Do You Put BBQ Sauce On Ribs Before Smoking?

The great thing about BBQ sauce is how versatile they are, with the mouth-bursting flavors they come in, it’s impossible to not place them side by side with several meals and have an amazing end product.

If you’ve decided to pair BBQ sauce with smoked ribs, one important factor to consider is if you’re required to add BBQ sauce before or after smoking the ribs.

No, you should not add BBQ sauce to the ribs before smoking them, if you want to get the best flavor out of the BBQ sauce while eating the smoked ribs, it is best to add it some minutes before the smoked ribs are ready to be taken off the grill.

If you’re a strong believer in the flavored sensations that different BBQ sauces give to grilled meals, you’ll understand that it is important to know when best to add it to the meal so that the flavor gets into the right places and is felt in every bite.

Should You Put BBQ Sauce On Ribs Before Smoking?

We all know that BBQ sauce is one of the determining ingredients that a tasty BBQ meal, if you want your ribs to be smoked to perfection then you need to know when it’s right to add BBQ sauce to the mix to achieve your desired results.

You must have heard people speculate about when to add BBQ sauce to the ribs and when not to, and all that speculation leaves you wondering which persons are right and which method will yield the best outcome. 

Some persons suggest that you should add BBQ sauce to the ribs before you place them in the smoker, others advise that you should wait until the ribs are almost perfectly smoked before adding your BBQ sauce.

Both suggestions usually have a guarantee that your smoked ribs will taste amazing, but only one of these two suggestions leaves you with a perfectly smoked and flavored rib at the end of the day. 

Who’s right? Whoever suggests that you should spread BBQ sauce on the smoking ribs just before they are ready is absolutely right. You should wait for precisely the last 10 to 15 minutes before the ribs are perfectly smoked to slather them with a BBQ sauce flavor of your choice. 

If your ribs are being smoked at a high temperature such as 250 degrees, you should ensure that you add the BBQ sauce exactly 15 minutes before you take the ribs out of the smoker. If your ribs are being smoked at an even higher temperature than earlier mentioned, you can wait to add the BBQ sauce a little later before it is ready. 

This is important because if you add the BBQ sauce at any point in the smoking of the ribs as you please, instead of soaking up the flavors your smoked ribs will end up getting burnt and charred.

However, if you are smoking the ribs at a temperature lower than 200 degrees you can add the BBQ sauce as early as half an hour before it is ready and it will still be perfectly flavored.

Frequently Asked Questions

Summary

Adding BBQ sauce to smoked ribs gives it a thick, caramelized, sticky, and sweet flavor that no one would want to miss out on. So it’s not a mystery that you’re wondering how that perfection is achieved using BBQ sauce during the smoking of the ribs. 

Turns out the secret is to add BBQ sauce generously to the smoked ribs just before they are ready.

Well, we’ve given you all the details above and you should be able to get people licking their fingers whenever you make smoked ribs from now on.

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