Monday, September 20, 2010

Barbequed baby back ribs

Admittedly, we've fallen behind here at (Never) Too Many Cooks. Summer, vacations, back-to-school—I know I speak for all of our contributors when I say that life seems to get in the way a lot these days. I, for one, have fallen back on a lot of family favorite recipes in recent weeks, many of which you can find in this blog's archives.


That said, we had an amazing dinner with friends Friday night. None of which I actually cooked. But because my friends are so cool and because they love this blog, because it really takes little more than a camera and a recipe to create a post... we have baby back ribs. Awesomely delicious and easy to prepare baby back ribs.

Here's what you need:

A rack of ribs (my friend regularly purchases hers at Costco, though it's likely any grocery store or butcher shop can fill your order)
Barbeque sauce (you can make your own, or use a store-bought brand)
salt/pepper
Using a sharp meat knife, cut the rack into smaller sections of about 3-4 ribs each, season with salt and pepper, brush with a generous amount of barbeque sauce and wrap in tin foil. Repeat until all the ribs are seasoned and wrapped. Place the foil packets in a large roasting pan and cook at 250 degrees for 3 hours.
Remove the ribs from the oven, and unwrap the foil packets. Discard the drippings and any sauce left in the foil.
At this stage, the ribs are basically cooked, but it's important to finish the process on the grill. You need to give them just enough time to heat through and carmelize on the outside. Be sure to slather on more barbeque sauce (feel free to be generous here), then cook for 15 minutes over a hot fire, turning frequently.
I'm not kidding. It's really that easy. Not only were these ribs tender and flavorful, but because they were pre-cooked in the oven, all the grease and fat was left behind in the foil packets.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say these ribs are kid-friendly. We had three boys at the table under 10 years old and two of them were literally covered in sauce. My son, unfortunately, was the lone holdout. Though he was reluctant to try, he did, declaring after two bites that it wasn't for him.

Maybe next time. But really, who cares? More for the rest of us.

3 comments:

  1. Oh, you are SO RIGHT (about the life getting in the way...and especially about us using these archives for our cooking needs during these busy time; just last night I used goodfountain's homemade taco seasoning to create a home taco bar!). And I have a feeling that you are EVEN MORE so right about these ribs. Think beef versus pork ribs would make a difference in terms of cooking time or anything else?

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  2. Oh, Wow! These look fantastic. We will be having them soon, I promise!

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  3. TC, yes I think beef ribs would cook entirely different. The beauty of the pork ribs is that they are small and tender when cooked properly. I'd google some beef rib recipes and compare first.

    I've never been a big fan of beef ribs, but I'm willing to be proven wrong!

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