Oven-Roasted Baby Back Ribs with Pumpkin Barbeque Sauce

Some of our good friends just had their first baby. Hooray! So, for one of my meal-train offerings, I decided to bring them some baby back ribs. They can heat them up on their schedule and slather them with as much, or as little, of the sauce as they want.

Here's what he posted after the dinner. I guess they liked them. Double hooray!

photo courtesy Kevin B.

1 rack of pork baby back ribs

Dry Rub:

1 C organic coconut sugar 

3 T pimentón (smoked Spanish paprika)

1 t ground cumin

1/2 t paprika
1/2 t instant espresso powder

dash of ground coriander

dash of ground cardamom

freshly ground sea salt

freshly ground pepper

Pumpkin Barbeque Sauce (click for recipe)

Procedure:

The night before, or first thing in the morning, prepare the rub. Combine all ingredients, and mix thoroughly until well blended. Remove the ribs from their packaging.  Rinse and pat them dry. With your hands, pat the rub onto both sides of the ribs, going heavier on the meaty side. Refrigerate for as many hours as you can; I ended up leaving them for just over 24 hours.

Right before you want to cook them, preheat the oven to 225 degrees. While the oven heats, take the ribs out of the refrigerator to warm up slightly.

To roast, wrap the ribs in aluminum foil and place them - meat side up - on a sheet pan and put them in the preheated oven.  Set the timer for 3 hours.

Reduce the heat to 180 degrees. Cook for another 3 hours. The longer you cook them, the more tender they will be. 

Gently unwrap the ribs and paint them with a thin coat of barbeque sauce. Return them to the oven - 400 degrees - for 10 minutes or so. The sauce will begin to char.

Remove the ribs from the oven, place them on a cutting board, and chop them into individual servings (the meat should almost be falling off the bone at this point, so this will be easy).  Serve with more barbecue sauce and loads of napkins because eating ribs is a messy endeavor. Enjoy!