Slow cooked sticky ribs

Don’t let the picture full of brown fool you, they might be hard to photograph in a pretty way but these ribs will be a hit. They came about because my three older kids all love going out to a popular restaurant that is known for their fall off the bone sticky ribs. Taking my kids gushing love of the place as a challenge I initially made these on the BBQ, cooked on low for three hours. Last week however I was feeling too lazy to do even that much, so here is an even easier version which still has all the flavour of the BBQ version, is fall off the bone sticky and delicious, but is also something you can make at any time indoors.

For the spice rub I kept it to somewhat Middle Eastern/Moroccan-ish flavours, and just went with what I had in the pantry, ditto when it came time for the sticky sauce, I used a bottle of BBQ sauce/marinade specially made for ribs that I had in the fridge already that I had used on the BBQ version. I think that Asian flavours would work well here too though, so make sure you play around with whatever you like.

Serves: a lot

what you need

• 2 kg American style pork rib racks {NOT the pork spare ribs from the belly}
• For the dry spice rub: ras el hanout, smoked paprika, ground cumin, dried oregano, salt, black pepper
• olive oil
• BBQ sauce or marinade, I used the Sweet Baby Ribs brand {sold as Sweet Baby Ray’s outside Australia}

what to do

• Preheat the oven to 200 C. Even when slow cooking on low I always start with an initial blast to get things cooking. Prepare the ribs by trimming any excess or large pieces of fat and removing the thin membrane along the back. Do not cut or separate the ribs. Mix all the ingredients for the dry spice rub and, with some olive oil, rub it well into both sides of the rib racks. Place curved {or fleshy} side up in a baking dish with a rack inside, uncovered.
• Cook uncovered for about thirty minutes on 200 C, then lower the temperature of the oven to about 160 C, or moderate-low. Cook for another hour and a half, rotating the oven tray from time to time if your oven cooks unevenly. {I always rotate regardless, just to make sure it’s all cooked evenly.} You don’t need to turn the ribs over, but depending on how snugly they fit in the tray and if they’re overlapping you might need to re-position them a couple of times.
• After two hours cooking time brush some BBQ sauce or marinade onto both sides of the ribs and cover the tray loosely with foil. Cook for thirty minutes, then uncover and increase the temperature to about 180 to 200 C for the last half hour. Separate into two rib bones a piece and serve.