BBQ Beef Back Ribs

I never tried cooking barbecue beef back ribs before. I barbecue mostly pork baby back ribs and chicken.  We were invited to a small get together and the hosts’ put together a beautiful spread that included BBQ Beef Back Ribs.  The beef ribs looked really good, but I thought they’ll be messy to eat, because they are longer ribs than the pork ribs and of course they were smothered with barbeque sauce as well.  But what the heck, eating barbeque should be messy; the thick barbeque sauce should be all over your face and your hands, and even licking your fingers with all that barbeque sauce goodness. So I got myself some and I really enjoyed them.

So I gave it a try this week, because the weather has been misty and was raining on and off (I know, I know most of you are shaking your heads and asking “why barbecue with this weather?”)  Because my plan was to simmer the ribs in water with some aromatics and lay the ribs in a baking dish and brush them with barbecue sauce. So that’s one good excuse not to be outside in the rainy weather and fire up the grill. And the other excuse was to try Ina Garten’s orange barbecue sauce recipe. 

I hope you will give this recipe a try. You can also use your own barbecue sauce recipe if you prefer.

Serves 4

For the Ribs:

6 pounds Beef Back Ribs (about 12 ribs)

2 medium yellow onions cut in half

1 whole garlic cut in half

3 sticks celery quartered

1 carrot quartered

3 bay leaves

1 tablespoon whole black peppercorn

In a large pot, put all the above ingredients and fill with water, make sure that the meat is fully covered with water. In high heat, let it boil, then lower the heat and let it simmer for about 2 hours or until the meat are almost falling off from the bones.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Drain and lay the ribs on a baking dish. Brush the barbecue sauce all over the ribs, and place them in the oven. Brush the ribs with the barbeque sauce after 15 minutes and repeat the process and cook ribs for another 15 minutes.

For the Barbecue Sauce:

¼ cup vegetable oil

1 small red onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 teaspoons chili powder

1 teaspoon ground cumin

½ teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 teaspoon lime zest

1 tablespoon finely grated ginger

1/3 cup cider vinegar

½ cup tomato paste

½ cup honey

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1/3 cup soy sauce

¼ cup fresh orange juice

Heat the vegetable oil in a large saucepan over medium-low heat and sauté the onions and garlic for 5 to 7 minutes, until the onions are translucent but not browned. Add the chili powder, ground cumin and red pepper flakes and continue cooking for 1 minute. Add the zest and ginger and cook for an additional minute. Add the vinegar, tomato paste, honey, mustard, soy sauce and orange juice and simmer uncovered on low heat for 15 minutes, until thick.