It’s Rib night. I am dressing these to impress. The last batch of ribs wasn’t as great as I had hoped. So I am trying a new recipe and plan to wow the children.

The recipe I used is adapted from the Ted Reader Book, Sticky Fingers and Tenderloins, I didn’t have everything on hand, so used what was in my pantry, and improvised a little.

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 325°
2. Divide your ribs up if needed. Mine did not fit in the baking dish, I had to divide them in half, and use two containers to braise them. Once divided, score the backside of your ribs in a diamond pattern. Flip the ribs over and rub the meaty side with sugar, rib rub, salt and pepper.
3. Thoroughly spray the dishes that you are braising the ribs in. Lay your ribs, meat side down, and pour in the apple juice, dividing it as evenly as possible between your containers. If you are not using a container with a lid, cover the top tightly with tin foil. Braise for 2 to 2½ hours, or until tender.
   

   My braising liquid ran out about two thirds of the way through the cooking time. Keep an eye on the liquid levels and make sure to keep them up, or your favorite baking pan may get ruined.

 

Maple Bacon BBQ Sauce

1. While the ribs are braising, prepare the sauce. In a medium sauce pan, take the diced bacon (cut up before cooking) and cook it until it is half done. Drain off all of the fat, leaving 3 tbsp. in the saucepan. Add the onion to the cooking bacon. Fry until the onions are tender and beginning to brown.
   
2. Add the ketchup, applesauce, maple syrup, vinegar, soy sauce, mustard powder, brown sugar, salt and pepper. Bring the contents to a boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer for about 15 minutes, and stirring every so often.
   

Notes
I didn’t like the chunks of onion and bacon in my sauce so I used a hand blender to make the sauce smooth.

Also, I did not have applesauce on hand, so I peeled and cored two large apples. Using my blender I puréed them until I had something resembling applesauce.

After cooking the sauce, it was still very tangy. Thankfully I was prepping them ahead of time, for grilling the next day. Leaving the sauce overnight allowed the flavors to mingle. So the pretty good sauce is absolutely amazing the next day.

Grilling

1. Preheat the grill to medium–high.
2. Prep your Tube Smoker with pre-soaked wood chips and get that preheating on the grill. (I did not have the liquid smoke from the original recipe, but happened to have the Napoleon Tube Smoker and some maple chips, and used them to make the smokey flavor.)
3. Remove the ribs from the pan, discarding the braising liquid that is left. Grill the ribs for about 6 or 8 minutes, or until they are starting to char. Baste with the sauce liberally.
   
4. Once they are done, toss with the remaining sauce and serve.
   

This recipe just goes to show you that with a little creativity and determination, you can create something totally amazing. We had 2 racks of ribs between 3 of us. There were barely enough leftovers, and really we could have split what was left and finished the ribs right then and there. These were the best ribs I have ever made, ever.

These ribs were served with a light salad and some veggies and dip. Really the healthy sides that went with this dish were largely forgotten due to the spectacularity of the ribs.

Did I mention they were really really good?