BBQ Pork Spare Ribs

I just got poked by Chuck Norris on Facebook.
Now, I have three broken ribs.

Let get serious for a minute...and talk about BBQ Pork Spare Ribs.  I mean.  Delicious.  Fall off the bone, mouth-watering, make you feel like you're barefoot outside and you don't even care that sauce is all over your face delicious. Those kind of ribs.

Being a rib virgin (cooking, not eating), I of course committed the cardinal sin of forgetting about removing the membrane, or back bone skin, but luckily caught it before they went in the oven and was able to get it off before the roasting commenced.  For those, like me, who have never made ribs before:  Get some St. Louis style cut ribs and google how to remove the membrane, or back bone skin.  There are experts all over the place with different ways.  I used the "stick a knife in-between the skin and bones on the ribby side and then pull with all your might" method.  Experiment, find what works for you.

For these ribs, I massaged in a dry rub and let them sit in the fridge for an hour before roasting in the oven.  My leftover dry rub (that never touched the raw meat) was used to build my BBQ sauce.  Get excited.  Here we go on another meaty adventure.

Here's what you need (1 rack can totally feed 4 people if you have sides):
1 rack of St. Louis style pork spare ribs
rack cookie sheet
foil

For the dry rub:
1 cup of light brown sugar
1/2 cup of Hungarian paprika
2 tablespoons of Kosher or coarse salt
1 tablespoon of black pepper
1 tablespoon of chili powder
1 tablespoon of onion powder
1 tablespoon of garlic powder

For the BBQ sauce:
reserve 3/4 cup of dry rub from above
1/2 cup of ketchup
1 tablespoon of tomato paste
1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon of liquid smoke
8 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar

Get the rack out (no, not boobs, the pork spare ribs).  Remove membrane or the thin layer of skin seen here in white covering the ribs.

Make the dry rub, cause who doesn't like to be massaged with spices?  Dump 1 cup of light brown sugar in a bowl.

Add 1/2 cup of Hungarian paprika.

Add 2 tablespoons of Kosher salt.

1 tablespoon of black pepper.

1 tablespoon of chili powder.

Add 1 tablespoon of onion powder.

Add 1 tablespoon of garlic powder.

Fork or whisk together.

Reserve 3/4 cup of dry rub for the BBQ sauce.  Dump some on the ribs.

Rub it in.  Get the sides.  Flip over and get the other side.  Cover the sucker up with the rub.  Then, place in fridge for at least an hour to hang out.

After an hour or so in the fridge with the dry rub on, get ribs out on a foil lined baking sheet.  Preheat your oven to 250 degrees and cook uncovered for 90 minutes.

About 15 minutes before your rib timer hits 90 minutes, make your sauce (or warm yours up if you have your own sauce).  Place: 3/4 cup of reserved dry rub, 1/2 cup of ketchup, 1 tablespoon of tomato paste, 1 teaspoon of liquid smoke, 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, and 8 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar in a small pan on medium low heat and mix together as it warms.  Add anything else to taste.  More vinegar?  Too much spice?  Add more ketchup.  etc.etc.

Take ribs out after 90 minutes.  

Sauce the ribs up with whatever fancy kitchen paint brush you have.

Cover and cook another 90 minutes at 270 degrees.  After the second 90 minutes, take out, let rest for 3 minutes and check the internal temperature.  Ribs need to be at, at least 145 degrees Fahrenheit.  If not there yet, cover them and cook longer checking every 15 minutes of so.  Feel free to place ribs at 400 degrees for the last 5-10 minutes to get them really caramelized (we like um a little darker) If at or over 145 degrees, sauce again and you're ready to plate up. 

Fall of the bones delicious-tastyness explosion.  Oh yeah, there were beans and onion rings there too...but, really, who cares about those?

Steamy.