Smoked Paprika and Sweet Mesquite Oven-Baked Ribs

Last week when our family was in Vail skiing, I asked friends to vote for which recipe I should post next.  The vote was close, but the winner was ribs. Both my father and my father-in-law make phenomenal ribs but they both use the grill.  The grill has never been my go-to choice when cooking a meal, so I decided I would experiment until I perfected oven-baked ribs.  What follows will include a dry rub recipe, a BBQ sauce recipe and the instructions on how to make the ribs.   There are many excellent versions of store bought BBQ sauce and if you have a favorite, use it.  The success of this recipe is the combination of the dry rub and cooking the ribs low and slow, the sauce is just the icing on the cake so to speak.

Dry Rub 
1/8 cup Smoked Paprika
1/8 cup Sweet Mesquite (I find this at Costco)
1 1/2 Tablespoons Montreal Steak Seasoning
1/8 cup Brown Sugar
1 Tablespoon Kosher Salt

Simply mix all ingredients in a bowl and set aside.   

BBQ Sauce*
2 Cups Ketchup
1 Cup Cider Vinegar
1 1/2 Cup Beef Stock
1 1/2 Cup Water
1 Cup Brown Sugar
1/2 Tablespoon Onion Powder
1/2 Tablespoon Dry Mustard
2 Tablespoons Dale's Steak Seasoning (found in most markets usually with the Steak Sauces)

In medium saucepan, combine ingredients and bring to a boil.   Reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour.  Set aside.   This recipe will allow for extra, so store in sealed container for up to 1 week.   *If you don't want to make your own BBQ Sauce, here is a hint, add 2 Tablespoons of Dale's Steak Seasoning to your sauce.   I promise you won't be disappointed in the flavor it adds to any BBQ Sauce.

Ribs 
2 Whole Slabs Pork Baby-Back Ribs

1.  Preheat oven to 300 degrees
2.  Clean and remove silver skin from ribs
3.  Place ribs meat side down on a cutting board, puncture with a fork along each bone of the rack and turn over
4.  Apply dry rub generously to meat-side of ribs only
5.  Spray heavy duty aluminum foil with cooking spray and place ribs in foil.  Seal tightly with seal face-up.
6.  Place sealed ribs on cookie sheet or shallow baking pan and bake for 3 hours.
7.  Unseal foil and remove ribs and place on new cookie sheet and brush with BBQ Sauce.
8.  Turn oven to broil, return ribs to oven and broil for 2-3 minutes or until sauce glazes. 
9.   Remove from oven and tent ribs with foil and let stand for 3-5 minutes. 
10. Cut ribs and serve with extra sauce on the side.



ENJOY!!!!!