Spicy Baby Back Ribs

For this bake-a-thon I baked/roasted lots of vegetables, meat and seafood. I already posted baked broccoli and I have two more vegetable bakes coming up in the next few days. Today it is pork baby back ribs.

I like grilled meats, unlike husband who prefers curries. Second, baby back ribs have very little meat and he prefers other cuts of meats to these. Hence these ribs do not make it to the dining table as often as the other meats. I love these ribs as there is very little meat and spices coat the meat very well.

This time I picked up the ribs that were meaty and thought husband would enjoy it. He did not like it said he would prefer the usual ones with scant meat one it. I agree and would recommend getting ribs with less meat.

I usually use regular Indian spices for the marinade and my standard marinade consists of chili powder, garam masala, salt, ginger garlic paste and lime juice. Sometimes I add few more Indian spices to enhance the flavor.

Standard ribs cook in about 65 – 70 minutes and if the ribs have lot of meat on it, it could take anywhere from 1 ½ to 2 hours, depending on the thickness of the meat.

Ingredients:

• 1.8 lbs Baby Back Ribs
• 3 – 4 tsp. Chili Powder
• ¾ – 1 tsp. Garam Masala (I used store bought Rajah brand)
• 1 – 2 tsp. Coriander Powder
• 2 tbsp. Ginger Garlic
• ¼ tsp. Turmeric Powder
• Salt to taste (I forgot to note down the measure)
• 1 Lime, juice squeezed
• 2 tbsp. Oil
• Cooking Spray or more Oil for spraying before baking

Preparation:

• Clean the ribs by trimming off excess fat and carefully remove the thin membrane from the back of the ribs. Check note below.
• Mix all the ingredients to make a marinade.
• Rub the marinade on both sides of the ribs and refrigerate overnight or at least 6 – 12 hours or up to 48 hours.
• Remove the ribs from the refrigerate at least 1 hour before grilling / baking.
• Preheat the oven to 375 F.
• Line the grill pan with an aluminum foil. This is for ease of cleaning. Place the grilling rack in grilling pan. Place rack of ribs on the grilling rack, meat side of the ribs facing up.
• Spray cooking spray on the ribs and bake in the preheated oven for 65 – 90 minutes, depending on the thickness of the meat on the ribs. This time my ribs had more meat and I had to bake for 85 – 90 minutes. Thirty minutes into baking, baste the marinade and spray some oil. Then at 45 minutes repeat the same and turn the ribs around, placing meat side down and bake for another 15 minutes. If the meat on the ribs is less, ribs should be done in 60 minutes. To finish it off, turn the ribs around, facing the meat side up and bake for 5 more minutes. If the meat is thick, continue baking for another 10 minutes and then turn the ribs around with meat side facing up and bake for another 20 minutes. I usually cut the meat on the sides to check for doneness. If juices run clean, then the ribs are cooked.
• Remove the ribs from the oven, cover the ribs with foil and leave it for at least 10 minutes before serving.

Note:

• I used pork baby back ribs and usually the rack of baby back rib has very little meat. This time, the ribs had lot of meat on it and had to bake for almost 1 ½ hours. Usually it takes about an hour.
• There is a thin membrane on the back of the ribs. Using a knife, carefully loosen the membrane and pull it back to remove it. It was easy to remove the membrane from back of the ribs that had very little meat. The ribs I used this time had lot of meat and it was challenging to remove the membrane.

This is part of the Bake-a-thon 2015

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