Grilled Country Style Ribs and Pineapple

Background: Whenever I see “Country Style Ribs” at the supermarket, bone in or boneless, I pick them up. I grew up eating these although back in the day folks would boil them first and then grill until they were well done, not the way I like them! I used to marinate the ribs before grilling, but since I’ve started making my own barbeque sauce, I use that instead, since all the same ingredients are in there. These are great for dinner, and awesome for leftovers as breakfast or in fajitas.

Ingredients:
2 lbs. country style ribs
8 oz Johnson’s barbeque sauce
Juniper wood chips (or similar)
1 pineapple remove top, bottom, skin, cored and sliced into rings
1 tbsp good quality brandy
2 tsp fermented pepper hot sauce (not vinegar based)
1 tbsp dark brown sugar
2 tbsp grapeseed oil
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper

Steps:

Pull the ribs out of the refrigerator and allow to warm up near room temperature.
Using a large Ziplock bag, add all the ingredients except the ribs, barbeque sauce, and pineapple then mix very well.
Add the pineapple to the marinate and mix together by kneading and turning over several times. Allow to rest 30-60 minutes turning a couple times.
Heat the grill to at least 400F, lay on some wood chips, then drop the ribs on and allow to sear for about two minutes per side (I start with the bone side for 3-4 minutes first) until all four sides show grill marks normally about 10 minutes.
Turn off the far-right burner (on a 3-burner gas grill) and move the ribs over to that side and allow to cook another 10 minutes or so, turning a couple times while the wood chips burn off. Next start applying the barbeque sauce with a long-handled brush after each turn for another 10 minutes. Once the sauce starts to dry up on the rib exterior, and the internal temperature is above 145F, they are done.
Near the end of cooking the ribs place the pineapple slices on the grill for about 3 or 4 minutes, then turn over and cook for another 3-4 minutes or until it softens some. Pull from the grill, then pull the ribs, and remove to a dish to serve.

We usually have this over dirty rice, vegetable corn rice, vegetable orzo, or root vegetable mash, the pineapple providing a nice “sauce” on everything.