Singapore BBQ Spare Ribs

This Singapore BBQ Spareribs recipe is one of our favourite barbeque treats. It is our own interpretation of the flavours and aromas of the Malay and Chinese streets of Singapore.

Warning for the PitBoss: When using this Singapore barbecue recipe you run the risk that your barbecue ribs will be gone before you get a chance to taste them yourself! ;o)

We first submerge these bbq pork ribs for a whole night into a fragrant and spicy Singapore Marinade, then stick them into our modified Weber Grill for like 4 hours of hot smoking and indirect grilling, and then mop them with our Singapore Spareribs Glaze Sauce until a thick transparant and shiny layer makes these barbecue pork spare ribs look like magic.

Photo of hot smoked Singapore Spareribs by Hot Smoke BBQ.

Like for all of our pork rib bbq recipes, we smoke these ribs for like 3 to 4 hours at a medium barbecue temperature - in between 250F to 320F - until you can suck the meat right off the bones without using your teeth.

These honey glazed Oriental barbecue spare ribs can be served as a main course, while as an appetizer they will perfectly fit any Oriental meal.

And - of course - spare ribs are always great finger food when you are sharing a couple of sixpacks with your friends!

The first time that we had our late friend Cornelius over for dinner, we had these Oriental spare ribs on the menu. No matter what we ever barbecued or smoked after that, Cornelius would always be talking about those first Singapore spareribs!

Singapore BBQ Spare Ribs Ingredients

For this Singapore bbq spare ribs recipe you need the following ingredients:

3-6 pounds

1 cup

Baby Back Ribs or Spare Ribs

Singapore Marinade

Singapore Glazing Sauce

Singapore Marinade

After a dive into this lovely Singapore Marinade, your grilled chicken, smoked leg of lamb or barbecue pork will have that unforgettable and irresistable Oriental flavour!

Singapore Glazing

After brushing a couple of times with this Singapore Glazing Sauce your barbecue chicken, grilled lamp chops or hot smoked pork will have a beautiful deep shiny skin.

Singapore BBQ Spare Ribs Preparation

Preparation of Spare Ribs

Click HERE to open a special page on which you can see how at Hot Smoke BBQ we prepare our spare ribs for an optimum barbecue result.

Marinating Singapore Spare Ribs

Put the ribs in the Singapore Marinade;

For marinating flat cuts of meat like these baby back ribs I prefer to use a shallow sealable plastic container;

Marinate the meat in the refrigerator for at least one hour, but of course a whole day and night is much better;

Turn the meat a couple of time in the marinade - and/or spoon the marinade fluid over it - and make sure that all corners and crevices are covered well;

One hour before you plan to put your spare ribs on the barbecue grill you should take them out of the fridge to let them gradually adjust to room temperature;

In this way you will gain the first few degrees of heat in your meat without a flame touching it!

How To Set Up a Weber Grill

Here's some info on how we set up our Weber Grill for maximum performance:

Juancho's Split Grill

To obtain sustained lower heat and improved temperature control, and to increase the grate area and be able to accommodate more meat or larger cuts, I developed an improved hot smoking method whereby the Weber Grill is set up for indirect grilling on one side.

Juancho's Double Grill

Whereas Juancho's Split Grill will increase capacity and improve performance of your Weber Grill, Juancho's Double Grill will double the indirect grilling and hot smoking capacity.

Photo of Singapore Ribs on the barbecue grate by Hot Smoke BBQ.

Once your Split Grill is fired up, ready and thoroughly pre-heated you can take your beautiful spare ribs out of the Singapore Marinade and put them on the barbecue grate above the dripping pan.

To be able to put all spare rib slabs flat on the barbecue grate to facilitate mopping of the glazing sauce you can use an extra grate - from a smaller diameter kettle grill - set on 3" high legs to increase the grating area.

After closing the barbecue lid you close the lower vent holes to 1/4 open. The upper vent holes will ALWAYS stay fully open!

Note:
Don't throw away the remaining Singapore Marinade! You can use it as the basis for a nice and fragrant Singapore Glazing Sauce!

Juancho's BBQ Tip
We have smoked these Singapore Spare Ribs in a closed kettle grill that works as a smoker.
However, it is also very well possible to cook spare ribs on an open grill directly above the glowing charcoal.
The only thing is that you will have to turn them around all the time, and you will miss the intense smoke flavour, but these wonderful Singapore spare ribs will always be worth it!

Hot Smoked Spare Ribs = Slow Food

As these slowfood pork ribs will have to cook on slow heat for a number of hours, I use a electronic thermometer to keep an eye on the temperature inside the barbecue.

By opening and closing the barbecue's bottom vent holes you can keep the temperature inside the barbecue within a certain range.

For hot smoking spare ribs my goal was to keep the temperature inside the barbecue within the 250F - 320F range (roughly 120-160 degrees celcius).

This may seem very easy, but you have to watch it...

Let's Smoke!

With those ribs sitting in that black backyard microwave, it's time to take it easy. Have a drink, have a seat, check that barbecue, look at the smoke rising through the yard.

While those beautiful exotic pork ribs are in the smoke, read a book, listen to your favourite music. Relax.

Keep checking the temperature in the barbecue, and try to resist opening the lid without having a serious reason. Every time the lid is taken off your barbecue, heat will be lost, and the smoking will take more time.

On the other hand, if you have time anyway, what do you care...

After about 2 hours of hot smoking at temperatures in between 280F and 320F I opened the lid of the barbecue to check if the all went according to plan.

The ribs and the charcoal briquettes looked just fine. The evaporator bowl needed a refill of luke warm water.

After about 2.5 hours of hot smoking we brushed on the first layer of Singapore Glazing Sauce on the spareribs. This was repeated every ten or fifteen minutes, allowing the glazing to dry and caramelize in between.

Photo of Honey Glazed Singapore Spareribs - after 4 hours of hot smoking. Honey Glazed Singapore Spareribs - after 4 hours of hot smoking.

Attack!

After about 3.5 hours of hot smoking, the ends of the bones started to protrude from the meat, a sign that these Singapore barbecue spareribs were done.

Once your barbecue ribs are done, take them from the grill and let them rest on a cutting board covered by aluminium foil. In this way the juices in the meat get a chance to redistribute through the inside the meat, making the outside less dry

(I feel I have to tell you this since in general this is the case, but for these beautiful ribs I wonder if the glazed crust was actually all that dry to begin with...).

Hot smoked Singapore barbecue spare ribs. After 3.5 hours of indirect grilling and hot smoking these Singapore barbecue pork ribs were nice and sweet, spicy, tender and juicy!