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8 Comments It’s summer time! So what is better to make than these barbecued spare ribs with a sweet and sticky balsamic glaze. It does take a bit of time so make sure you prepare everything in advance or use pre cooked ribs.
Barbecued spare ribs
I own a Big Green Egg but to be entirely honest I do not use it often enough. When the dude was still living here, we did use the barbecue more often, but it seems silly to light up the thing on my own. So I use it only whenever we have guests over ánd when the weather is good. Now with all the rain we’ve been having lately it’s even harder still. But never mind, this delicious recipe for barbecued spare ribs is delicious rain or shine.
Marinating
The first step in preparing the spare ribs is to marinate them in the balsamic glaze. This is easiest done when you place the racks in a large plastic bag and add the marinate to that as well. You can also simply place the ribs in an oven dish and pour the marinade on top. Whichever works best for you.
Leave in the fridge for 3 hours
The marinade is best left on for 3 hours at least, but it is easier to do this overnight. So when you know you’re having a barbecue planned simply place the meat in the fridge the night before and let it do it’s thing.
Indirect heat
If you’re using uncooked spare ribs they will need to cook for a few hours for the best results on indirect heat. For the overview of what indirect and direct heat is I give you the link for the Big Green egg page with more information. That’s way easier than me explaining it!
Basting
Every 30 minutes or so you open the lid of the barbecue and you use the basting liquid to brush on the meat. The basting liquid itself is simply sugar, water and balsamic vinegar reduced to a thick syrup which you brush over the meat.
We ate it with some crunchy chopped bacon on top for over the top porkiness.
Too much work?
For the cheat version you buy yourself a precooked spare rib. For making barbecued spare ribs the only thing you need is the basting liquid, a brush and a barbecue of course. You can use direct heat and brush the spare ribs with the basting liquid until it is hot and bubbly.
The entire instruction on how to precook the spare ribs in the oven is also below for easy reference. It’s delicious served with some barbecue sauce or homemade peanut sauce as well. For more sauce recipes check here.
Barbecued spare ribs
Ingredients
- 2 racks meaty spareribs ±1 kilo
- 3 slices bacon
For the marinade:
- 5 cloves garlic chopped
- 1 onion finely chopped
- 1 tbsp thyme finely chopped
- 2 tbsp caster sugar
- 3 tbsp Balsamic vinegar
- 2 tsp smoked and powdered paprika piment
- 3 tbsp water
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
For basting
- 150 gr caster sugar
- 125 ml Balsamic vinegar
- 500 ml water
Equipment
- Barbecue
How to make the spare ribs
- Rinse the spare ribs under running water to get rid off any bone fragments. Dry with a paper towel and remove the membrane from the boney side of the ribs (or ask your butcher to clean them for you)
- Mix the ingredients for the marinade. Add the spare ribs into a sturdy plastic bag and pour the marinade into the bag. Give it a good mix and then let the flavors do their work for at least three hours in the fridge (preferably at least one night). Place the plastic bag inside a baking tray to prevent anything leaking from the bag.
- Fire up the BBQ and prepare it for grilling on indirect heat. You can find a lot of information about indirect grilling on the net, so I won't elaborate on that. Get the spareribs out of the marinade and rub off the excess marinade.
- Time to make the baste. Put the ingredients for the baste in a small sauce pan on medium heat and bring to a boil while stirring. Let the sauce reduce for about 15 minutes, until it's thick and glossy.
- When the BBQ is ready put on the bacon and the spareribs at indirect grilling. Place the ribs (meat side up) above the foil drip pan (which you have filled with some beer of course) and cook for about 2 to 2½, hour at about 150° Celsius. Give the spareribs a nice brush with the baste every thirty minutes.
- When the ribs are cooked through to test you lift the rib in the middle with a knife and if the meat comes from the bone easily it's cooked through) you give the ribs a final basting and grill them for five more minutes on direct heat with the meaty side down. Chop the crispy grilled bacon to little bits and sprinkle a generous amount of bacon on each serving of spare ribs.
- You can prepare the spare ribs in advance if you don't have that much time by pre cooking them in the oven.
- Put the spare ribs in tinfoil and baste them with a thick layer of the basting, before closing it up.
- Put the sparribs in a preheated oven (100° Celsius) for about two hours.
- Then you can let the spareribs cool down and keep them (sealed) in the fridge for 3-5 days.
- When you're ready to barbecue, you give the the pre-cooked ribs another thick layer of baste and place them on direct heat for 5-10 minutes
- Bake the slices of bacon nice and crunchy in a hot frying pan and serve with the spare ribs.
Nutrition Information per portion:
Disclaimer:
The nutritional values above are calculated per portion. The details are based on standard nutritional tables and do not constitute a professional nutritional advice.
One can bribe me anyday with a plate of chicken wings or sticky spareribs. That looks so so so GOOD. I ate some boring lunch today and looking at these pictures, I am hungry again!
Promise me: Whatever you do, but don’t make your lunch boring. Ever… again… 😉
2 ½ hours cooking time—-I’d be famished waiting!!!! Gone are the days of my slaving over my Weber grills and smokers! To get very tender meat infused with flavor I steam roast first in a pressure cooker on high pressure for ½ the cooking time. Then I only need to finish cooking over the coals (direct or indirect) in the Weber to char or caramelize the meat per the recipe. Ribs take 15 min steam roasting in pressure cooker and 7 ½ min. per side to caramelize over direct heat.
You are right that the slow cooking takes a lot of time. I myself, just drink an extra beer during the waiting… 😉
Is that Sweet Baby Ray’s?? Yummo ribs. I think the bacon topping is more dude than I’d need but i’d eat them anyway!
Trust me, you can handle the Dude topping just fine. Because it just is the most delicious thing you’ve eaten in a long time!!! LOL
Three of my favorite things (pork, bacon & balsamic vinegar). Perfect!
Cheers,
Rosa
Summer can’t get any better with these perfect and (almost holy) BBQ trinity, hehe…