I wanted to make BBQ sauce. Mostly because I went to eat the BBQ sauce in my fridge and couldn't: modified food starch= no no no. So I decided on pork spareribs.
Everybody is always all a-talk about baby-back ribs when it comes to pork, but I find them hard to keep moist, lacking in meat and marbling (do they use that term with pork?). I always find spareribs delicious and hard to ruin. They do take a while to prepare but most of it is just waiting. We are heading to spring. So if you don't live where you have 70 degree days during the winter, keep this recipe in mind.
GreenSunflower's Dry Rub
- 2 TB granulated garlic
- 2 TB granulated onion
- 2 TB salt
- 2 TB ground cumin
- 1 TB FRESHLY ground black pepper (if you use the dust, use two)
- 1 TB dried basil
- 1 TB dried oregano
- 1 TB dried pepper flakes
- 1 TB chili powder
- 2 tsp ground chipotle chile
- 1/2 tsp ground clove
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
MIx all spices completely.
GreenSunflower's BBQ Sauce
- 3TB Olive Oil
- 1/2 stick butter
- 2 red onions, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, chopped
- 3 cups catsup
- 1 15 oz can tomato sauce
- 1/2 cup GF tamari
- 3/4 cup balsamic vinegar
- 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 TB FRESHLY ground black pepper
- 1 TB Frank's Red Hot
- 1 TB lime juice
- 1 TB cumin
- 1 TB Sriracha
- 1 pinch cloves
- 1 pinch ground chipotle chili
In heavy bottomed 5 quart pot, heat olive oil and butter on low. Once butter has melted, add onions and stir to coat. Let onions lie on low for a long time, like 20 min, until they are soft and caramelized.
Then add garlic and give it about 10 min on low to caramelize too. Then add all other ingredient and stir to combine, simmer on medium, stirring frequently for 20 min. Now you have your BBQ sauce.
GreenSunflower's Ribs
Now I only made one slab, as it was just me and Babe but the Dry Rub and BBQ sauce are enough for two. I am putting a picture in of what spare ribs look like because some may not know. But here is how to get to cooking the dang things.
You need two slabs of the above meat. Wash the meat and pat it dry with a paper towel and then slather the dry rub on it, so it looks like this.
Let those sit for a good 30 minutes. The salt will tenderize the meat and allow the spices to wreak havoc.
After this warm up your BBQ. I haven't used a charcoal BBQ in 10 years, so don't ask me how to do that. But you want to get all the crusties off your grill and then you want it at a nice 250-300 degrees.
Drizzle olive oil on both sides off the meat and put the meat bone side down on the grill. Let the meat cook at this low temp for one hour.
After the one hour turn those puppies over and cook for another hour at the same heat. After you turn them over, make your BBQ sauce.
After that hour is over, head out to your grill with your BBQ sauce. Sauce the meat side first and turn over. Then sauce the bone side. Then turn over AGAIN (this was just to get some char on the meat side) and re-sauce your meat side. Now let that cook again covered (did I mention this is all covered to maintain that even heat?) for 20 min to let the BBQ sauce caramelize, so when you pull your meat off it looks like this.
Now you can either cut them up with a boning knife or you can pull them apart, cause they will just melt away from that bone.
There should be some extra sauce, after it is all said and done, to put over the ribs, if you need more.
Baby wipes on the side are suggested. Or whatever classier method of cleaning your hands you so desire.
