Sunday, August 29, 2010

Fall off the Bone Baby Back Ribs with Sweet Chili Sauce

There aren’t very many recipes that can boast “2 ingredients” and taste better than fall off the bone baby back ribs smothered in sweet, sticky Thai chili sauce, which by the way, isn’t really all that spicy despite the name.

5-minutes hands-on and two ingredients: ribs and 1/2 cup of the sweet chili sauce. Salt and pepper don’t count, but even if you did count it, it’s still will be the best 4 ingredient-dish you can ever make.

Just a word on the ribs – there are 2 camps of rib-lovers:
a) meat fall off the bone camp
b) I want to gnaw and tear meat off the bone camp

I’m part of the first group, I enjoy tender, juicy, succulent meat that requires very little effort to pry from the bone. If you’re like me, you’ll love this recipe and I bet you’d never order ribs at a restaurant again.

Also, I’ve got a trick for you that will make the ribs even more tender.

How to make baby back ribs fall off the bone

This technique can be used with ANY type of barbeque sauce. If you want, you can also use a dry rub instead of the salt and pepper.

To feed 4 hungry people, start with about 5 pounds of baby back ribs. Actually, you can use the larger St. Louis or country style ribs if you want. Tender baby backs are my thing. The amount of ribs really doesn’t matter – throw in another rack if you’ve got more people.

Turn the rib over to the underside — see that layer of white membrane covering the ribs? You’ll want to remove that – it’s tough and stringy.

Take a butter knife, wedge it just underneath the membrane to loosen.

Pull the membrane up and off the bone.

Once you’ve got a section off, use your fingers to remove the rest – just peel it off.

See how thick and tough that membrane is? Removing this will make your ribs infinitely better. Sometimes this membrane is really thick (like mine) and sometimes it’s really thin and a little more difficult to remove. Try to get as much as you can.

Place all the ribs in a roasting pan, it doesn’t matter if they overlap. Season with salt on both sides.

Pepper on both sides.

If they overlap, I like to layer them like this.

Cover with double-thickness of tin foil. Bake at 275F for 4 hours or so.

After 4-ish hours, they’ll look like this:

Use a spatula to move them to a baking sheet.

Here’s sweet chili sauce. Mae Ploy is my favorite brand. Really, you can use any type of barbeque sauce, thick teriyaki sauce that you want. No need to stick to sweet chili sauce (but please, try it just once!)

Brush on the sweet chili sauce all over the ribs.

Be generous! Brush on a lot.

Now move your oven rack to the top 1/3 of the oven and broil for 5 minutes. Keep a good watch on ‘em! Don’t let them burn.

And that’s it! Baby Back Ribs with Sweet Chili Sauce.

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Baby Back Ribs Fall off the Bone Recipe

Servings: 4-6 Prep Time: 5 Cook Time: 4 hours
baby-back-ribs-sweet-chili-sauce-4025.jpg

You can use the larger St. Louis or country style ribs. If you'd like to use a dry rub, just it in place of salt and pepper. My kids love barbeque sauce, and I'll use this same technique and slather on bbq sauce instead of the sweet chili sauce.

Ingredients:

5 pounds baby back ribs
salt & pepper
1/2 cup Thai sweet chili sauce

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 275F. On the underside of the rib, remove the thin membrane and discard. Season both sides with salt and pepper.

2. Place the ribs in a roasting pan, cover with double thickness of tin foil.

3. Roast for 4 hours or so. Discard foil. Use a wide, flat spatula to carefully lift the ribs onto a baking sheet. Spread the sweet chili sauce generously over the ribs.

4. Place oven rack near the top of the oven. Turn broiler on and broil the ribs for 3-5 minutes, or until the sweet chili sauce begins to caramelize. Make sure you don't burn the sauce, so keep a close eye on the ribs.

132 Responses to “Fall off the Bone Baby Back Ribs with Sweet Chili Sauce”

  1. wenders — 7/4/11 @ 11:28 pm

    This is an awesome recipe! I actually planned ahead this time and did as your recipe stated – to slow roast for the whole 4 hours. It was falling off the bones as I tried to baste it with sauce! Because my hubby wanted to grill, I had him grill part II instead of sticking it back in the oven with the sauce. We had the sweet chili sauce and bbq sauce on the side and just basted it with honey, because one of my kiddos is allergic to the sweet chili sauce (garlic) and the bbq sauce (food starch/corn). Next time I may slow cook for just 3.5 hours instead so that the meat doesn’t fall off the bone and into the coals! We love that the meat was fall of the bone! Easier to eat, nothing stuck between teeth, and I even took that thick membrane layer off too. Awesome, awesome. Thank you and happy 4th of July!

  2. Cat — 7/5/11 @ 9:06 am

    I am never a big fan of blogs .. I usually go straight to what I am looking for (recipes)and I am out.. I really enjoy your great recipes and your down to earth style.. I will be using your site more often … love it.. your inspiring… thank you…
    Mamma Cat

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  4. joe — 9/29/11 @ 4:39 pm

    Great blog! I am using two racks that equal 3-3.5lbs. Should I use a shorter cooking time period? Like 2.5 – 3.5 hours? Thanks

    • SteamyKitchen replied: — September 29th, 2011 @ 5:50 pm

      Quantity really doesn’t matter for cooking time for ribs.

  5. Teresa — 1/8/12 @ 9:47 pm

    I wanted to thank you for this wonderful recipe and instructions. I made these tonight for dinner, and I felt like a real cook!! They turned out amazing, the flavour was wonderful, and so, so tender. Very well received by my family! I will definitely be trying more of your recipes. Thanks again!!

    • SteamyKitchen replied: — January 10th, 2012 @ 9:35 am

      You’re so very welcome!

  6. Terese Tye — 1/19/12 @ 1:13 pm

    we love your website and your cookbook!!
    I made this exactly as instructed last night for dinner and my husband said – wow dinner is so exciting at our house now, all day long I cant wait to find out what is for dinner. He is Chinese and I am Caucasian – it was a huge compliment that your cookbook and recipes would have him say that!!!!

    thank you!

  7. John — 1/23/12 @ 3:58 am

    Made this for my family last night and they loved it, I used Famous Dave Sweet and Spicy sauce. Best rims I ever made, we usually tried to make them on the grill and they alway turned out tough. Thanks

  8. Chris — 2/2/12 @ 5:34 pm

    What an amazing cooking technique!! I had almost given up on cooking ribs altogether since I could never get them to fall off the bones, but then I ran into this recipe.

    If you want a little char on your ribs, bake them between 2 1/2 to 3 hours. I followed the exact baking technique for this recipe and when I tried to grill my ribs, they nearly fell off the bones and got stuck on the rack. Baking them to 4 hrs makes them soft and juicy enough to incorporate into a pulled pork sandwich.

  9. Motsconica — 2/16/12 @ 1:00 pm

    Does it matter what side should be facing up?

  10. Jo — 3/8/12 @ 11:45 pm

    GREAT. I used Sweet Baby Ray’s Sauce – Couldn’t get any better.
    Thank you VERY MUCH. Some times, we like to chew on the bones with some meat. Would you just not remove the membrane or does that not work well?

  11. Liz — 5/13/12 @ 2:38 pm

    I have made these 3 times now – twice with Soy Vay’s very, very teriyaki and today with my own homemade BBQ sauce. 3 out of 3 successes and for me as a single person, cooking mostly for just me – it is so easy to cut a rack and make just enough for 2-4 meals. Far easier than doing a lot of pulled pork – even though I can freeze it. Bottomline, LOVE this method – thank you!

  12. Christopher Austin — 6/2/12 @ 1:40 pm

    Made these today. One of the tastiest tenderest things I have ever eaten. Might as well make twice as much next weekend.

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  14. dave — 6/19/12 @ 8:35 pm

    How do you cut the ribs and make such an awesome presentation without the meat falling off?

  15. Jay — 7/4/12 @ 5:25 pm

    thanks, I never leave comments, but this helped me out so much and the ribs tasted great.

  16. Alice Olson — 7/24/12 @ 6:56 pm

    I’ve made these several times and we love them. For the first time, I’m doing them for a dinner party and I’d love your advice about side dishes. With barbecue sauce, choosing accompaniments is easy. But with the sweet chile sauce, I”m thinking I need a little help.

    Thanks.

  17. FDG — 8/11/12 @ 2:22 pm

    Love this recipe! I’ve made it several times, but always struggled with that membrane. No more! Today I got out my citrus peeler, you know those cheap plastic things with a hook on one end and a flat handle on the other? That handle slides right under that membrane without a problem, lifts the entire section uo and you can grab it and peel it off the whole slab at once! Try it!

  18. Tito Tuason — 9/22/12 @ 11:25 pm

    hi, just want to know where i can buy Mae ploy Sweet chili sauce? also, after 4 hrs in the oven, can i keep it in the freezer or ref and cook it on a later date? how long can i keep it? thanks

  19. SteamyKitchen — 9/23/12 @ 9:21 am

    You can get sweet chili sauce at most supermarkets in the Asian section. Mae Ploy is just a brand that I prefer. Otherwise any Asian market should have it.

    If you cant find, substitute with sweet plum sauce (also called duck sauce) mixed with a tablespoon of Asian chili sauce.

    Yes, after 4 hrs, you can wrap in tin foil and freeze for however long you want. When ready to cook, I unwrap still frozen (no need to defrost), place in pan and bake 400f for 15 minutes or so until hot. Then proceed to slather sauce and broil.

  20. walkerp — 9/30/12 @ 7:14 pm

    This recipe worked as you said. Delicious. Thanks!

  21. John Schmelig — 11/3/12 @ 4:06 pm

    Tried this last weekend for a family Sunday BBQ and they were a huge hit! I dry rubbed the ribs with John Henry’s East Texas Mojave garlic pepper seasoning, and cooked them outdoors in a gas grill at the lowest temp I could manage, which was about 300 degrees for 2 1/2 hours. I decided not to go longer because everyone was getting anxious from the delicious aroma wafting in the air, and they just looked ready. I slathered generously with Mae Ploy (since you asked so nicely to “please, try it just once!”), then removed the racks from the pan and cooked them over low flame just enough to carmelize on both sides. Yes, you need to be careful at this stage because they do flare up easily. Despite the shortened slow cooking time, the meat still did fall off the bone reasonably enough – no gnawing required – and I have to say they were probably the best ribs I’ve ever made. Since I still have another half bottle of Mae Ploy left over, I will absolutely do this again. Next time, using the indirect heat method on my Weber charcoal grill with soaked hickory wood chips. Thanks for the recipe! Glad I stumbled across your site.

  22. lisa barrett — 11/4/12 @ 5:43 pm

    I was able to find the Mae Ploy at Walmart in the Chinese section and tried this recipe. The hot/sweetness of the sweet chilli sauce was a great complement to the meaty taste of the ribs. To add a little extra sweetness to the chilli sauce I added a couple of teaspoons of Lyle’s golden syrup to the sauce in a saucepan and then brought the sauce and the syrup up to near boiling and then removed from the heat. This is only for people who like the chilli sauce sweeter.

    The cooking method shown here cannot be beat – I always try to keep the tinfoil as tight as I can on top of the Pyrex dish I use – too hold in the moisture.

    Really good ribs can be cooked with this recipe with or without the BBQ or Sweet chilli sauce – just use whatever you want on those slow cooked ribs and you cannot go wrong.

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  24. JR Nolds — 1/22/13 @ 12:51 pm

    I have cooked many rib dishes over the years. This was the simplest and MOST DELICIOUS of all. Everyone at my party raved about the tenderness and flavor of the ribs and wanted the recipe. Thanks for sharing it……now I have passed it around :0)

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