Summer BBQ ribs and one of the kids favorite culinary treats. I’ve made many recipes, including: 4-hour Texas BBQ Ribs, 5-hour Memphis BBQ Spareribs, and these 6-hour Kansas City Ribs. For many years I’ve been listening to Chris Kimball say that ribs need all afternoon to cook “low and slow”; collagen taking has been telling me how. So when I read in the current issue of Cook’s Illustrated promised delicious ribs in about an hour, I was skeptical. First, the recipe uses baby back ribs, which are leaner and don’t require as much cooking time. But the main secret of this recipe is to par-boil the ribs on salted water for 25 minutes. Afterwards, the ribs just need 20 minutes on the grill to give them a nice char. They are delicious, but not fall-off-the-bone-tender. 4-stars for a weekday meal is pretty strong.
Rating: 4-stars.
Cost: $14.00
How much work? Low/Medium.
How big of a mess? Low.
Start time: 5:00. Dinner time: 6:15
Chris Kimball’s original rib recipe is here, and the lime-glaze recipe is here. The descriptions of how I prepared them today are given below:
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons salt
2-1/2 quarts of water
1 racks baby back or loin back ribs
Lime Glaze Ingredients:
1/3 cup lime juice (3 limes)
3 tablespoons ketchup
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
- Remove the membrane from the rib-side of the rack. Cut the rack in half so that it will fit in your dutch oven.
- Add 2-1/2 quarts water to a Dutch oven, then stir in 2 tablespoons table salt until it is dissolved. Put ribs in Dutch oven ensuring that they are complete submerged.
- Turn on burner to high and bring up to simmer. While the water comes up to a simmer, open the bottom vent of your grill halfway, and light a chimney starter filled with 6 quarts of charcoal.
- Reduce burner to low. Cover the Dutch oven and allow to cook at bare simmer for 20 to 25 minutes. The thickest part of ribs should read 195-degrees with an instant read thermometer. (If the ribs come up to temperature before the grill is ready, then you can leave them uncovered in pot)
- While ribs are simmering, whisk together all the graze ingredients in a small bowl. Also, once the coals are ready, empty evenly over the entire grill. Clean the grill grate.
- Fish the ribs out of the water and use paper towels to dry the ribs. Use 1/3 cup of glaze to brush both sides of ribs.
- Put ribs on grill and cook, uncovered, for about 20 minutes; after 10 minutes brush with another 1/3-cup of graze. The ribs are ready when graze has caramelized and the ribs have a light charred.
- Remove the ribs from the grill, brush them with the remaining glaze, tent them with aluminum foil and allow to rest for 10 minutes, before cutting into separate ribs.