Chili’s, Applebee’s, Red Robin…I’ve enjoyed racks of ribs at almost every restaurant that offers ribs as a major offering on the menu. Freshly smoked ribs are a delicious delicacy. These oven baked ribs lack the smokiness of ribs cooked in a smoker. The flavor profile for 7-19: Cajun-Style Pork Ribs is influenced by the alcohol-infused marinade and the Cajun spice rub mixture.
Simply Delicious thinks these spices are fiery, however, I’ll have to disagree. Maybe I’m too desensitized to spice now, but I could have used about 30% more spiciness. I wasn’t always a fan of spicy food, but now some of my favorite hot sauces are sriracha, Tapatio, and Tabasco.
Cajun spice mixes are very versatile, good for all kinds of meats. We keep multiple spice rub mixtures in our pantry because they can be used on just about anything: veggies, beef, chicken, or in this case, pork.
Such colorful ingredients for a meat recipe. Baby corn is available in the ethnic food section at the supermarket.
Chopping onions is sooOOOooo much fun. I can chop an onion so much faster than when I joined Jamie on this project about 3 years ago.
Here’s where I add the chopped onions to the brandy and oil to create the marinade.
Please excuse the mess in the sink while I pour the marinade onto the ribs.
The ribs change slightly in color after they have been sitting in the marinade for a few hours.
The spice mixture in the bowl looks like an art project before I mixed it all together.
If only you could smell this mixture through the screen. Smells like spicy heaven.
Check out that beautiful slab of pork ribs with a dusting of that wonderful Cajun spice mix.
The ribs look great coming out of the oven. See how the meat is pulling away from the bone? That is a telltale sign of meat that is ready.
I have no idea why the editors chose to garnish the ribs with cherry tomatoes and baby corn, but to each his own.
I dusted these with salt and pepper, then roasted the cherry tomatoes and baby corn in the toaster oven while the ribs were cooking.
I served the ribs with rice, garnished with baby corn and cherry tomatoes. Jamie mostly ignored the garnish.
That’s a decent looking rib right there, well, the part that is in focus anyway. The acid in the marinade did its job, breaking down the tough fibers in the rib meat. The meat is tender, juicy, and just falling off the bone.
GRADE: A-
