bbq ribs

A couple of months ago, I went to my friend Christine’s baby shower. The food theme was “babyQ”, so they had baby back ribs and baby-sized burgers. And I contributed some baby-sized ‘hostess’ cupcakes.

Sitting on the back patio, I watched as her brother pulled rack after rack of saucy ribs off of the grill and my mind went blank. All I could think was “Mmm…ribs” which can be loosely translated as “Holy mother of all things delicious, I gotta eat those now!”

After the shower, I asked Christine to share the recipe for the ribs because they were some of the best I’ve eaten. Not only did she share it with me, she graciously gave me permission to share it with you all saying: “these ribs should be shared!”

So here you go: Ribs a la Christine. Easy and does not require a smoker or a grill. Perfect for a party or just cause you’re in the mood for bbq love.

Let’s make some ribs!

Start with a rack or 2 of ribs. (These are baby back pork ribs). Also, preheat your oven to 250 degrees.

You can use any kind of rub or seasoning you want. Christine said they used Bone Suckin’ Sauce Rib Rub for the baby shower ribs. I had some Rub with Love Smoky Barbecue Rub in the cupboard so that’s what I used. But any rub will do.

After you’ve rubbed down both sides of your rack, do a few zig zags of yellow mustard (yep, the stuff you put on hot dogs).

Smear the mustard so it’s evenly distributed. Do this on both sides of the ribs.

Put your ribs onto a baking sheet with a rim and fill it with about 1/2 inch with water, apple cider or beer. I used water here.

A word of caution: don’t put too much liquid in the pan. You will need to be able to move this pan around and carry it to the counter or whatever when it is hot. Too much liquid = more likely to slosh and spill hot liquid on you. So be careful.

Cover your pan with foil and put it into your 250 degree oven for 1 hour. Carefully remove pan from the oven, peel back the foil, and flip the racks over. Re-cover with the foil and put it back into the oven for another hour.

Seriously, be careful. I spilled hot water all over the floor but was lucky to miss my toes.

After the ribs have cooked for 2 hours, drain the liquid from the pan. Turn the oven up to 400 degrees. Slather the ribs with any kind of bbq sauce you like. Bake for 30 minutes or until the sauce is thick and glazed.
* Or you can finish them with the sauce on the grill. Either way, so good!

Mmm… ribs.