oven-barbecued ribs
If you enjoy BBQ cooking, but the weather won’t allow you to cook outdoors, you can always use your indoor oven. Spareribs, baby back ribs, country-style ribs, pork chops, and chicken are great when prepared with oven barbecue recipes. Since baby back ribs are among my all-time favorite dishes, I’ve cooked them in the oven from time to time. Although I much prefer grilled or smoked ribs, oven barbecued ribs will certainly do when you can’t use your grill or meat smoker.
The main flavor aspect most people like about grilling and smoking is the smoke itself. How do you get this indoors? You can get smoke flavoring with oven barbecued ribs by using a product called Liquid Smoke. If you’re not familiar with this ingredient, it’s a bottled liquid that looks much like soy sauce or Worcestershire sauce, and it literally tastes just like smoke. I’m not sure how they liquefy and capture smoke – I’m just glad someone thought of it and was able to figure out a way to do it!
For tender, flavorful oven-barbecued ribs, you’ll need to prepare the ribs properly first. Trim away any dangling bits of fat, and remove the tough skin from the back of the ribs. You can simply peel this covering off by starting at a corner with the point of a knife. Some stores and meat markets remove the skin before placing the ribs for sale, so you might not have to do the task yourself.
Next, rinse the baby back ribs or spareribs and blot them dry with paper towels. Rub the ribs with a light coat of olive oil and vinegar, along with sugar, brown sugar, black pepper, and/or salt, along with other dried herbs and spices.
Arrange the racks of ribs in a shallow baking pan and cover tightly with foil. Bake at 350 degrees for an hour.
Remove the pan from the oven, pour off any liquid, and baste the ribs with your favorite barbecue sauce. Return to the oven and bake uncovered for another 30 minutes, or until meat begins to pull away from the bone. When the ribs are done, I like to broil them for just a minute or two to slightly char the sauce.
