How Long to Smoke Country Style Pork Ribs at 225F

It took me some time to figure out the best way to smoke country style ribs but I finally have my recipe dialed in and am ready to share. 

It will take about 90 minutes to smoke the country style ribs at 225F so you can get these from the barbecue pit to your table FAST.

I am going to give you my general framework for how to approach this “cut” of pork along with a pretty freaking awesome pork rub.

Let’s get started!

Smoked Country Style Rib Recipe

The general recipe is as follows:

• Season the pork liberally with an amazing dry rub for pork (my pork rub is given below)
• Place the seasoned ribs in the refrigerator for at least an hour put preferably four to five hours to let the dry rub melt into the meat.
• Set your smoker to 225F with hickory as the smoke wood.
• Smoke the country style ribs for approximately 90 minutes until an internal temperature of 145F is reached.
• If desired, brush the pork with barbecue sauce or, even better, melted peach preserves.
• Eat and grin.

Butt Kicking Dry Rub for Pork

My pork rub is a 1:1 mixture of turbinado sugar and my amazing brisket rub.  Here is the complete ingredient list.

• 8 Tablespoons turbinado sugar
• 3 Tablespoons salt
• 1 Tablespoons granulated garlic
• 1 Tablespoons smoked paprika
• 1/2 Tablespoon granulated onion
• 1 teaspoons ground Ancho chile pepper
• 1 teaspoons ground Chipotle chile pepper
• 1 teaspoons Gebhardt’s Chili Powder
• 1 teaspoons ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon Accent (MSG)

(If that rub doesn’t suit you then here are three baby back rib rub recipes that would also work well.)

How Long to Smoke at 225F and Why?

Smoking these guys at 225F for about 90 minutes will take the meat to an internal temperature of 145F.  At an internal temperature of 145F the meat is very tender and juicy.  As you go past this point the meat starts to toughen up and dry out.

I use 225F because I want to slow down the cook and give the meat as much time in the smoke as possible.  If you cooked these guys at 275F they would be done in about 45 minutes and would be light on smoke flavor.

Even cooking at a low temperature of 225F these ribs are still a fast and easy cook on your smoker so I don’t see the point in rushing the cook at higher temperatures.

I use a strong flavored wood like hickory for smoke for the same reason that I cook them at 225F.  This is a quick cook and I want the meat to have a chance at picking up some great smoke flavor.   

If I was cooking spares or baby back ribs, which would take 4-6 hours, then I would switch over to something mild like apple which is one of the best woods for smoking baby back ribs.

Other Ways to Smoke Country Style Ribs

The recipe that I share in this post is great but it is certainly not the ONLY way to make this cut of pork amazing.  Here are two alternative techniques that you can explore.

Fall Apart Tender by Meat Church

My recipe cooks the meat to an internal temperature of 145F.  At this point the meat is incredibly juicy and slices easily.

You can also cook the meat much longer to an internal temperature of about 200F at which point it becomes fall apart tender.  

Here is a great YouTube video from Meat Church using a two stage cooking process at 300F for some amazing looking meat.

Pellet Grill Tips 

A lot of folks are cooking on pellet grills these days.  One of the challenges of using a pellet grill is getting enough smoke flavor.

One way to amp up the smoke flavor is to use a smoke tube and water pan like I show in this recipe for Pellet Grill Country Style Ribs.

Here is a great recipe from Extraordinary BBQ showing a two step cooking process for country style ribs on a pellet grill.  The recipe starts by cooking the ribs in a low temperature Smoke Mode and fishes them off at a smoker temperature of 250F.

What Are Country Style Ribs?

What took me so long to get this recipe dialed in so was dealing with the inconsistency of this cut.  Country style ribs are notoriously variable and are different cuts of pork at different stores.

It turns out that this cut is whatever in the heck the meat cutter at your store wants to call it.

• Sometimes this cut is a sliced pork butt that can either be “bone in” or “boneless”.
• Sometimes this cut is a section of back rib with loin meat attached.
• Sometimes this cut is a trimmed section of belly.

In addition to being from different sections on the hog, these cuts are often an irregular size with some big and some small.

I tackle this problem by being vigilant on monitoring internal temperatures.  After the first hour of cooking I measure the temperature of each rib and note which ones are cooking the fastest.  I pull each rib from the smoker as soon as it hits 145F and let the other ones keep cooking.

I used to brine these cuts to give myself a safety net in case I overcooked them (I used the same brine I use for smoked chicken). I have stopped brining and have started paying better attention to what I am doing.  The results are much better.