For Fathers’ Day dinner last night, I decided to make my California version of BBQ pork ribs for my Texas cousins. I always struggled to make my ribs fall-off-the-bone good, like I like them. So, I started to experiment a few years back, and came up with this surefire recipe that never lets me down (even when compared to Texas BBQ!). Let me preface the recipe by saying that I like sweet, non-smoky BBQ, so that’s how I make my ribs. But, the cooking technique is what makes it work. You could use the cooking technique and substitute your own favorite BBQ flavorings in place of mine. Here’s how I do it:
Start with some (a rack or two) extra meaty pork ribs (wait for them to go on sale, though, before you buy them), salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, and aluminum foil. Preheat your oven to 275 degrees. Layout one strip of aluminum foil, longer than the rack of ribs, which will run parallel to the ribs. Then, two more strips perpendicular to the original sheet of foil that will help seal up the ribs for cooking. Open up those juicy ribs and remove the membrane like this:
Once the membrane is removed, move the rack of ribs to the aluminum foil, and season with salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning to taste on both sides of the ribs. Here’s what mine looks like:
Next, seal up the aluminum foil, starting with one side of the perpendicular pieces, then both sides of the parallel piece, then the other side of the perpendicular pieces. It should like roughly like this:
Place the aluminum foil-wrapped rib rack (or racks) on cookie sheets, meaty side up if you don’t like the meat to sit in its own fat or meaty side down for juicier, fattier (is that a word?) ribs. Bake for 2 1/2 hours at 275 degrees. It’s going to smell so good! At the end of those 2 1/2 hours remove the ribs from the oven and aluminum foil, and baste them with your favorite BBQ sauce (I love Sweet Baby Ray’s Hickory and Brown Sugar).
Then, take those bad boys (the ribs) out to the grill, and grill them just long enough to get a nice carmelization on the sauce. They should look something like this:
Pull them off the grill, cut them up into individual ribs, and add a little extra sauce to them. Then, serve them to the masses and say thank you when they tell you how good your ribs are!
Common Sense Country Girl 