I found these racks of baby-back ribs on SUPER sale at the grocery store and grabbed some up on a whim. I'd never made ribs before, on the grill or otherwise, so I did a bunch of reading to try and figure out what to do with them. The general consensus seemed to be: rub them with something, cook them low and slow, and smother them with some sauce when they were cooked. So...that's what I did!
The rub was a combination of paprika, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, cumin, brown sugar and a little cayenne. I rubbed quite a lot of it into the meat on both sides, then wrapped the racks up together in some cling film and let them sit in the fridge for an hour.
When it was time to cook, I set the oven to 300, unwrapped the racks of ribs, and set them in a deep roasting pan. I added a bottle of beer (Otter Creek Copper Ale) and then covered the pan tightly with foil. The ribs cooked for about an hour and a half covered, then I uncovered them, drained the liquid and spooned some barbecue sauce (which I also made from scratch) over them to cook for the last half hour. The end product was moist, tender, flavorful meat with a sticky caramelized glaze. I served them with homemade cole slaw.
These were super good, and well worth the wait and the torture of smelling them all afternoon. And for the record, homemade barbecue sauce is SO much better than store-bought. It was super easy to make - ketchup, molasses, apple cider vinegar, and some spices (of which I neglected to measure any, so I'll likely never be able to replicate the sauce again. Figures!).
Those. Look. Perfect. I've been keeping my eye out for sale ribs ever since I saw you make these.
ReplyDeleteDude, they were SO effing good. The only thing they really wanted was a little smokey-ness, but I think using smoked paprika in place of some of the regular paprika next time would totally fix that.
ReplyDeleteI want some more. OM NOM NOM!