Ribs In the Oven Recipe | Ribs in the Oven | Eat the Love (2024)

Ribs in the Oven Recipe

By Irvin Lin

Don’t be scared of the long list of ingredients. The ribs comes together faster than you think with most of cook time as “walk away” time as the ribs roast in the oven. Most of the ingredients you should have in your household and the few “exotic” ingredients you might not have (fish sauce and roasted Thai chili paste) can be found at an Asian grocery store or a well stocked upscale grocery store. If you can’t find fish sauce, just use 2 more tablespoons of soy sauce and omit the salt. If you can’t find the Thai chili paste, use whatever hot sauce you have around or just use 1 tablespoon of red chili flakes. I’ve made these ribs so many times that it’s rather ridiculous that I haven’t blogged about them. It’s my go-to ribs recipe. Considering how much AJ likes ribs, I make ribs fairly often too. Probably too often now that I think of it. But no one’s complaining about it in this household.

Adapted from David Lebovitz recipe in My Paris Kitchen

Ingredients
3/4 cup (150 g) granulated white sugar
1/4 cup (55 g) coconut palm sugar (or packed dark brown sugar)
3/4 cup (180 mL) beer (any type)
1/4 cup (60 mL) American whiskey
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
10 tablespoons (6 ounces or 170 g) tomato paste
1 inch piece ginger, peeled and minced
3 large cloves minced or pressed garlic
2 tablespoon dark soy sauce
2 tablespoon fish sauce (see headnote above)
1 tablespoon Naam Phrik Phao, roasted thai chili paste (recipe here, or another hot sauce, see headnote above)
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
5 pounds (2 1/4 Kg) St. Louis style pork ribs, cut into 3 or 4 rib sections

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Place the white sugar in a large heavy oven safe Dutch oven, preferably cast iron. Turn the heat to medium high and cook the sugar, stirring occasionally with a heat proof spatula or wooden spoon, until the sugar starts to darken and caramelize. Turn the heat off and let the residual heat caramelize the sugar until it darkens to a deep brown, the color of an old penny. Turn the heat off.

2. Sprinkle the coconut palm sugar or dark brown sugar over the caramel and stir carefully as it bubbles up. Slowly drizzle a little bit of the beer over the caramel (it will bubble and steam up) and stir in. Continue to drizzle the beer in small amounts, stirring to incorporate. Add the whiskey in the same manner. Add the balsamic vinegar and stir to incorporate.

3. Add the tomato paste, minced ginger, garlic, soy sauce, fish sauce, Naam Phrik Phao, paprika, pepper, salt, cumin and coriander to the pot. Turn back on and stir to mix in. Don’t worry if there are some hardened caramel chunks. Continue to cook until the barbecue sauce is mostly smooth (if there are still some chunks of caramel, that’s ok). Add the pork ribs, turning them in the sauce to coat. Cover the pot and place in the oven.

4. Roast the ribs in the oven 1 1/2 to 2 hours, turning the ribs every half hour or so, until the rib meat is soft and tender. Remove the lid from the pot and roast for an additional 30 minutes after that, until the sauce has thickened and the top of the ribs have charred a bit. Serve with the barbecue sauce on the side.

Serve 4 to 6 people.