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- These baby back ribs are my secret for the best cookout meal. Or actually, they're my mom's secret, as it's her original recipe that I lovingly adopted and have been making for decades, virtually every single summer. Now these are oven-baked ribs that are then finished on the grill or under the broiler. It's up to you depending on if you are outdoors or indoors. Either way, you'll get a beautiful char on the oh-so-delicious spiced rum barbecue sauce that will definitely have you going back for seconds.
These ribs are so tender that they fall right off the bone, and that is why readers have been calling this their favorite barbecue ribs recipe for years on the website. (light upbeat music) I just never had a video for it, but that changes today. So let me walk you through how to make these ribs. To get started, let's make the spiced rum pineapple barbecue sauce, which is a very long name, but it includes one cup of ketchup, 3/4s cup of maple syrup, and a quarter cup of blackstrap molasses. Add those ingredients to a pot over medium heat, stirring them together, and then bring them to a simmer. While that's coming to a simmer on the stove, you can add one cup of crushed pineapple plus any juices from the can to a blender,
along with two cloves of garlic, two tablespoons of spiced rum, one tablespoon of Dijon mustard, one tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, one teaspoon of kosher salt, half a teaspoon of ground black pepper, a 1/4 teaspoon of ground ginger, and 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper. Blend that together until it's nice and smooth, then add it to the simmering sauce and stir it all together for another three to four minutes. Once that's done, you can turn off the heat. (light upbeat music continues)
Now, as I mentioned in the intro, these are ribs that first cook in the oven, so line a baking sheet with enough aluminum foil that you can wrap the ribs up. And I like to double line it just to prevent any leaking. And then once that's done, go ahead and set that baking sheet aside. For the ribs, you'll need two racks of baby back pork ribs. And while it's not mandatory, I like to remove the thin membrane on the underside of the ribs, though you can ask your butcher to do this as well. Use a paper towel to blot the ribs dry, then place them on the foil-lined baking sheet. Take one cup of the barbecue sauce that you just made and stir it together with one cup of water.
This creates a thinner sauce that essentially steams the ribs and infuses all that delicious flavor into the meat. You can stir that together in a large measuring cup or bowl, then pour all over the ribs, making sure they're fully coated. And see? This is why I like to double-line my baking sheet so none of that liquid seeps out. Fold the aluminum foil around the ribs and mine are so wide today that it barely closes, but you don't need to lock them up like Fort Knox, just loosely wrap them and they'll be fine. Then transfer them to a preheated 275-degree Fahrenheit oven and cook them for three hours.
They cook low and slow, which makes the meat incredibly tender. Now since I have a few hours while the ribs cook, I'm gonna whip up my creamy cucumber salad, which is super easy and it's a great pairing with the ribs as it's light and crisp with that refreshing and tangy creaminess. To make this, thinly slice up two English cucumbers, then place them in a colander in the sink. Add one tablespoon of kosher salt, then toss the cucumbers with the salt and let them sit for 20 minutes. This helps to extract some of the moisture from the cucumbers, so you end up with a less watery salad. And while the cucumbers are sitting,
you can slice up the other ingredients for the salad. A lot of people just add red onion to a cucumber salad, though I like a mix of green onions and red onions for flavor and texture. So thinly slice up two green onions and half of a red onion. And for the herb, I love to add two tablespoons of roughly chopped dill. Though you can add other tender herbs if you don't happen to have any dill on hand. The dressing for the salad is equally simple. It's just a mix of half a cup of sour cream, though you could swap in plain Greek yogurt if you'd like.
1/2 tablespoons of white wine vinegar or lemon juice, one minced garlic clove and some ground black pepper to taste, which is usually a few grinds from my pepper grinder. Then give that a stir until it's nice and creamy. Once the 20 minutes is up, rinse the cucumbers so that they don't end up extra salty, then add them to a mixing bowl along with the red onion, green onions, dill, and dressing. Stir that together so that all of the bits and pieces are well-coated, and that's how easy it is to make one of the most popular salads for cookouts, parties, and gatherings in the summer.
(light upbeat music continues) Now with the magic of multitasking, three hours flies by before you know it and your baby back ribs are almost done. Remove them from the oven, open up the foil and carefully transfer them to the clean baking sheet. You'll notice I'm using both tongs and a spatula underneath the ribs, and that's because I am not lying when I say that these babies are extra tender. If you're not careful, they will break apart on you at this stage, do be extra careful
when you're transferring them. Because I'm a one-woman filming and cooking show, it's really hard for me to move all of my video filming gear to an outdoor grill and film myself cooking everything, so I'm gonna finish these in the oven today, but during the summer months, I do more often finish cooking these ribs on the grill. Either way, they're incredibly delicious. So if you don't have access to an outdoor grill, just know that can 100% finish them in the oven as I'm doing today. No matter which method you choose, use the remaining barbecue sauce to really coat them well and just slather them up. If you're finishing them up in the oven, you'll broil them for three to four minutes until the sauce begins to caramelize.
And if you're finishing them up on the grill, just cook them for three to four minutes on each side, brushing any additional sauce as you'd like. They'll come out of the oven or off the grill sizzling with a slight char, and if you have any leftover barbecue sauce, you can slather a bit more on right before serving. You can see as I slice the ribs up just how tender they are. I mean, they really do fall right off the bone. And they're loaded up with a barbecue sauce that's perfectly spiced with a little bit of kick and also perfectly sweet,
which always makes everyone go back for seconds and thirds. I, myself, cannot wait to dig into these today, so I'm going to add some of my creamy cucumber salad to a plate along with several warm ribs so that I can very quickly ski-daddle to my bite shot. I am so excited to dig into these today, and as you could tell, when I was slicing into them, the meat just falls off the bone. Let's just not dribble on myself either. (light upbeat music continues) So tender. (light upbeat music continues) Finger-looking good.
(lips smacking) Your bones should be perfectly clean and the cooking process does much of the work for you because the meat does just fall off the bones so you get these perfectly clean and delicious bones. You make a mess, but I don't think it's eating ribs if you don't have your fingers completely coated in barbecue sauce. Although I will wash my hands really quickly so I can dig into the salad with my fork. (light upbeat music continues) (cucumber crunching) Creamy, refreshing, but it's such a perfect accompaniment to the ribs, and I'm so sad that my mom is not in town right now.
She's gonna be so jealous when she sees this video, and it would've been fun to have her in the kitchen with me since it's her recipe, but just know that this is a tried and true, decades-long tested recipe. Although I will say when I talked to her recently about it right before filming this video, I said, "Are you still making it exactly the same way?" Just in case I needed to make any tweaks. And she's like, "Well, yeah, sometimes I add a little bit of this and a little bit of that." So in typical mom fashion, I think the recipe kind of adapts over time just with what she has on hand,
and I think you should do the same. But this is a great base that is slightly smoky, spicy, sweet from the maple syrup and the pineapple, a little bit of that spiced flavor as well from the rum and the different seasonings and just so delicious. Now, I think I put on the website that each rack serves about three people, but that is being very generous because I can certainly polish off, at least have a rack of ribs myself. But if you do happen to have any leftovers, they will stay good for about three to four days in the fridge or up to three months in the freezer, though I guarantee you probably won't have any left.
I hope you guys enjoyed today's recipe for these baby back ribs, and if you did, make sure to give the video a thumbs up. Let me know in the comments below what you would serve them with. Again, this creamy cucumber salad is just top-notch, but I always love to hear from you guys. And with that, I will see you guys in the next video. (light upbeat music continues)
