Barbecue: Pineapple-Braised Ribs with Honey-Garlic Tomato Glaze
I can barely control my excitement as I sit here and stare at my Fast Pass for the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party, thinking about the enormous amounts of 'cue I'm destined to consume next weekend. The anticipation was a little too much for me handle the other day—I couldn't wait a second longer for some smoke-kissed meat, so I fired up the smoker and threw on a bunch of beautiful racks of spare ribs and was eating pretty five hours later.
I've been partial to Mike Mills's Apple City Ribs both at home and at the BABBP for years now, never finding a good reason to stray from perfection, but I decided to switch it up a bit and tried a recipe from Chris Lilly, pitmaster at Big Bob Gibson's (who makes the best pulled pork that will ever cross your lips). The recipe gave me pause for a second—with its smoke/braise/smoke formula, I questioned the authenticity of it being true 'cue, but then I figured it sounded too delicious to pass up and forged ahead. It ended up that this was a recipe for success—the ribs were succulent, retaining their smokiness while adding a layer of depth with the sweetness from the pineapple braise. The only problem is that they were gone so fast that I'm now left with no 'cue, and with my thoughts trained on the BABBP, I'm coming to the realization that one week is too long to live without more.
About the author: Joshua Bousel blogs about grilling on his blog, The Meatwave, and appears weekly here on Serious Eats during grilling season.
Pineapple-Braised Ribs with Honey-Garlic Tomato Glaze
- serves 4-6 -
Adapted from Killer Ribs by Nancy Davidson.
Ingredients
For the Glaze:
1/8 cup olive oil
1/8 cup chopped onion
1 teaspoon minced fresh garlic
2 cups ketchup
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup apple juice
1/8 cup honey
3/4 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
2 racks of pork spare ribs
Your favorite dry rub
3 cups pineapple juice
Procedure
1. Remove the membrane and trim the ribs. Rub each rack liberally with your favorite dry rub. Place ribs in the refrigerator over night.
2. Lightly sauté the onions and garlic with the olive oil in a saucepan. Add the remaining glaze ingredients and heat until the sauce bubbles. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature.
3. Remove the ribs from the fridge while you preheat your smoker to 225 degrees. Place the ribs in the smoker, meat side up, and smoke for 3 hours at 225 degrees.
4. Remove the ribs and wrap each slab meat-side down in double aluminum foil. Pour 1 1/2 cups of pineapple juice over each rack and seal foil tightly. Place ribs back into the smoker and cook for an additional hour.
5. Remove ribs from the smoker and the foil. Lightly apply more dry rub, and then place back into smoker, meat side up, to cook for an additional hour or until done.
6. Brush glaze on top of the ribs and continue to cook until the sauce caramelizes. Remove from the smoker, slice, and serve.
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9 Comments:
ooh! thank you for the recipe! the boy and i are buying a smoker this weekend, so this should be a perfect candidate to break the smoker in.
french tart at 10:30AM on 05/30/08
whoa, the blog party is next weekend already? i'm still not recovered from memorial day!
thursdaynightsmackdown at 10:38AM on 05/30/08
Earlier this week I got it in my head that the BABBQ was this weekend instead of next. When I realized my mistake I was sad. This will be my first time attending this shindig, and I can't wait.
Thomasj at 11:05AM on 05/30/08
This sounds delicious! What kind of smoker do you recommend? I have never used one.
mrsadm at 11:57AM on 05/30/08
@mrsadm: I have a Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker (aka The Weber Bullet). This is a water smoker, with the fire is on the bottom, a water pan above that, and the cooking grates above that. I have been in love with it since the day I opened it and fired it up. The design of the Weber Bullet makes it extremely easy to maintain a constant temperature for hours on end, and with two cooking grates, there's enough room to make a lot of 'cue at once (sometimes I've had to get creative with fitting it all in though). The only thing I can really complain about is that it can't fit a whole hog!
Joshua Bousel at 12:09PM on 05/30/08
Could this be done in the oven?
stacemace at 3:52PM on 05/30/08
@stacemace: You can make these in the oven with some modifications. Since an oven is not going to add any flavor in the smoke department, I would go straight to the braising. You'll want to wrap the ribs in foil, pour in the pineapple juice, and then braise in at 250 degree oven. Start checking the ribs for doneness after about 2 hours, but I'd think they'd take between 3-4 hours to be fully tender. Then to finish the ribs, remove them from the foil, brush on the glaze, and stick them in the broiler until the sauce caramelizes. You're not going to get the same results as with barbecuing them, but they should be amazing in their own right.
Good Luck!
Joshua Bousel at 3:59PM on 05/30/08
Josh Thank You,sounds delicious!
stacemace at 6:17PM on 05/30/08
Josh Thank You,sounds delicious!
stacemace at 6:42PM on 05/30/08