I've done ribs before on the grill and smoker, but decided to try something different this time since I've witnessed others smoking them like what I am about to show you. I did it similar, but added my own amount of ingredients to my taste as you can do the same.

I took a slap of ribs and prepared them the best that I could to St Louis cut style ribs by trimming them down, cutting all of the excess meat off the ribs for easier cooking. This just makes your ribs look more formed and presentable from end to end with all of that excess scrap removed.

After you've finished cutting all of the excess scraps off the slab and pulled off the membrane from the ribs, add a rub to them by coating both sides of the ribs and then fire up that smoker to 275 degrees.

Place the ribs straight onto the top rack for indirect heat and smoke them at 275 degrees for 2 1/2 hours, and then take them off and lay them on aluminum foil offset center.

In the center of the aluminum foil sprinkle brown sugar the length of your slab of ribs, along with butter in either three cubed sections as pictured above, or if in a squirt bottle, squeeze out butter over the brown sugar in a wavy line as to cover the brown sugar in a zig zag line from one end to the other. On top of the butter I then applied my BBQ sauce but not real heavy (you can apply as much as you desire, I put more on afterwards) and then lay your ribs on top of it all in the center of the foil meat side down, ribs facing up. Follow the same method of brown sugar, butter and sauce on the rib side and then wrap it up in the foil and place back into the smoker for the remaining 1 1/2 hours, or until the internal temperature reaches 202 or 205 degrees at the thickest or meatiest part of the ribs.

I love tater tots! I can't express that enough, and I wondered just how smoked tater tots would taste? I googled and tried searching YouTube, but could not find anyone that has ever smoked just tater tots. It was either smoked tater tot casserole or baked tots in the oven. So, with that being said, I pulled an 8 lb. bag of tots out of the freezer and went to work.

I took some bacon out of the fridge and laid them into strips on my cutting board. Then I took a tater tot and started from the bacon end, rolling the tot up in the bacon until the bacon went a little over a full circle, with just a little overlap so it would lay off the side of the tot and fully cover it. In a bowl off to the side I had put in some rub for just a sample amount, and took the bacon wrapped tater tot and rolled it in the rub covering all of the bacon. Then I placed it onto a cooking tray to use in the smoker. I did this over and over until I had a reasonable amount and then I did the same thing again but left off the rub this time and just placed them on the tray. After that, I then just put some plain old tater tots on a tray to smoke as is.

I then placed both cooking trays into the smoker at 275 degrees same as the ribs, but direct heat is applied, because they needed to actually cook at a hotter temperature then the ribs. I put them in when my ribs had 1 hour left to cook so, I cooked the tots for an hour and pulled them off the same time I did the ribs. Depending on the smoker you have and if using pellets or wood and maybe running at a hotter temperature, your cooking time may vary. When that bacon looked done, then I knew the tots where probably done as well, but I held to that 1 hour time just to be safe.

The ribs turned out real juicy and believe it or not, you couldn't taste the brown sugar at all but I could taste some of the butter just barely. I did add a little BBQ sauce to them before devouring several ribs for supper. I tried the tater tots with the rub, and they weren't bad at all, but that bacon and rub together made it a little too salty tasting for my liking, but I ate them. The tots wrapped in just bacon with nothing on them were delicious and I loved gobbling them down. The plain tots that were just lying on the cooking tray by themselves were very good as well. You could really taste that smoke in every bite and I'd say they were a hit. I am glad I tried this and will probably do the bacon wrapped tots again sometime, but I still love the old submerged in cooking oil or oven backed tots best. I know that I will try the ribs with brown sugar, butter and sauce again. They were just all sorts of juicy tasting!

I hope you enjoyed this blog post and feel free to leave a commit or one of your recipes if you've ever done any one of these two cooks before. Maybe I can try something different. Until next time, C-YA!

Recipe Recap:

  • For the ribs, cut away any extra meat or bone off the top and side of the ribs and discard
  • Take off the membrane from the ribs
  • Add rub to both sides of of the ribs covering them and leave sit until smoker is ready
  • Place ribs on top rack of smoker to cook at an indirect heat
  • Cook at 275 degrees for 2 1/2 hours and then take them off
  • Place them on a sheet of aluminum foil offset from the center
  • Sprinkle brown sugar down the center of the foil along with butter and sauce
  • Lay the ribs meat down on top of the brown sugar, butter and sauce
  • Repeat the steps for the rib side and wrap them up in the foil and place back in smoker
  • Take the ribs off once they reach internal temp of 202 or 205 degrees, meatiest part of the rib
  • For the tater tots you will need some rub in a bowl and bacon strips for wrapping
  • On a cutting board, lay the bacon in strips and start rolling the tot up inside one of the strips until the bacon overlaps the tot about a half link
  • Roll the wrapped tater tot with bacon in the bowl of rub and place on a cooking tray
  • For the plain bacon tots with no rub, repeat bullet number 2 and then place on tray
  • For just the plain tater tots themselves wrapped in nothing, just lay them on the tray
  • Put them on for 1 hour (time may vary depending on your smoker and temp your cooking at)

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