How to Cook Baby Back Ribs
Dilemma: How to cook baby back ribs when there are so many ways to prepare this delicious, sweet dish.Some traditionalists insist the ribs get cooked over a hot grill, while others claim that roasting foil-wrapped ribs in the oven and finishing them on the grill will yield the most succulent, tender ribs. Whichever method for how to cook baby back ribs you choose, keep an eye on them once they're on the grill so they don't get too black.
Transcript
-Hey everyone, I'm Judith with recipe.com, and today I'm gonna
be showing you how to make Fred's Finest baby back
ribs. A really finger licking good classic barbecue dish. So,
what you gonna need for this is one cup of
barbecue sauce, a quarter cup of apple cider. We have
quarter cup of Dijon mustard. We have 1 tablespoon of
chili powder. We have a quarter teaspoon of cayenne pepper.
We have 1 tablespoon of brown sugar, and 1 tablespoons
of paprika. We have a quarter teaspoon of salt, some
black pepper to taste, and 2 tablespoons of honey, and
right here of course, we have our baby back ribs.
We have 6 racks of baby back ribs here, and
there's a pouch between 8 and 11 baby back ribs
in each of them. So, it's probably about 12 pounds
in total. So, let's get started.
Let us get our Dijon mustard first of all, and
we're get a brush, and we're gonna based our baby
back ribs, front and back, with our mustard. So, now,
I've made sure to wash and pat try my baby
back ribs, and we removed the membranes from the back
of the ribs as well. So, we have nice lean
meaty. This actually baby back ribs are more meatier than
spare ribs.
That's why they are slightly more expensive. Spare ribs are
more most inexpensive cut. So, now that our baby back
ribs are all mustard it up, if that's the word.
I'll add our all our dry spices into a small
bowl, and these are just gonna give the baby back
ribs are really nice kick. We always like a nice
rib on our pork, and this is good. So, we
put all our spices in there including our salts.
We'll garnish with black pepper after. We'll mix all that
in, and we're just gonna rub this mixture on both
sides of our pork again like we did with the
mustard, and we're gonna roast them at 275 degrees Fahrenheit
for about 45 minutes to an hour. Now, if you
don't have aluminum roasting bags, what you can do is
a little trick
as we can put water at the bottom of our
baking tray and we can cover it foil just in
case you can find them. So, that's what we'll do
next. So, guys, it's not that you will break it
if you don't have aluminum roasting bag. What we've done
is we placed our baby back ribs on baking tray
and we've slightly cover them with water. We let the
water be at the bottom of our baking tray. We
filled the baking tray with water, and we covered it
with aluminum foil to let that steam come up,
let the baby back ribs get some moisture and let
that fat on those baby back ribs melt way. So,
we've taken them out of the oven now. It's been
there for about 45 minutes, looking great, steaming beautifully, and
now it's time for our next step. So, if you
have a grill, fantastic, because that will be the next
step, you'll put them on your grill after you glazed
them. I will actually gonna put them under the broiler,
under a low heat for about 10 minutes.
But first of all let's get our remaining ingredients. Now,
we have our apple cider here. So, we're just gonna
brush them on. You can spray them on too if
have one of those spray hand, but we'll just brush
them on both sides. Be careful because it will be
little hot, and we'll do it for all of the
ribs. So, now that I have spatter them in some
of that of apple cider, they are ready to do
under the broiler for about 10 minutes, and on a
low heat.
And now, you can tell, when your baby back ribs
have been done once we've taken them out of the
oven. You grab them with a pair of tongs to
do like this and they bend easily like so, nice
and flexible, got them doing some yoga, that's is ready.
So, let's put them under the broiler and we'll be
back in 10-12 minutes. So, we've taken our baby back
ribs from under the broiler, and now they're ready to
be pasted with our barbecue sauce, and there's nothing better
than baby back ribs
and beautiful barbecue sauce, really great serving dish and taste
fantastic. So, we'll paste all of this up, and then
we're gonna put them under the broiler again for 10
minutes and just before they come out, we're gonna drizzle
them with our lovely honey and that's just gonna give
a nice sweetness to these barbecue baby back ribs. So,
we've taken our baby back ribs now from under the
broiler that in there for 10 minutes and we just
drizzle them with honey
before finally taking them out in the last couple of
minutes we put them down on this beautiful carving board
right here and they look just fantastic, juicy, tender, finger-licking
good, that's for sure, and you're friends are gonna love
you for this. So, all you need to do know
is you can either cut them yourself. You can cut
them down the bone, like so, and you can serve
them individually like this, or if you want, serve them
in a long line like that, and they'll love you
anyway.
Serve it before a game, at a Halloween party. They're
gonna go down great. So, that's how you make Fred's
finest baby back ribs. We'll thanks for watching everyone. For
more great recipes and savings, go to recipe.com.
What You'll Need
- 6 racks baby back ribs, roughly 12 pounds (spareribs will also work)
- 1/4 cup Dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1/4 cup water or apple cider
- 1 cup barbecue sauce (use your favorite)
- 2 tablespoons honey, or as needed
Step By Step
1
Preheat your oven to 300 degrees F.
2
Rinse the ribs and pat them dry. Remove the membranes from the back of the ribs. Place the ribs on a baking sheet and brush the ribs generously with the mustard. Combine the sugar, paprika, chili powder, cayenne, and salt in a small bowl. Sprinkle this mixture over both sides of the ribs. Grind fresh pepper over the ribs.
3
Place the ribs in an aluminum roasting bag and add the water. Seal the bag tightly, place on a baking sheet, and put in the oven. Slowly cook the ribs for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Remove the bag from the oven and let the ribs cool in the roasting bag for 30 minutes. Open the bag away from you in case there is residual steam. The ribs are ready for the next step when you can grab them with a pair of tongs, lift them up, and they bend easily.
4
Set up your grill for indirect cooking. Add some wood chips or hunks of wood, like hickory or oak, to your smoke box, or make a foil-smoking packet. Let some smoke build in your grill, then place the ribs (brushed with the mustard and rub) on the grill, bone side down, and adjust the temperature to low. You want the temperature to stay at about 200 degrees F, so check with an oven thermometer. Smoke for about 3 hours, replenishing the wood chips as needed. About every 45 minutes, spray the ribs with apple cider. The ribs are ready for the next step when you can grab them with a pair of tongs, lift them up, and they bend easily.
5
Oil the grill racks. Preheat your grill using all burners set on high and with the lid closed for 10 to 12 minutes.
6
When the grill is hot, reduce the heat to medium and place the ribs, meaty side down, on the grill. Close the lid and cook for about 15 minutes, then turn. Brush the seared side with the barbecue sauce, cover again, and cook for another 10 to 15 minutes. Turn, brush with sauce, cover, and let them enjoy the heat for another 10 minutes. Brush the same side with sauce again, cover, and cook for no more than 5 minutes. Uncover, drizzle the ribs with the honey, and let them stay on the heat a couple of minutes more to allow the honey to glaze. Remove and serve to hoots and hollers.
7
Make Ahead: You can grill- or oven-roast the ribs several days ahead and even freeze them. If you do freeze them, let them cool completely (in the roasting bag, if they're oven-roasted) then drain off any liquid, wrap them well in foil or the roasting bag, and stick them in the freezer. Thaw before finishing the ribs.
By learning how to cook baby back ribs with both methods, you can decide which style of cooking you like the most. These delicate ribs, so packed with flavor, are a welcome sight at any picnic or party.
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