Sweet-and-Sour Baby Back Ribs
By Matthew FairmanPublished on December 14, 2018
Time
3 to 3½ hours
Yield
Serves 4 to 6
Ingredients
Sauce
1 cup orange juice ½ cup sugar ⅓ cup cider vinegar 2 tablespoons ketchup 2 tablespoons soy sauce 1½ tablespoons cornstarch 1 tablespoon fish sauce 2 tablespoons vegetable oil 2 jalapeño chiles, stemmed and sliced into thin rings2 garlic cloves, minced1 teaspoon minced fresh gingerRibs
2 (2-pound) racks baby back ribs, trimmed1 tablespoon kosher salt 1 teaspoon pepper 4 scallions, sliced thin on biasBefore You Begin
For a slightly spicier sauce, we leave the seeds in the jalapeños when slicing them into rings. If you’re averse to spice, remove the seeds before slicing.
Instructions
- Whisk orange juice, sugar, vinegar, ketchup, soy sauce, cornstarch, and fish sauce together in bowl. Heat oil in medium saucepan over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add jalapeños, garlic, and ginger and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in orange juice mixture and bring to boil. Cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened, about 3 minutes. Transfer ½ cup sauce to bowl, leaving jalapeños behind, and set aside.
- Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Line rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil and set wire rack in sheet. Sprinkle ribs all over with salt and pepper. Place ribs on prepared wire rack and brush all over with reserved ½ cup sauce. Arrange ribs meat side up. Roast until tender (fork inserted into meat will meet no resistance) and middle of rib rack registers at least 205 degrees, 2 to 2½ hours.
- Brush tops of ribs with ¼ cup remaining sauce. Return ribs to oven and roast until sauce sets, about 10 minutes. Let ribs cool for 5 minutes. Reheat remaining sauce over medium heat until hot, about 4 minutes. Cut ribs between bones. Toss ribs, half of scallions, and remaining sauce together in large bowl. Transfer to serving platter and sprinkle with remaining scallions. Serve.
for the sauce
for the ribs
Time
3 to 3½ hoursYield
Serves 4 to 6Ingredients
Sauce
Ribs
Ingredients
Sauce
Ribs
Ingredients
Sauce
Ribs
Why This Recipe Works
For an indoor take on this crowd favorite that we could make in any season, we wanted something different from the classic Southern barbecued ribs. Enter these sticky, glossy, tropical sweet-and-sour baby back ribs. Since they cook quickly and pack loads of pork flavor, baby back ribs fit the bill perfectly here. For a dead-simple cooking method that would result in tender, juicy ribs with a beautiful burnished color, we found that roasting them for about 2 hours in a 325-degree oven was just right. As for the sticky, sweet-and-savory sauce, we added fresh garlic, ginger, and jalapeños to a base of orange juice, sugar, and cider vinegar and finished up with a bit of ketchup, soy sauce, and, surprisingly, fish sauce. These last three ingredients gave us intense savory complexity to balance the sweet-and-sour base. Applying the sticky sauce three times—brushing it on once at the outset and again before the last 10 minutes of roasting and then tossing the cut ribs in the remaining sauce before serving—made these ribs beautifully irresistible.
Before You Begin
For a slightly spicier sauce, we leave the seeds in the jalapeños when slicing them into rings. If you’re averse to spice, remove the seeds before slicing.
Instructions
- Whisk orange juice, sugar, vinegar, ketchup, soy sauce, cornstarch, and fish sauce together in bowl. Heat oil in medium saucepan over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add jalapeños, garlic, and ginger and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in orange juice mixture and bring to boil. Cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened, about 3 minutes. Transfer ½ cup sauce to bowl, leaving jalapeños behind, and set aside.
- Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Line rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil and set wire rack in sheet. Sprinkle ribs all over with salt and pepper. Place ribs on prepared wire rack and brush all over with reserved ½ cup sauce. Arrange ribs meat side up. Roast until tender (fork inserted into meat will meet no resistance) and middle of rib rack registers at least 205 degrees, 2 to 2½ hours.
- Brush tops of ribs with ¼ cup remaining sauce. Return ribs to oven and roast until sauce sets, about 10 minutes. Let ribs cool for 5 minutes. Reheat remaining sauce over medium heat until hot, about 4 minutes. Cut ribs between bones. Toss ribs, half of scallions, and remaining sauce together in large bowl. Transfer to serving platter and sprinkle with remaining scallions. Serve.
for the sauce
for the ribs
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