During the recent process of going through and relinking all of the pictures for this site, I came across a set of pictures from a recipe I cooked back in March of 2016, but never wrote about or posted. So almost two years later, I finally bring you 7-22: Oven-Grilled Ribs.
You’ll have to bear with me on this one…I remember it, but it may not end up being as descriptive as if it were more recent. I often write these on a delay (especially these days as I split my time between relinking old posts and writing new ones), but 2 years is a new record.
We’ve covered quite a few rib recipes on this site so far, but only one other country-style one so far, and that was just last month (7-16: Orange-Glazed Spareribs). Country-style ribs are generally boneless, but there can be small, flat pieces of the shoulder blade (scapula) depending on the cut.
Simply Delicious shows one solid piece of meat that is sliced into “ribs” after cooking, but I’ve yet to come across country-style ribs at the supermarket that are sold in that fashion. If you want it in one solid piece you’d probably have to go to a butcher and request it as a special order cut, or use a bone-in cut of ribs.
Ingredients. I have a real piece of ginger that I can grate from (as shown in their prep pictures), but I think dried ground ginger will work just as well for this application. As I mentioned above, my country-style ribs are already pre-cut into “rib” portions, although not well as you’ll see later on.
Easiest way to evenly coat is to seal everything into a gallon Ziploc bag and give it a good toss and mash with your own hand. It also makes for quick clean-up.
“Ribs” after being coated and rubbed with the mixture. Like I said above, the cuts were not exactly the most rib-like in nature–most country-style ribs that I’ve purchased are long mostly-boneless strip-shaped cuts of meat. These were more…abstract.
After a trip through the oven. Here’s where the gap in time between cooking these and writing about them results in a lack of details: I know that I cooked these for less than the prescribed time, especially because these were already pre-cut, however what I can’t tell you is how much shorter that cook time was.
If I had to do it again today, I’d start with 30 minutes and then check them in 5-10 minute increments from there on. I would assume it wouldn’t take much longer than 45 minutes max at 350ºF, depending on the quantity and thickness of the ribs (if they’re pre-cut).
If you end up with a solid rack of ribs (especially if you opt for a bone-in cut), I’d probably start with a 45 minute cook-time (rotating them halfway through) and then check from there–those will probably up closer to the original cook-time prescribed on the card.
Final plate–as this was originally cooked in March, I capitalized on the short window of time where asparagus is in season and attempted to fancily stack them after a simple steaming.
I’m pretty sure these were tasty–they look like they were. One point I didn’t think to make until now: I don’t know how I feel about basically baking ribs and calling them “oven-grilled”…that feels a bit disingenuous. Oven-grilling just seems like a way to dress up something that wouldn’t sound as exciting otherwise.
It’d be tough to actually grill country-style ribs, but I think the rub and flavors could be good on bone-in ribs cooked on an actual grill as well, if you want to be more authentic about it.
Grade: A-
