Country Style Barbecued Ribs

Parts of this weekend were so beautiful! With guests coming into town, I knew that we'd want to be outside, enjoying the deck and the fine weather. So, I opted for ribs on the grill for our Saturday evening dinner. The actual preparation on Saturday was super easy, I just handed the ribs over to my husband with a basting brush and barbecue sauce and let him take over. However, the preparation for these perfect, fall-off-the-bone ribs began 3 days before the first bite (which was quickly followed by the first MMMMMmmmmm)...occurred. On Wednesday, I thawed my ribs. On Thursday, I applied the rub. On Friday, I braised the ribs for 3 hours, made the bbq sauce, basted the ribs with the bbq sauce, wrapped them in foil, and returned them to the fridge for one more night. Then on serving day, as I said, I just handed them over.

Here are the ribs right off the grill, just before the hungry mob attacked. Unfortunately, I didn't get a pretty picture of these ribs that illustrates just how tender and delicious they were. In truth, I couldn't wait to dig in, so I snapped this quick pic and filled my plate! Oink, oink, Krista!



I went with a Kansas City style rub. I like a little sweet to my ribs. The rub ingredients: brown sugar, paprika, black pepper, kosher salt, chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper.



Some people are squeamish about meat with bones. Not me. I'm a gnaw on the bone kinda girl and ribs offer the perfect, messy, gnaw-on-the-bone experience! The ribs that I used weren't even really ribs. They were country style or Western style ribs, which aren't ribs at all, rather they are a cut from the shoulder region sliced into a rib size (or actually a little larger) strip. And they were cheap! $1.00/lb, I got them at our Super Kmart. Classy, huh? When I lived in a town with a Kroger, I loved the 10 for $10 deals. With no Kroger store in sight, I've resorted to the local Kmart to get my 10 for $10 on! Believe it or not, I look forward to this occasional bargain shopping trip. My girlfriend, Staycie, alerts me of the 10 for $10 sale when she gets the ad. We hover over the flyer making our lists together. Then we enlist our husbands or parents to watch the kiddos and we carpool. We make it a girl's day (or night) out. It's a great opportunity to catch up. Sometimes we grab a bite to eat before we shop. And then we "cruise" Kmart. I know, I know... we're SO cool. I have to say the Kmart where I live is much nicer than the one in my hometown. I was relaying my Kmart bargains over the phone to my youngest sister the other day and she was like, "Really? Kmart? When I have to go into Kmart here I actually feel a little dirty after the experience." She's right. I've been inside of my hometown Kmart. It's nothing to brag about. But the Super Kmart in my area here has the best 10 for $10 sales, so any disillusionment that I had with Kmart in my formative years is blinded by the glow of such great bargains!

Okay, enough on Kmart and back to the ribs. Here are my rubbed-down ribs. I wrapped these up and put them back into the refrigerator overnight.



It's been a few years since I prepared ribs for the grill. Of course, I wanted them to fall-off-the-bone (who doesn't?), so I did some research. In the past, to achieve tenderness, I boiled the ribs before grilling or I slow-cooked them in the Crock Pot. This time I wanted to try braising them in the oven and then grilling. I wrapped the ribs into 2 foil packets and placed them on a baking sheet. They baked in a 250 degree oven for 3 to 3-1/2 hours. Although a couple of recipes recommended using a braising liquid, I didn't. The juices that were created by the ribs as they cooked was sufficient for braising. I have to say, mission accomplished! There weren't many bones in the country style ribs for the meat to fall off of...but meat was very tender.



While the ribs braised, I made my barbecue sauce. I love this tangy barbecue sauce with a hint of orange. I have no idea where I got this recipe, I copied it into "my favorite recipes" notebook years ago. Here are the ingredients: olive oil, ketchup, chili sauce, brown sugar, orange juice, cider vinegar, and garlic. I added a little orange peel, also, but I forgot to put it in the picture. For me, the sauce needs a little more heat, so next time I'll also add some red pepper flakes.



I saute the garlic in the olive oil and then stir in the other ingredients and bring it all to a boil. Then turn the heat down to a simmer and cover. Stir frequently for the next 20 minutes or so.



Brush both sides of the ribs with barbecue sauce and then put em' back into the fridge for one more night. Reserve the remaining sauce to baste the ribs while grilling and to serve alongside the ribs.



Grill the ribs for 15-20 minutes, basting with sauce and turning occasionally to prevent burning. Now grab your rib bib and wet wipes and dig in!



Country Style Barbecued Ribs


5-6 lbs. Country style, Western style, or pork shoulder ribs (whatever you wanna call em')

Rub:

1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons Kosher salt
1 tablespoon pepper
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Combine ingredients and rub into the rib meat. Cover and refrigerate over night.


Sauce:

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
3/4 cup each of ketchup and chili sauce
1/4 cup each of brown sugar, orange juice, and cider vinegar
1-2 teaspoons fresh grated orange peel
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Heat oil in a skillet. Saute garlic for a couple of minutes. Stir in remaining ingredients. Heat to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring frequently.

Cooking instructions:

The day before or the morning of the day that you plan to serve the ribs, wrap them in foil, making two packets of ribs. Place on a baking sheet. Braise in a 250 degree oven for 3 hours. Remove from oven, let cool slightly. Brush with sauce, wrap in foil again and refrigerate until grilling.

To grill:

Grill the ribs for 15-20 minutes, basting with sauce and turning occasionally to prevent burning.

For a printable copy of this recipe, click here!

Saucy Smoked Rib Dinner

I love ribs. Sauce drippin' down to your sleeves, gnawing on the bone...what's not to love? And these ribs from Stonie's Sausage Shop in Perryville, MO are where it's at! You may remember my post about Stonie's Pork Loin from my Cracker Barrel-esque dinner back in December. The folks at Stonie's are famous for their smoked meats and let me tell ya, these were smoked to perfection.

Here's where we begin. I pulled 2 racks of smoked pork ribs out of my freezer to thaw.




Following the directions on the package, I put a little water in the baking dish, covered them with foil, and popped them into the oven at 325 degrees.


Now free to start on the sauce (recipe below), I chopped some onion and celery and sauteed in butter until tender.


I dumped in the other sauce ingredients: water, ketchup, brown sugar, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, cider vinegar, Dijon mustard, and cayenne pepper.


Now give it a stir and bring it to a boil. Then I reduced the heat and let it simmer until my ribs had cooked for about an hour.


While the ribs bake and the sauce simmers, I decided to try my hand at some oven baked steak fries. I sliced up a few potatoes, brushed them with oil, and sprinkled them with seasoning salt.


An hour into the recommended cooking time, I pulled the ribs and covered them in barbecue sauce. This sauce happens to be one of my top three favorite rib/barbecue sauces. Of the other two, one is a spicy orange sauce...I didn't want to have orange over-kill after last night's Slow Cooker Orange Chicken, and I couldn't find the other sauce recipe. Not that I'm complaining, this dinner was my favorite meal this month!



I put the ribs and the steak fries in the oven for about 10-15 more minutes, then turned the ribs and stirred the fries. Back in for another 10 or so minutes, then I pulled the ribs and stuck the fries under the broiler for a bit to give em' a good crisp.

I plated it all up together with some good ol' creamy coleslaw. Finger lickin' good is an understatement.


Krista's Barbecue Sauce

1/2 finely chopped onion
1 finely chopped rib of celery
2 T butter
1 cup ketchup
1 cup water
3 T Worcestershire sauce
2 T brown sugar
2 T cider vinegar
1 T lemon juice
1 T Dijon mustard
1/8 t cayenne pepper

Saute the onion and celery in butter until tender. Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes. Brush over your ribs and bake or grill.