HOW TO COOK BBQ RIBS: SECRETS, TIPS AND RECIPES
BBQ ribs, ruddy, crispy, with an appetizing crust, are cooked outdoors, at home on the grill or in the oven, and served as a main course with vegetables and potatoes. Ribs are part of the brisket with a layer of muscles, fat and ribs - this meat is considered the most tender, juicy and delicious, especially if cooked correctly. Pork, beef and lamb ribs, smelling of wood and fire, are an ideal snack for beer and the crown dish of any picnic. Your family will certainly appreciate the aromatic, spicy and juicy ribs, which are a real pleasure to cook!
How to Cook BBQ Ribs: Preparing the Meat
For this dish, take chilled pork, beef or lamb ribs with a lot of meat and a thin layer of fat. It is advisable to take the ribs of a young animal - they can be distinguished by the light shade of meat and a thin layer of white fat. Although it is believed that pork is better to cook on a barbecue, since it cooks faster, lamb and beef are also very tasty, and the toughness of beef or veal is eliminated by long marinating. However, if you cook the meat correctly, it will cook perfectly, become tender, juicy and very flavorful. The best ribs are obtained from the rib part near the vertebra, where the ribs are very small.
So, the meat is washed well, the film is removed from the back of the ribs, hooking it with a sharp knife. If the film is not removed, the ribs may become tough - they will seem "rubbery". Then the ribs are chopped into several pieces so that each of them has about 2-5 bones. Some chefs claim that the larger the piece, the tastier the meat will be. If frozen ribs are being prepared, they should be defrosted in the refrigerator at a temperature of 5 ° C, where it is better to leave them overnight.
How to deliciously marinate ribs for barbecue
The meat is rubbed with salt, pepper, vegetable oil and left in a cool place for several hours - this is the simplest way of marinating. In this case, for 1 kg of meat you should take about 20 g of salt. You can add chili pepper, smoked paprika, dried garlic, cane sugar and chopped dry herbs to the rubbing mixture. If you cover the meat with cling film and put it in the refrigerator, the dish will be more delicious and piquant.
Some housewives marinate the ribs either in barbecue sauce, specially designed for cooking ribs on the grill, or in another sauce, depending on the recipe and personal preferences. Usually, ribs are marinated for at least half an hour, but it is better to marinate them longer, so they will become tastier and juicier. How to soak ribs for barbecue so that they are maximally saturated with the aroma of spices? To do this, it is better to leave them in the refrigerator overnight.
Various ingredients are added to the marinade for barbecue ribs - soy sauce, honey, tomato sauce, dry white wine, lemon or orange juice, garlic, onion, mustard, sugar, ginger, wine vinegar, aromatic herbs and spices. One of the most successful marinades is apple juice and vinegar, and if you rub a mixture of dry thyme, smoked pepper, fennel seeds, garlic and brown sugar into the meat before marinating, the ribs will turn out incredibly tasty. There are many different sauce recipes, and each housewife can come up with her own signature sauce, the main thing is to marinate the meat for a long time, and this is the main secret of juicy ribs.
Oven Baked BBQ Ribs Recipe
The ribs are placed in the oven, preheated to 200 °C, directly on the grill or baking sheet, poured with sauce, covered with foil and baked for 20 minutes, then the foil is removed and cooked for another 20 minutes. This is done so that the meat is first well stewed and only then browned. If everything is the other way around, the ribs will remain raw inside. It is good if the oven has a grill mode, then at the very end you can leave the meat under the grill for 10 minutes. The dish is cooked on the grill according to the same principle. There is another way of cooking - the ribs are fried in hot oil in a cast-iron frying pan until golden brown, then onion, garlic and spices are added to them, wine and water are poured in and stewed for an hour. The finished ribs are left to dry, greased with barbecue sauce and baked in the oven for 5-10 minutes until an appetizing caramel-colored crust forms. This method is somewhat reminiscent of old recipes, where the ribs were first boiled and then fried over a fire; it was believed that meat cooked in this way becomes more tender. Many modern chefs consider this method unacceptable, claiming that it spoils the taste of the ribs. Interestingly, the British bake ribs for 6-8 hours at a temperature of 80-90 ° C so that they melt in the mouth.
Cooking ribs on the grill and barbecue
Ribs can be cooked on a grill, on a grate or skewers, like shashlik. They are cooked for 20-40 minutes, while they should be poured with sauce for juiciness and periodically turned over for even frying. For cooking lamb and beef, the fire should be lower, otherwise the meat will quickly brown, but will remain raw inside. The readiness of the meat is easy to check: you need to pierce it and watch the juice - transparent liquid indicates that the ribs are ready.
If you are using a charcoal grill to cook the ribs, place the meat half an hour after the coals begin to smolder, and cook not over direct fire, but on the side opposite to where the coals are. In this way, the ribs cook for 1.5–2 hours. The same rules apply to a gas grill, with the cooking time being about 40 minutes. You can do it differently — wrap the meat in foil and cook over direct fire for half an hour.
For a pleasant aroma, place a piece of wood soaked in water on the coals; in this case, the ribs will be slightly smoked, with a smoky flavor.
Secrets and subtleties of cooking ribs
A large amount of fat often prevents the meat on the ribs from being cooked well, so it is better to remove the excess.
If you want the meat to have an interesting and bright taste, put any berries and fruits with a sour taste on the grill or baking sheet together with the ribs - lingonberries, cranberries, currants, sour apples. To make the meat tender and crispy at the same time, fry it first on a low heat, and at the end on a high heat to form a golden crust. Another way to make the meat soft is to marinate it in pineapple juice, which contains the enzyme bromelain, which softens the toughest meat fibers. However, ribs with a tropical taste are an acquired taste, and not everyone may like them.
When the meat is done, remove it from the heat with tongs and wrap it in foil for 10 minutes to finish cooking – this trick helps to preserve the taste and aroma of the dish. Serve the ribs hot with your favorite sauce.
BBQ Ribs with Juice Marinade Recipe
Wash and dry 2.5 kg of pork ribs, chop them into small pieces no larger than 5 ribs and marinate. For the marinade, mix a glass of ketchup or other tomato sauce with half a glass of cherry or pomegranate juice, 4 tablespoons of vegetable oil, 2 tablespoons of liquid honey and 2 tablespoons of wine vinegar, 3 cloves of crushed garlic, pepper and salt to taste. Keep the meat in this aromatic and spicy liquid for about 6 hours and grill for 20 minutes, pouring sauce over it.
Beer Glazed Pork Ribs
Cover with 2 kg of chopped pork ribs marinade mixture of pepper, salt, coriander, ground paprika and crushed garlic, pre-mixed with vegetable oil. Place the marinated ribs on the grill and grill them for 15 minutes on each side. While the meat is cooking, make a glaze of 1 cup of barbecue sauce, 5 drops of Tabasco sauce and 150 ml of dark beer. Then apply the glaze with a brush to the fried ribs, do this 2 more times every 5 minutes, then turn the ribs over and repeat the procedure.
Tender Lamb Ribs with Cilantro
Wash and clean 1 kg lamb ribs, chop into pieces 3 ribs each. Rub the meat with salt and black pepper and prepare a mixture for the marinade, mixing by eye dried paprika, dried tomatoes and ground coriander seeds, rub the ribs with these spices and put them in a marinating dish. Put 2 chopped onions, chopped coriander and other greens there, mix everything with your hands and put in the refrigerator overnight. Fry the ribs on the grill for about an hour, while the fire from the coals should not be very strong.
How to Make BBQ Sauce for Pork Ribs
Drizzling barbecue sauce over ribs will give the meat a shiny, glazed look that's not only pretty but also delicious. The simplest sauce is made from ½ cup ketchup, 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar, 2 tsp soy sauce, ½ cup cane sugar, and 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce, which is made from vinegar, sugar, and fish.
Sometimes onions, oregano, butter, lemon juice, Tabasco sauce, garlic, red wine and spices are added to the sauce. Brown sugar, sweet mustard, honey and balsamic vinegar give the sauce a pleasant sweet and sour taste.
