Best 321 ribs: Ultimate Lemon pepper rub recipe

These are the best 321 ribs I have tried. Due to the 321 method and to the homemade lemon pepper rub that I coated this with, these turned into the ultimate spare ribs. Typically, I’m not a dry rub guy but this lemon pepper rub was slamming! In fact, I enjoyed making it so much, I have now made many more rubs such as this one with 2 MILLION Scoville units.

This is the ultimate lemon pepper rub recipe. In fact, adding it as a dry rub to your 321 ribs is a game changer. You might be thinking “I’ve never made a rub before, this seems to difficult”

Let me stop you there, this incredibly simple to make. You just need a few tools. Undoubtedly, you should trust me on this.

Similar to Scotts 321 wet recipe but instead these are dry!

If you are looking for more of a sandwich instead of ribs – check out my pork tenderloin recipe.

Lemon Pepper Rub Ingredients

• 4 Lemons
• Dehydrator
• Osmo Peppercorns
• 1 Tablespoon sea salt
• Blender (a spice grinder would be best for this)
• 1 Funnel – “Don’t think you can do it without it like I did…“

321 Ribs Ingredients

• Homemade Lemon Pepper Rub to Taste
• 1 Rack Pork Spare Ribs
• Butchers Paper or Tinfoil
• 1 Stick Butter
• Bear Mountain Hickory Pellets

Lemon Pepper Rub Recipe

First, start by cutting the lemon peel off all of your lemons. You will end up with pieces shown in the third image below.

Next, add all of your lemon peels to your dehydrator.

Dehydrate your lemon peels for 3 hours at 125 degrees.

You will know when your lemon peels are finished once they break in half like a potato chip.

Now, get your Osmo peppercorns and your dehydrated lemon peels.

Then add your 1 tablespoon of sea salt, Osmo peppercorns, and your dehydrated lemon peels to a blender.

To clarify, a spice blender such as this one would make this so much easier!

Moreover, below is what your new lemon pepper rub will look like!

321 Ribs Recipe

Start by preheating your smoker to 250 degrees. I used my Grilla Grills Silverbac.

I know I said that 225 is the ideal temperature however, this is a fairly long cook. Three and a half hours for the lemon pepper rub and another 6.5 hours for the ribs. So I bumped it up to 250 degrees so that I can eat dinner on time. We’ve all miscounted before and forced to eat dinner at 9pm.

Pat drying it important so that the meat does not steam. We are smoking this meat, not steaming.

Finally, pat dry your pork spare ribs and season with your homemade lemon pepper rub.

Add your prepped spare ribs to your 250 degree smoker for 3 hours.

After 3 hours, take your ribs off the smoker and put your stick of butter on top. In fact, my local grocery store have this pre-made butter with shallots that I picked up. That is what I used but anything such as butter, tallow, sauce, etc will work just fine.

My go to during this step is typically plain butter and brown sugar. I tried something different here.

Wrap your buttered pork ribs and add back to the smoker for 2 hours

After 2 hours, unwrap and add the ribs back to the smoker for roughly 30 minutes to 1 hour. This will depend on the temperature of your smoker.

If the smoker is at 225, do 1 hour. If at 250, do 30 minutes but of course, also be sure to check the internal temp of the ribs to not over do it.

After that time, pull off the smoker and let rest for 5 – 10 minutes.

Also, don’t mind my stupid face again!

The Best 321 Ribs with Lemon Pepper Rub recap

Although, this recipe does take quite a while. It is not one to ignore. Not only are you going to feel awesome making your own lemon pepper rub but adding it you your 321 ribs is a game changer. It’s tangy, juicy smoky and best of all, SUPER tender.

If I was going to do anything different, I use smoked homemade sriracha salt to finish the ribs off.

If you don’t like fall off the bone ribs, you can easily smoke these till 165 degrees internal temp. Just adjust your times, I would recommend taking 30 minutes off the three steps using the 321 method. Essentially, it would be 2.5, 1.5, .5 method (yes, I just made that up).

Bonus points if you use this recipe on The Worlds Smallest Smoker such as this video.

Furthermore, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below or send me an email.

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