Smoked Pork Rib Chops

Lazy Sundays

In our home, we maintain a ‘lazy-day-Sunday’ policy. Sure we’ll run the occasional errand, do some laundry and cook a little, but we try to avoid planning a lot for Sundays…and we definitely don’t have an early start. It’s our wind-down day before we wind-up for another busy week.

Sundays are for waking up late and eating pancakes. Liz and I enjoy back-to-back mugs of coffee to extend that lazy Sunday feeling. It’s so right.

Today was the complete opposite!

On this Sunday we didn’t follow our usual rules. For starters…it got started way too early. Michael and I got up at 6:40am (that’s nuts, right!) to go do a video shoot for work. I must have had some crazy momentum because I just kept going after that.

I went grocery shopping, went to the butcher shop, cooked up these pork rib chops (yum), we all did front and backyard cleanup, we washed and setup our patio furniture (hello dinners on the deck), and we took our little guy out to learn how to ride his two-wheeler. Whew.

That’s a lot for us on a Sunday, but we felt so productive. The sunshine and warm temperatures made it pretty easy.

I have to confess that after lunch, I sat down on the couch and may have closed my eyes for a while ;-). Sunday naps are another favourite thing of mine.

Smokin’

While I was grocery shopping today, the craving hit me. I knew it was time to “fire” up the smoker. I barbecue year round, but I hadn’t turned on the smoker yet this year. Michael and I decided that if we were going to smoke some meat for the first time this year, it should be really good meat! We headed over to visit our friends Michael and Tony at Micatoni’s, our favourite butcher shop! I love the personal touch… I walk in and hear “Heeeey… Nelson, how’ya doin?!”. That’s a pretty cool feeling.

They cut up some fresh beautiful pork rib chops and we were off to the races. The spice rub I made took only about 5 minutes to prepare. I started up the smoker and it was ready to go in about 30 minutes. People often assume that using a smoker means really long cook times. While this is true for briskets and other large cuts of meat, other foods can actually cook quickly. These chops took just over one hour. That’s really not a long cook time in a smoker.

Although I still like my lazy Sundays, occasional Sundays like this are pretty good. We did accomplish a lot today and we got to enjoy a smokin’ great meal too.

Whichever way you like to spend your Sundays… you’ll have to eat, so fire-up your smoker or BBQ and make something delicious. Eat well, friends!

Print Recipe

4 from 2 votes

Smoked Pork Rib Chops

These smoked pork rib chops take almost no time to prep and they cook quickly. The combination of spices and smoky flavour is delicious.

Prep Time5 minutes mins

Cook Time1 hour hr 15 minutes mins

Total Time1 hour hr 20 minutes mins

Course: Main, Main Course

Cuisine: American, Canadian, North American

Servings: 6 Chops

Author: Nelson Cardoso

Ingredients

• 6 3.3 lbs (1.5 kg) pork rib chops, about an inch thick

Spice Rub

• 1 tbsp brown sugar, packed
• 2 tbsp paprika
• 2 tbsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tbsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp ground mustard
• 1/2 tsp old bay seasoning
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

• In a small bowl, mix all the spices together. Note, you may need to press down the brown sugar with the back of a spoon to remove lumps.
• Coat the pork rib chops with the spice mixture. Make sure to be generous with the spices on the top, bottom and sides of the chops.
• Place the chops on a dish, cover (cling wrap or aluminum foil) and refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours.
• Start up the smoker according to your manufacturer's instructions and raise the temperature to around 225 ºF.
• Start your smoke. We used mesquite wood for this recipe. Feel free to use your favourite wood.

Notes

We aimed for an internal temperature of 150 ºF, feel free to cook them longer if you like your pork well done. 

We use a digital smoker thermometer to make sure the desired internal temperature is spot on.