Roasted BBQ ribs

I love roasts, especially this cold and cloudy weather make any roast dish that much more tasty. Plus, roasts always use little to no oil and is pretty much self-maintenance, so on days that I don’t feel like constantly watching a pot on the stovetop, I would always turn on the oven and roast something along the line of chicken wings, pork belly, etc.

One of the roasts that both Matthias and me really love is BBQ ribs. Usually roasted ribs takes a lot more time to make compared to the other roasts since beside the whooping 80-90 minutes cooking in the oven, you have to marinate the ribs for at least 12-18 hours for the flavours to soak in. However for someone who is absent-minded and is usually prompted by sudden cravings like me, I don’t always remember or crave at the right moment to defrost the ribs from the freezer and marinate it. That is why I had to look for a method to reduce the marinating time but still allow the ribs to be flavourful.

After reading a bunch of tips and recipes online, I chose to combine cutting the ribs into individual pieces (instead of roasting the whole rack), and start the ribs with a short dry rub marinate and then roast the whole thing in diluted BBQ sauce, hoping that the individual ribs and the diluted sauce will allow the flavours to cling more onto the ribs. The results did not disappoint me at all! The ribs were so flavourful and tender, with the thick and sticky sauce evenly coats every pieces. You can use store-bought BBQ for this recipe, but personally I prefer the homemade sauce since I find that it has a bit more depth to the flavours.

Công thức tiếng Việt: Sườn nướng sốt BBQ

A. BBQ sauce

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

* Ingredients

1 tablespoon oil
1 small onion (peeled, finely minced)
100g brown sugar
50g castor sugar
200gr ketchup
3 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon chili powder
100ml orange juice
100ml apple juice
150ml water
4 tablespoon vinegar
A pinch of salt

The amount of each ingredient can be changed based on your own taste, and also base on the sweetness of the orange and apple juice. I personally like the sauce to be a bit on the sour side since I find that it make the ribs more flavourful. This recipe make quite a lot of sauce so you can use it as a dipping sauce or for other dishes.

* Directions

1. Heat the oil in a saucepan on high heat, add minced onion and sauté until it’s tender and translucent. Add the other ingredients and stir well, simmer on medium high heat for 15-20 minutes until the sauce thickens.

2. Let the sauce cools down completely and pour into an air tight container. BBQ sauce can be stored in the fridge for 8-10 days.

B. Roasted BBQ ribs

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 90 – 100 minutes

Servings: 2 people

* Ingredients

500g ribs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
½ teaspoon herbs de Provence
¼ teaspoon chili powder
100ml BBQ sauce
50ml water

You can skip herbs de Provence or substitute with other herbs you like.

* Directions

1. Wash the ribs, pat dry and cut into individual pieces. Mix the salt, sugar, herbs de Provence and chili powder, rub the mixture on the ribs and let marinate for 30 minutes. Dilute the BBQ sauce with water.

2. Preheat the oven to 180°C (10 minutes before roasting). After the marinating time, arrange the ribs in a baking dish so that the ribs fit snuggly in one layer (do not overlap the ribs). Pour the diluted sauce into the dish, cover the whole thing with aluminium foil, poke some holes so the steam can escape while roasting.

3. When the oven is hot enough, put the baking dish in the middle rack and roast for 90 minutes. After 80-90 minutes you can take the ribs out and use a fork to test the tenderness of the ribs, if the ribs are tender enough and the meat falls off the bone, turn the heat up to 240°C and change to top heat, remove the aluminium foil, turn the ribs so that the meaty part is on top and brush some of the sauce from the baking dish onto the meat. Return the baking dish to the oven, roast for an additional 10-15 minutes until the ribs have some scorched marks.

4. After this 15 minutes the sauce will reduce and thickens, I love having a lot of sauce so this consistency is to my liking, but if you like the sauce to be more thick then you can remove the ribs and let the dish stays in the oven for an additional 10 minutes, pour the hot sauce on top of the ribs when serving.