Country Style Ribs

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Great ribs are a thing of beauty and are surprisingly hard to get right. However, instead of journeying wherever to find good ribs, why not learn how to make some really great country style ribs at home?

Make sure to make your very own Sweet & Smoky Dry Rub for Ribs for this recipe. Or learn How To Make Amazing BBQ Ribs instead?

Country Style Ribs

Country style ribs need to have two things to be really good: they need to have a lightly crispy, almost caramelized crust on the exterior and an interior that falls apart the moment you bite into it.

While the former can be achieved with some good lacquering, getting your ribs to the perfect texture and doneness without overcooking them is a real challenge.

This guide should ensure you end up with some amazing, Southern restaurant quality ribs; your guests will probably think you ordered them in rather than made them yourself!                           

Country Style Ribs Ingredients

Make sure you look at the recipe card at the very bottom for the exact amounts so that you know exactly what to buy for this recipe.

• Country style pork ribs (pork rib chops taken from the front end of the loin near the shoulder, with or without the bone

• Sweet & Smoky Dry Rub for Ribs

• Barbecue sauce (whatever your favorite is)

How To Make Country Style Ribs

• Dry the ribs off with a paper towel, patting them completely dry

• In a shallow baking pan, place all of the ribs in a single layer with the fattiest sides facing upwards

• Rub the sweet and smoky dry rub on all sides of the ribs

• Cover the pan tightly with foil and bake for 2 hours at 300 Fahrenheit

• Remove the baking tray carefully from the oven, being careful not to spill the liquid at the bottom

• Check the ribs by poking them with a fork; if they are still tough, cover them again and bake for another 20 minutes

• Remove the ribs to a plate and then drain the liquid

• Place the ribs back onto the tray and brush with all of the BBQ sauce

• Turn the oven down to 275 Fahrenheit and bake for another 60 minutes uncovered, until the ribs are totally tender and pull apart

• Remove the ribs from the oven and baste the ribs again with the BBQ sauce

• Broil for about 5 minutes to crisp it up, rest them for 5 minutes, and then serve

Why Do You Need To Reapply The BBQ Sauce After The First Time?

The secret to that first great quality of really good country-style ribs is that thin, almost crispy crust around the exterior of every single rib.

If you don’t do those few extra additional steps listed in the recipe and just simply slather on your glaze, you won’t get that perfect textural contrast in the form of a thin, sweet, almost crunchy exterior that plays off the soft tenderness of the rib meat itself.

The trick is to be constantly lacquering your glaze over the ribs as it cooks.

While the initial basting of your BBQ sauce glaze is to get the flavor onto the ribs itself, each subsequent coating of BBQ sauce does something a bit different.

As you baste cold BBQ sauce onto the hot ribs and put them back into the oven, the liquid starts to evaporate, and the sugars begin to caramelize. Each new layer of glaze sort of re-injects moisture and flavor into the caramelizing sugar, sort of like adding a bit of water to some caramelized onions that are getting a bit too overcooked too quickly.

This lets the sugars get really, really caramelized and all of the flavors of the sauce to properly intensify, giving it tons of extra flavor on top of the rich, spicy meatiness of the ribs.

How To Avoid Over Cooking Your Ribs & Getting The Perfect Texture

The other key secret of making really great ribs is making sure the meat is really, really tender. This doesn’t just mean cooking it for several hours and forgetting about it; it means being really careful and thoughtful while cooking the ribs to ensure that they end up perfect.

Following the temperature guidelines in this recipe should produce some tender, fall-apart ribs, but the final product is always going to depend on the size, thickness, and fattiness of your particular rack of ribs.

The only way to end up with a truly great rack of ribs is to be constantly checking it. The ribs should be done when the meat basically wants to fall off the bone all on its own, and the fork is just the gentle prod that the ribs need to properly all apart.

There is an upper limit, however. If you take it too long, the ribs will be in danger of drying out. So, when you think the ribs are getting close, check them every 10 minutes and pull them as soon as they start to fall apart.

If you leave them much longer, they will start to dry out and lose way too much deliciousness.

Looking for more delicious Ribs recipes? Try these out:

• Sweet & Smoky Dry Rub for Ribs

• Sweet & Smoky Whiskey Smoked Ribs

• Salt and Pepper Ribs

Happy Cooking

Love,

Karlynn

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