the timing.

We cooked them for an hour and a half in the smoker. We did them for 45 minutes less time then the guide suggested.  

 At this point you could refrigerate the ribs until the next day, I especially recommend this if you're making them for company and you don't want your house to smell like smoke...it may still be lingering a bit, but not too much!  Since these were just for us and we were anxious to see how they came out, we put them right on the grill!  We grilled the ribs with barbecue sauce (we used Famous Daves Rich and Sassy sauce) for 15 minutes.  

They turned out absolutely amazing!  The ribs slid right off the bone!  I highly recommend the smoking technique.  These are almost the best ribs I've ever had...second to Hill's Resort in Priest Lake Idaho, where they are smoked an entire day!   So happy I got that smoker after all, and next, I'm trying the shrimp!