Honey Mustard Smoked Spare Ribs Recipe

Honey mustard sauce pairs super well with fatty spare ribs.

This recipe uses a simple SPG rub and homemade honey mustard right at the end for a serious flavor punch.

Trim Spare Ribs to a St. Louis Cut and Remove Membrane

If you need a guide to trimming, follow my guide here.

The ribs should look like this:

I prefer to remove the membrane.

If you don’t care, just score the membrane side with your knife.

Rub for Honey Mustard Ribs?

For this article I was testing a Honey mustard rub that a friend sent me.

However, it’s not super necessary since you’ll be saucing these later with Honey Mustard.

A simple rub of Salt, Pepper, and Garlic works fine.

• 1 Tbsp Black Pepper
• 1/2 Tbsp Kosher Salt
• 1/4 tbsp

Apply your dry rub to the entirety of your ribs – you can also be rather liberal.

Get Your Smoker to 225-275F

Put the ribs on indirect and smoke with your favorite hardwood.

I used Peach but cherry and pecan are my favorite.

Checking on the Ribs and Adding New Wood Chunks

Add a new wood chunk every 45-60 minutes.

Wait for the rub to set and for the ribs to be at around 175-180F internal.

Essentially, whenever you’re happy with the exterior of the meat, you can wrap.

For me, this happened after 4 hours.

Wrap the Ribs in Foil with Some Watered Down Honey

In a bowl combine:

• 1/2 Cup Water OR Apple Juice
• 2 Tbsp Creamed Honey OR regular honey

Warm this mixture in the microwave for 15-20 seconds.

If you have a honey mustard rub, add a few shakes to this mixture too.

Add this mixture to the foil wrap (ensure the ribs are meat side down), and then return to the smoker or a kitchen oven set to 275F.

Checking the Ribs for Doneness

Ribs were smoked wrapped for 2 hours.

If you’re a fan of internal temperatures, usually ribs will be bite off the bone in the range of 190-205F.

These were for my Mom who likes them fall off the bone.

So these need to reach around ~205-213F+.

Saucing the Ribs in Homemade Honey Mustard Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup Mayo
• 1.5 tbsp Yellow Mustard
• 1.5 tbsp Stone Ground Mustard OR Dijon*
• 2 tbsp Creamed Honey OR Regular Honey
• 1/8 tsp Kosher salt
• 1 tbsp Lemon Juice
• 1/4 tsp smoked paprika

*If you have neither of these, just use yellow mustard.

I’d suggest warming the sauce up slightly rather than applying cold sauce to hot meat.

Once the ribs have rested for 10-15 minutes, you can slice the ribs and enjoy!

Print Pin Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Honey Mustard Smoked Spare Ribs Recipe

with Homemade Honey Mustard Sauce

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Active Time6 hours hrs 1 minute min

Rest10 minutes mins

Total Time6 hours hrs 21 minutes mins

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: American

Ingredients

• ▢ 1 rack St. Louis Cut Spare Ribs

Honey Mustard Sauce

• ▢ 1/2 cup Mayo
• ▢ 1.5 tbsp Yellow Mustard
• ▢ 1.5 tsp Stone Ground Mustard OR Dijon
• ▢ 2 tbsp Creamed Honey OR Regular Honey
• ▢ 1 pinch Morton's Kosher Salt
• ▢ 1/2 tbsp Lemon Juice
• ▢ 1/4 tsp Smoked Paprika

SPG Dry Rub for Ribs

• ▢ 1 tbsp Black Pepper
• ▢ 1/2 tbsp Kosher Salt
• ▢ 1/4 tbsp Granulated Garlic

Watered Down Honey for Wrap

• ▢ 1/2 cup Water OR Apple Juice
• ▢ 2 tbsp Creamed Honey OR Regular Honey

Instructions

Prep Ribs and Apply Dry Rub

• If you bought whole spare ribs, trim to a St. Louis Cut – either remove membrane or score it with a knife.
• If you have a honey mustard dry rub, apply to the ribs liberally.

  If you don't, use a simple rub of Salt, Pepper and Garlic – similarly, apply liberally.
  1 tbsp Black Pepper, 1/2 tbsp Kosher Salt, 1/4 tbsp Granulated Garlic

Smoked Ribs

• Get your smoker to 225-275F.
• Once at 225F, add a chunk of hardwood – I used peach – and put your ribs on the smoker.
• Smoke the ribs until you're happy with the exterior of the meat. Usually this happens at around 175-180F internal for me.

  This took 4 hours.

Wrap Ribs in Foil with Watered Down Honey

• In a bowl combine honey with water and ensure the honey is well combined – warm this in the microwave for 15-20 seconds.
  1/2 cup Water OR Apple Juice, 2 tbsp Creamed Honey OR Regular Honey
• Wrap the ribs in foil and ensure they're meat side down.

  Before closing the wrap, add your wrap liquid.
• Return the ribs to the smoker or your kitchen oven set to 275F.
• Cook the ribs wrapped until they're at your preferred tenderness. Typically for "bite off the bone" ribs that's 190-205F internal. For fall of the bone ribs that's 205-213F+.

Sauce With Homemade Honey Mustard Once They're Tender

• After they reach tenderness, warm the honey mustard sauce on low and then apply to the ribs while they're resting.
  1/2 cup Mayo, 1.5 tbsp Yellow Mustard, 1.5 tsp Stone Ground Mustard OR Dijon, 2 tbsp Creamed Honey OR Regular Honey, 1 pinch Morton's Kosher Salt, 1/4 tsp Smoked Paprika, 1/2 tbsp Lemon Juice
• Rest for 10-15 minutes, slice and enjoy!

Recipe Note 7/26/2024: Recently re-tested with SPG as the base – I actually prefer this instead of the commercial honey mustard rub.