How to Make Barbecued Spareribs at Home

[Music] today we're making chinese style barbecued ribs before we get cooking let's take a minute to talk about buying ribs at the supermarket now there are three kinds of pork ribs you can buy you can buy baby back ribs there are a lot smaller than these others and they're actually cut from up higher on the pig towards the spine this is a full set of spare ribs so you have the ribs section here and then you have this part actually more of the belly of the pig also known as the brisket or finally you can buy our favorite st. Louis style ribs which is the full spareribs size but just with this belly section cut off and today that's what we're gonna be cooking to do all right so we're gonna work with two two and a half to three pounds st. Louis style racks I've got one cut up over here we're gonna cut this one normally when we're cooking ribs we come back here and we take the membrane off the back we're not gonna do that here I love it that makes it easy makes it easy and you know these ribs they're not gonna be quite as fall apart tender as the American style they have a little bit of chew to them so we're just gonna leave that on I like that you're cutting up it makes them easier to eat but also you get more surface area for the glaze exactly you have more surface area and it's actually gonna improve our cooking time these are gonna cook pretty fast so I think the best way is to kind of look down here and you can see the two ribs you just want to go right between them so now we've got two two-and-a-half to three pound racks here it's time to work on the sauce and we want a really intense flavor profile for this we're gonna start with a lot of garlic and ginger so we've got eight cloves of garlic I'm gonna use the food processor just cuz it's a fair amount to prep and then I've got a six inch piece of ginger that's a lot of ginger and we'll just pulsed this until it's broken down about ten to twelve pulses great alright let's head over to our pot here so this is unusual we're gonna do this as a braised normally they're cooked whole when they're hung up in this really interesting oven so they're not actually barbecued at all okay so to build our braising liquid we've got a cup of honey we have 3/4 of a cup of hoisin really salty really savory also a little bit sweet 3/4 a cup of soy sauce 1/2 a cup of Chinese rice wine here you could use dry sherry you can't find that next up is two teaspoons of five-spice powder you know if you left this out and you have all of these great ingredients out they're not gonna taste like Chinese spareribs is such a key flavor it all comes down to the five-spice yep next up I have a teaspoon of red food coloring most of the classic Chinese ribs you see have that gorgeous red color and then finally a teaspoon of white pepper okay so you'll find that in the five-spice but we really want to bump that up so I'm just gonna stir this together we have a 1/2 cup of water right that is nice and combined so now we're gonna go in with our ribs these ribs won't be fully submerged in here it's okay we're gonna stir them a little bit as we cook so I'm gonna bring this up to a simmer over high heat and we're gonna reduce to low cover and we're gonna cook for about an hour and a quarter it's really all it takes to get them to the perfect amount of tenderness but we're gonna do on the stove top so I can stir them and make sure they're really getting coated in that nice sauce that's not a lot of time it isn't a lot of time because we want them to be a little bit on the chewy side which is fantastic okay so it's been an hour and a quarter let's take a look at these whoo they look so good so let's check these with just a fork that is perfect right there so we want just a little bit of tenderness a little bit of chew mmm perfect all right so I'm gonna transfer these out of the braising liquid those look good already and they're not even glazed yet I know right all right that's the last one so there's a little more fat than we want here right now so I'm gonna do is strain it well let it settle and skim a bit off so we're gonna reduce this down to a nice glaze it helps to get these solids out at this point so we're let this settle for about 10 minutes and then we'll skim off a little bit of that fat so our fat has separated out nicely there and I'm just gonna use this wide spoon to take it off okay that looks great so we're gonna go back into our pot with our braising liquid and this is super flavorful but we're gonna want to reduce it down we really want to glaze just one time and have it really thick and really flavorful so we're gonna reduce it down but first when to add two tablespoons of toasted sesame oil mmm adds a ton of flavor I'm gonna bring it up to a boil over high heat and reduce it down to about two and a half cups it's gonna get nice and syrupy it's gonna take anywhere from 16 to 20 minutes okay that looks perfect so we're gonna go to a 425-degree oven with these and they're gonna be coated in this beautiful sticky glaze that's a recipe very smoky smoky oven yes it is we want to avoid that so I have a rimmed baking sheet here in a wire rack 1/2 cup of water lined it with foil that's for easy cleanup easy cleanup exactly so everything can drip down in there it's not gonna smoke up the kitchen so now I'm gonna transfer half of these ribs to our pot over here stand back oh yeah stir to coat now look how nice and thick that glaze is clings beautifully - those things are looking good in there now I'm gonna transfer them bone side up to our baking sheet here there are any bones like that you want to face them into the middle they're a little less likely to char that way we're actually gonna flip these halfway through and we want them to finish with that beautiful meaty side up so we're gonna go into a 425-degree oven we're gonna cook these for about 10 to 14 minutes and so they start to caramelize beautifully on the edge we're gonna flip them halfway through those look so good they're beautiful all right this is some platter we're not gonna have enough I don't think one rack for you one rack for me okay are you ready - yeah I am a couple for you mmm that's a good rib I'm so good a little more chewy texture right then a classic American rib tons of flavor Wow you know it's funny there was only a little bit of five-spice powder in there but you could really taste it oh my god it's it really potent really nice yeah it's pretty good these are terrific and I love the recipe cuz it's so easy mm-hmm thank you see if you want to make the best Chinese style ribs you've ever had start with a puree of garlic and ginger and combine it with honey poison soy sauce and five-spice powder along with a little red food coloring for fun add the ribs to the pot and cook over low heat until just tender about an hour and 15 minutes strain and deep-fat the braising liquid then reduce it to a glaze with some to finish blaze the ribs and batches in a hot oven until nicely caramelized from America's Test Kitchen to your kitchen a killer recipe for chinese-style barbecued spareribs thanks for watching America's Test Kitchen what you think we'll leave a comment and let us know which recipes you're excited to make or you can just say hello you can find links to today's recipes and reviews in the video description and don't forget to subscribe to our Channel see you later I'll see you later

Channel: America's Test Kitchen

Views: 74,387

Keywords: barbecued spareribs, spareribs, cooks illustrated, americas test kitchen

Id: llv6Dgu8pJU

Length: 7min 6sec (426 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 30 2020