World Famous Wang-Family BBQ, the Recipe

BBQ aficionado will tell you that there is no BBQ recipe, only a philosophy. Since Kid asked for this, I will try.

BBQ back ribs is a multi-day process. Use high-quality and long (12 inches) tongs. Have thick gloves or “grill mittens.” Prepare large cutting board or big serving plate ready. You will also need a tool to tend the hot char coals.

1. Get CostCo Swift ribs, smallest pack. Rinse and pat dry. Trim away ends if so desired. Salt and pepper all over. Cover with wrap. Put in refrigerator preferably 24 hours before the BBQ start. This can be the most important step of the whole thing. It tenderizes the meat.
2. About 8 hours prior to BBQ start, apply dry rub if so desire. There is really no real secret dry-rub recipe. Check internet or create your own. Dry rub is optional and very personal. My original recipe use soy sauce, instead of any rubs, at this stage.
3. 4 hours prior to BBQ. Take the rib out of the refrigerator and let them come up to the room temperature. This step allows the cooking to be more even and therefore not drying up the surface while under-cooking the inside.
   Prepare the “smoker” (this is optional and beginners should just skip.) The easiest way is to soak wood chips in water. It actually does not matter which kind of wood chips. Alternatively, find tree branches with green leaves on them. The idea is to have moisture in a burnable substance that is not toxic.
4. Design and make your BBQ sauce. I personally think BBQ sauce is over-rated and prefer my ribs “dry.” A combination of sweet, sour, smoky flavor, and some spicy kick is the general principle. My most common ingredients are honey, lemon juice, ketchup, and hot pepper powder.
5. For char-coal grill, start the char-coals with a chimney. Wait 15 minutes in the chimney until the top is clearly fully burning. Dump the char-coal down the grill. Scoop them to one side (the hot side). Place smokers in an aluminum pouch. Poke some hole on the pouch. Place the pouch directly on the hot char coals.
   For gas grills, turn half of the burners on, put the smoker pouch on top of the burners.
6. Close the lid, open all the vent holes. Wait several minutes for the grill to heat up. Place you palm near the cooking surface and you should not be able to count to five. Grease the cooking surface.
7. Put the rib, meat side up, on the “cool” side. Close the lid, leave the vent holes open. Walk away. In a few minutes, no less than 10, smokes should be coming out of the vent holes (even if you did not do smokers). Do not open the lid. This is a good time to start drinking cold beers.
8. In about 40 minutes. Feed the grill with roughly 10 to 15 char coals. (This step is kind of tricky. Some people remove the ribs from the grill first. If you do that, might as well shaking off the ashes from the old coals and mixing in the new ones with them.) Switch the ribs around to even out the cooking. Close the lid and resume cooking as quickly as possible.
9. The ribs should be ready in about 90 minutes. You should observe clear liquid bubbling out and the surface getting seriously brown or even red.
10. Apply the sauce generously. Close the lid for 5 minutes. Do this about three times.
11. Take the ribs out. Tent with foil. Wait 10 minutes before serving

Note that the most popular World Famous Wang Family BBQ Ribs are dry (no sauce) and no dry rub.