Spice Rubbed Ribs with Chipotle-Honey Glaze

A while back, I caught an episode of Grill It! With Bobby Flay that featured a rib recipe I thought might be worth trying.  Basically he used a savory dry rub on the ribs and and then slow cooked them, then the last 30 mins applied the chipotle honey glaze.

I made a couple of alterations to the recipe:

First, I cut the rub recipe in half, as he was using 2 racks of whole untrimmed spares and I used babyback ribs which have about 50% of the surface area of whole spares. Second, I felt the glaze would be way too thick without some additional liquid to dilute it, so I added about 1/3 cup fresh squeezed Valencia orange juice, which gave me the consistency I was looking for. I also halved the glaze recipe due to the smaller back ribs.

First, I assembled the dry rub ingredients together, which consisted of chili powder, chile de arbol, dry mustard, kosher salt, paprika, oregano, coriander, black pepper, and cumin:

I then put all of these in the spice grinder:

 I gave the ribs a good rinsing, then removed the membrane:

Then applied the rub:

I covered the ribs and put them in the fridge. Later that day, I fired up my smoker for a hot and fast cook, and added a few chunks of pecan for smoke, then put the ribs on:

I blended the honey, crushed chili, orange juice, and about 1.5 heaping tsp of chipotle. When I tasted the mixture, I nearly jumped out of my pants! This stuff was hot. I could only hope the heat would mellow quite a bit due to heat exposure from the smoker.

Not long after, I began generously mopping the ribs with the incendiary liquid, and did so about every 10 minutes:

When both racks of ribs passed the bend test, with flying colors, I pulled them off the smoker for a brief rest:

After a brief resting period, I began slicing the ribs:

I then plated the ribs, and gave them a sprinkle of fresh chopped cilantro:

The ribs were delicious! The dry rub was a completely different flavor profile than what I am used to, and was very tasty. Fortunately the heat from the glaze mellowed considerably from cooking, and I'm really glad I added the orange juice to the glaze.