Pellet Smoker Cooking: Greek BBR's & Greek Potato Salad

I had two slabs of Baby Back Ribs from Sam’s club to do up. I would do them Greek style. I would use my Smok’n Spice RSI to cold smoke with oregano spice for the first hour. My cook plan was after the cold smoke to go to 225 deg. for an hour & a half. Then I would wrap each slab in foil along with the juice of half of lemon for an hour & a half. Then remove the foil for the last hour. The 3-2-1 method is popular but they always seemed a little over done to me. I guess you could call this the 1.5-1.5-1 method.

I found the perfect potato salad to go along with the ribs, Cat Cora’s Greek Potato Salad from foodnetwork.com. I used Vidalia onions, instead of her red onions, no green onions and dried herbs instead of fresh. The red & green onions would add nice color. It turned out great, my Wife & daughter-in-law both thought it was about their favorite ever. My other side would be Green Giants steamer cauliflower in cheese sauce. I like using the steamer bags of veggies, a good short cut; that I use more often as I get older.

I got the ribs seasoned with, salt, pepper, oregano, garlic, and the juice & zest from ½ of lemon on each slab. I covered with plastic wrap & in the fridge until cook time, about 3 hours. I did forget the garlic so I added that just before cook time. I did another experiment too; I left the membrane on one slab.

I got the ribs on to cold smoke with the oregano spice at 1:00 and supper would be at 6:00. After starting up my smoker on 225 deg at 2:00 I peeled & sliced my potatoes about ¼ inch thick and boiled until fork tender, about 15 minutes. I mixed all together covered & in the fridge. The warm potatoes kinda soak up most of the dressing. I set them out at 5:00 to get to room temp. before serving.

At 5:45 I gave the ribs the tong test; they had a nice bend & were just staring to tear. At 5:55 I put my cauliflower in to nuke for 15 minutes, pulled the ribs & covered in foil until the cauliflower was done. Slicing the ribs with the membrane left on; the membrane came off almost whole. Tasting them I thought maybe they were just a little moister.

Everyone liked my supper & I thought the oregano spice added a flavor profile. My mostly vegetarian daughter-in-law even ate a rib & said it was good. Greek ribs are meant to eat with no sauce but my son had to have some BBQ sauce to dip his in. We had some bread & butter with the meal. I was happy with this cook!

Link to Potatosalata Recipe

Printable Rib Recipe

Salad Ingredients