tender cuts on a soft roll

This is the tale of amazing pork spare ribs. This is also the tale of Small Business Saturday. How are the two related, you ask? Great question!

Thanks to Small Business Saturday, I made the most amazing pork spare ribs. If you’ve never heard of Small Business Saturday, you have Black Friday to blame. As I see it, Small Business Saturday (the Saturday after Thanksgiving) is an effort to bring attention to small businesses across the US, which are basically ignored in the mad rush to seize black Friday deals offered at big box, chain retail stores.

Now, I’m a big supporter of small businesses. I shop at small businesses all the time (how could you not? Small businesses are great!). I don’t need a specially designated day to encourage me to support small businesses; I’d be supporting them anyway, especially on a Saturday when I do most of my shopping. But last time around, we learned about an American Express Small Business Saturday offer: spend $10 at a small business, and get $10 back, up to 3 times. Hold up a minute, American Express. Are you saying that you’ll reward us for doing what we normally do? This sounded like a win-win for us and our favorite small businesses!

We are pretty much deal/offer fans. So when we heard that we could basically get $30 each, FREE MONEY, we were on it right away. And we did what food lovers do best: we bought food!

We took a trip to our neighborhood grocery store, and walking down the meat aisle, came across some nice looking pork ribs for an even nicer looking sale price (and with our Amex offer, would essentially be free). We had never bought spare ribs to make at home, but decided that it was the perfect opportunity to try it.

The ribs stayed in the freezer until, finally, I decided to make it this month. Because I’d never made it before, I looked around at a couple of different recipes to get some ideas. And voila, I came up with a recipe the produces some of the juiciest, most tender, ribs you’ll ever eat. I admit, it requires a long list of ingredients, and at least 24 hours of marinating. But it’s well worth the effort.

So, thank you Small Business Saturday for giving me the inspiration to make pork spare ribs. This recipe is definitely a keeper!

Ingredients (for 1/2 rack of pork spare ribs)

Spice Rub

• 2 teaspoons garlic salt
• 2 teaspoons paprika powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 teaspoon ground chilli powder

dry rub on meat

Ribs Sauce

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 8 oz can of tomato sauce
• 6 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 3 jalapeno peppers, diced
• 1 large or 2 medium onions, sliced
• 1/4 cup dark rum
• 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 1 bouillon cube
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons paprika
• 1 teaspoon ground chilli powder
• 2 teaspoons red pepper flakes
• 1 teaspoon onion powder

Directions

1. Heat oil in a medium sauce pan. Add crushed garlic, jalapenos, and peppers. Saute on high heat for two minutes.
2. Add the remaining ingredients for the sauce into the pan. Mix all of the ingredients well. Then, cover the pan and cook the sauce on low heat for 45 minutes.
3. While the sauce is cooking, place the ribs in a large bowl or pan.
4. Combine the spice rub ingredients, and rub on the meat side of the rack. Use a small knife to poke holes in the meat.
5. Once the sauce is fully cooled, pour the sauce (it will be thick) over both sides of the meat. Make sure the entire piece of the meat is fully covered.
   

   marinated meat, chock full of onions

6. Cover the bowl or pan with plastic wrap and/or foil, and let the meat marinate in the fridge for at least 24 hours (for best results, let it marinate for 48 – 72 hours).
7. After marinating… wrap the meat in foil; it should be completely covered. Place the wrapped meat (meat side up) in a baking pan.
8. Bake at 250 degrees F for 4 full hours (this is the slow cooking process to get you those tender ribs you’ve always dreamed about 🙂 )
9. After four hours, uncover the top of the meat. Increase oven temperature to 350 degrees, and bake for an additional 30 minutes until most of the broth has dried.

These spare ribs… are addictive. They are delish on the side of your favorite mac and cheese, on a nice, soft, sweet roll, over a bed of fresh lettuce, or all by itself. Enjoy!