Oven Baked Spicy and Sweet Ribs

So we're wandering the isles of Costco on Saturday, searching for free samples. I'm not huge fan of Costco, because when I actually compare the prices to the regular grocery store, it's not cheaper. Plus ridiculous line ups, people driving their carts all willy-nilly, and a real lack of selection. That being said, what I hear people talking about that is great at Costco is the meats. Good quality meat.


Unfortunately, we can't buy it because we don't have room for the giant sizes. Can't freeze it as our small unit only has a tiny fridge freezer, which is already full. And it's too much for two people. But browsing the isles of meat seeing a free sample booth, I just happened to take a look over at the ribs . . .




It was a huge pack of 4 racks of ribs, or 3.948 kg of pork (that's 8.7 pounds). That's a lot of ribs. Too bad it's probably too expensive and really more ribs than we would eat. But then I took a closer look at the label:



$7.86!?!?!?!? I couldn't believe it. I thought maybe I was reading it wrong (many items at our Costco say a price, without indicating that's per-pound or kg or something instead of the actual price of the product). I showed LJ, she thought it was right too. I asked an employee just to make sure. Yup, the 4 racks were just $7.86 AND it was cut and packaged within the past hour. Damn, I had to get it at that price. Now Sunday night had a meal plan.

I did up two sets of ribs, one for me and one for LJ. She was looking for a plain-tasting rib. I wanted sweet and spicy. So this report is on my ribs. Above is my rack rubbed. I grabbed what was left of my spice rub from our Backyard Ribfest 2009, adding in some sweet smoked paprika, some crushed red chili pepper, and red pepper flakes. Oh and brown sugar.

Because I no longer have access to the building grill, these were going to have to be oven baked. I wrapped the rubbed ribs in tinfoil (labeled them) and then baked them for 1 hour on low heat, about 200 degrees. I pulled them out after the hour and flipped them over, baking for another hour at a higher temp of about 300.

While those were baking I whipped up a BBQ sauce. Honey, vinegar, srirachi, garlic powder, liquid smoke, chili sauce, Worcestershire, salt and pepper and some brown sugar. And chili flakes (not shown in picture). Spicy. Sweet.

I simmered it and then let it rest on very low heat. It was a little more runny than I wanted, but I really dug the flavour so I didn't feel like adding anything to thicken it up.

After the ribs finished their 2nd hour, I pulled them out of the tinfoil and their juices and put them on a metal rack on a tin foil covered baking dish. Baked for another 1/2 hour, then I mopped the BBQ sauce on flipping and baking 3 more times at 400 degrees to give them a nice crisp (I wish I could winter grill). Playing with the baking times, if I had the opportunity I would have baked for another hour at the low 200 mark, then upping the heat. Experiment experiment experiment!

I was very excited about these ribs. The sauce looked great, the slightly blackened 'bark', the meat pulling away from the bones. I hacked the meat into individual ribs (which was pretty simple considering how tender the meat was).

Dinner was set. Ribs, baked potato with fixings, broccoli with cheese, garlic bread, mango juice and some candle light.

The rub and the sauce were a great combo together. The first sensation was bolts of pain from the spice of both rub and sauce. Sweet came from the honey, brown sugar and the predominantly sweet tomato chili sauce. Just a bit too tomato than I really want, but it was negligible.

As already mentioned, the meat was tender and tasty, There was just a bit of crisp on the outside due to the last minute high heat applied. Next time I would crank it up more and for just a tad longer.



I tried to pace myself, but I ate several ribs quick. Then several more. I didn't even have seconds of any of my sides because I was sucking back the ribs so quick. I was happy with my dinner.

Nothing original or exciting with these ribs that you probably haven't seen before - I just wanted to share with you my non-wing dinner. What did you have for dinner? Sorry, I didn't want to rub it in. Actually, yes, yes I did.