Very Best Baby Back Spare Ribs Recipe…Ever!!!

So my family says, anyway, and that’s all that counts.

My husband said of the ribs:  “Honey, those are the best ribs I think I’ve EVER had anywhere.  You could open your own restaurant with that…if you weren’t so skinny”. 

Give me a few more weeks with this home-made bread kick and it will be the last time I hear that one!  I prefer “slender”, or “lean” to either “skinny” or “boney”, but I can’t complain.  I’ll take a compliment like that any day. 

Now I know how mom’s eat up this cooking thing over the years.  Nothing says lovin’ like somethin’ from the oven!   Apparently.  This place was kickin’ last night.  Local Kroger, on sale…go buy you some of these scrumptous ribs. 

Everyone from 6 yrs to well, 40 something cleaned up!  Every single plate.  Not one rib of the two baby back racks were left!  Of course, Daisy Dog was in Doggie heaven, running to the door every time we moved!  The vet tells me not to give her bones.  Oops.

Everyone wants them again.  Boy Wonder wants them for his birthday! 

Then, the dread words:  Hubby says, “I sure hope you can duplicate that again!” 

Oh.  I put about three or four ideas together.  I suppose I should try to write that down with it fresh in memory! 

Here goes:

I wanted a lot of flavor, to be able to gnaw it off the bone.  Baby backs don’t really have a lot of “meat” to fall off the bone for the great sounding crock pot versions you all suggested.  So, I decided to follow a couple award winning recipes on the net to pack in lots of flavor by adding a simple marinade.  I cooked them whole, in a pan.  My MIL says she cooks them that way, and if it’s good enough for her, well, worth trying ehre.   I’ll try some of the other methods in the future when I have some “country style” meatier ribs available!  But, for today:

“Maggie’s Best Ribs Ever”

Place a cake pan of water in the oven in the middle rack.  Let it sit at 220. 

Meanwhile, clean the ribs, and coat pan with tin foil…spray both pan and ribs with cooking spray. 

Coat ribs in following marinade:

2Tablespoons sugar,

2 Tablespoon paprika,

1 tsp. salt,

1 tsp. celery salt

1 tsp. garlic powder

Sprinkle generously on both sides.  (you can soak them overnight in this…didn’t seem necessary with fresh ribs).

Let ribs rest for 10-15 minutes.

Place ribs on coated cookie sheet on TOP rack of  220 degree oven for 2 1/2 hours, water still below.  Do not cover.

Then, pull out ribs, bump temp up to 350 degrees, slather in BBQ sauce.  (I use KC Masterpeice as our BBQ of choice.  There seems no substitute for us).  Cover loosely with FOIL this time (I’ve found things overbrown quickly with BBQ sauce otherwise).

Return to oven.  Bake 20 minutes.  Check ribs for doneness.  Add sauce if you like, I found it unnecessary, flip if you like (I didn’t see the need), but if they are browning too quickly or sticking, you might flip.  I added about 1 cup of water to the pan to ensure moisture.  Cook 20 minutes more, wrapping a bit more tightly.

Remove from oven (they can sit there with the oven off, but I didn’t want to risk drying out).  NOW, wrap tightly in the foil.   Let sit to steam, and cool a bit.

Finish dinner while they set, steam, and cool a bit. 

We had fresh oatmeal bread (not as ”different” I’d hoped, but not bad), steamed carrots, baby green peas, baked potatoes, and salads with fresh cucumbers, fresh shredded cheese (using my handy dandy Pampered Chef cheese turn-style grader) and fresh from the garden cherry tomatoes.  Mmmmm!

Delish!

Thank you, Lord, for making our dinner especially special tonight!