Pellet Smoker Cooking: Indonesian Style BBRibs

Oct 24 2015

A new member; (Tin), of LTBBQ forum posted a recipe for Indonesian style ribs. He is from the Netherlands and I was surprised it was Indonesian until I read up and was reminded that Indonesia was once a Dutch colony in the Dutch West Indies. It said that Indonesian ribs are as popular in the Netherlands like pizza and burgers are in America. It sounded good and different enough I wanted to try it.

I had to order some Ketjap manis; a sweet Indonesian soy sauce, from Amazon and I was ready to try some ribs. I had a rack of pork BBRibs from my butcher; minimal process and no additives; thawed out. Friday evening I poured some of the Ketjap in a bowl and added a dried arbol chili pepper to set overnight. The recipe calls for a Scotch bonnet or Habanero; but I am a little on the wimp side when it comes to heat!

This morning I tasted the Ketjap and needed more heat so I added 4 dried pequin peppers. I also thought it was too sweet so I added a teaspoon of lime juice. I knew my wife did not want to try these so I would cut some off for her and do my standard recipe of Galena St. Rub and Kah’s BBQ sauce.

I pulled the membrane and added a little sea salt to both sides and in the fridge a couple of hours while I made up the rub. I cut the amount down some and added a teaspoon each of the you do need items. For the you can add items I added a teaspoon of Penzey’s sandwich sprinkle and a half teaspoon of lemon pepper.

I had a crusty loaf of garlic bread I get from Krogers; it has whole garlic cloves in it, to have and my other sides would be sweet potato and some leftover corn tomato gratin. I had planned to par cook the sweet potato and then do wedges on the gas grill but rain was coming. I cooked the sweet potato in the micro wave, 2 ½ minutes; cut the ends off and then in half, cut the flesh in squares and added some melted bacon butter. They went on the grill with the ribs the last 45 minutes and added more bacon butter after 20 minutes.

I got my ribs on at 2:00 PM and would eat at 6:00. The first hour was at 200 deg. grill level and the last 3 hours at 265 deg. grill level. I sauced the ribs at 2 ½ hours and then again at 3 hours. I added the sweet potatoes the last 45 minutes. After 4 hours I took inside and let rest while I heated up the corn tomato gratin.

It all tasted great, the wife liked her ribs; I liked mine and really could have had more heat to go with the sweet!

Click Here for printable recipe