Oven Baked BBQ Pork Ribs

(serves 1-2)
I came up with this method of BBQing pork ribs after I had to give up my BBQ stove and it seems every cloud has a silver lining after all. My BBQ ribs are better than ever and I don’t have to keep basting them while they cook. The trick is to cook the ribs as if you are braising them and then dry them out with a second round of baking. I use a hybrid technique with dry rub marination and wet sauce cooking and you know what that means: super succulent ribs that are full of flavour.  

Ingredients

1. Pork Ribs (800g)
2. BBQ Sauce (3/4 cup)
3. Garlic (12 cloves = 1 bulb)
4. Coriander Seed Powder
5. Cumin
6. Paprika
7. Bourbon
8. Oregano
9. Brown Sugar

Preparation 

1. Have the butcher cut your ribs into individual bone sections. You should end up with about 10 large pieces. Cooking the ribs individually gives more surface area for flavour to cling to and makes for tidier eating as well.
2. Mix the following in a bowl: 2t brown sugar, 2t coriander seed powder, 1t cumin, 1t paprika, 1t oregano, 1t salt (each t = heaping teaspoon here except perhaps for the salt).
3. Add your meat to the bowl and massage the mixed spices evenly into the meat. Wait half an hour (or a day if you have the time).
4. Preheat your over to 175^oC (350^oF).
5. Stir together 3/4 cup of BBQ sauce, 3/4 cup water and 2T bourbon. Peel the garlic and add them as whole cloves to the sauce.
6. Arrange your ribs in a pyrex dish such that the meat is only one layer high. Choose an appropriately sized baking dish such that there is no empty space left over, and if required slant the thinner ribs to make more room (refer to the picture). If you don’t do this, you will end up needing more sauce to cover your ribs.
7. Pour your diluted BBQ sauce over the ribs. Cover the entire baking dish snugly with aluminium foil and place it in the oven.
8. After 1 hour and 20 mins, remove the foil and bake for a further 15 minutes to dry up and scorch the outside of the ribs (and this is why the ribs must be only one layer high). After the uncovered bake, the sauce should have also dried down to the right thickness. Serve the ribs with the thickened BBQ sauce seperate in a small bowl.

Notes

• Choose a BBQ sauce that is smoked since you won’t be using any charcoal. Other than that, it doesn’t really matter what brand you pick as a lot of flavour will be coming from the dry rub and meat itself.
• About a quarter of the people tasting my ribs have remarked that it is to sweet. If you think you fall into this category, reduce the amount of sugar a bit in the dry rub.
• This recipe is reasonably scalable, so you can do multiples of the quantities listed above. You’ll need to bake for longer as a larger batch will take longer to come to a boil. If it is really a large batch (see the tray to the right?) there might be a lot of BBQ sauce left when the ribs are cooked; remove the foil earlier and as a last resort reduce the sauce in a pot instead of in the oven.
• You can also use a Dutch oven instead of foil, but it may be harder to find exact right size. When in doubt, you can’t go wrong with foil.
• BBQ pork ribs go well with coarse cut fries and cole slaw.