Sweet chili Rubbed Baby Back Ribs with Korean BBQ Sauce
Equipment
- Smoker or grille with soaked wood chips
Ingredients
- 2 Full Racks of Baby Back Ribs
- 1 Cup Brown Sugar
- 2 Tbsp Mustard Powder
- 2 Tbsp Ground Cumin
- 2 Tbsp Ground Coriander
- 2 Tbsp Chili Powder
- 1 Tbsp Chopped Spicy Asian Chilies
- 1 tsp Kosher Salt
- 1 Tbsp Fresh Ground Black or white pepper
- 1/4 Cup Paprika
- For Korean BBQ Sauce:
- 3/4 Cup Soy Sauce
- 1 Cup Brown Sugar
- 1 Oz Chopped Fresh garlic
- 1 Tbsp Chopped Fresh Ginger
- 1/4 Cup Rice Wine Vinegar or Mirin
- 1 Tbsp Sriracha or similar spicy sauce
- 1 Tbsp Toasted Sesame Oil
- 1 Oz Lime Juice
- 1 tsp Fresh Ground Black pepper
- 1 Tbsp Cornstarch
- 1 Tbsp water
Instructions
- Make a sweet dry rub: mix brown sugar and all the spices.
- Rub the ribs generously on both sides. Coat well. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight, to allow the flavors to permeate the the meat
- make the Barbecue sauce. Mix all ingredients except cornstarch and water in a pot. Bring to a boil. Mix the water and cornstarch to create a slurry. Stir in the slurry to thicken the sauce. Set aside until needed.
- Set up your grille with soaked wood chips or a smoker if you have one. Heat to 250 degrees with the cover on. Place the ribs on the grille or in the smoker and cook for 1 hour at 250. Then, turn the temperature down to 200. Cook for another 2 hours at 200. Then, take the ribs out and wrap in foil. Cook for another hour. Check the doneness. They should pull off the bone pretty easily. If not, give a little more time. When finished. Remove from the heat and let them cool down naturally for about an hour before removing from the foil. The foil will hold in moistness. While they are cooling, preheat an oven or covered grille to 400 degrees.
- Brush the ribs with some of the Barbecue sauce. reserve more sauce for service. Place on a sheet pan into the oven or closed grille cook for about 10 to 20 minutes to let the flavor of the BBQ sauce really settle in. Remove from heat. Allow to cool for 15 minutes before cutting and serving.
Notes
The cooking process here is complicated. You want a moderate temperature at first to get a crust. Then, you drop the temperature to cook slowly. Wrapping the ribs helps to really cook in the moistness. And, when you cool it, you want to allow it to slowly get down to temperature or it will dry out a bit.
When you glaze with BBQ sauce, you want to caramelize the sugars, but not burn them. That's why we say 10 to 20 minutes. That's a pretty big time difference. But, depending on how many times you open the oven to check it, it could take longer. The best thing to do is have patience and just let things cook. Every time you open the door, you lose a lot of heat.
You can make these in advance, cool them completely and reheat in a covered pan. They cut better when they are cold too.