A smoky chipotle sauce is the shortcut I use to give these oven-roasted baby back ribs a real BBQ flavor. I like to finish them on the grill with a bit of sweetness in the form of a honey glaze.
serves 4
Ingredients
- ¼ cup canned chipotle chilies in adobo (minced)
- ¼ cup rice vinegar
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- ½ cup honey (divided)
- ¼ cup mustard seeds or powder coarsely ground
- 2 clove garlic cloves (peeled and roughly chopped)
- 1 medium shallot (roughly chopped)
- ¼ cup cilantro leaves
- ¼ cup lime juice
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- coarse salt and ground black pepper
- ½ cup canola oil
- homemade chili rub to taste (see recipes)
- 2 racks pork spare ribs (2 ½ pounds each- silver membrane removed)
- vegetable oil for grates
- lime wedges for serving
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In the bowl of a food processor combine chipotles, rice vinegar, soy sauce, ¼‑cup honey, mustard seeds, garlic, shallots, cilantro, lime juice, red pepper flakes, 3 tablespoons salt, and 2 teaspoons black pepper. With the machine running drizzle the canola oil in a slow steady stream. Process until a smooth sauce is formed.
Place a large double layer of aluminum foil or parchment paper on a large rimmed baking sheet. Place ribs on top, centered. Rub plenty of the homemade chili powder onto both sides of each rack.
Then rub both racks with sweet chipotle sauce. Wrap ribs tightly in the foil or parchment (tie closed with kitchen twine if using parchment). Bake the ribs on the baking sheet until meat is quite tender, about 2 hours.
Heat grill to medium-high; and lightly oil hot grates. Remove ribs from the parchment pouch, letting extra sauce drip off. Brush ribs with the remaining ¼‑cup honey and grill them until lightly charred. About 3 minutes per side. Cut between bones to separate ribs and serve with lime wedges.
This is such an inventive idea. Kind of like a polenta cake!
I love it with the whipped cream and fresh blueberries. The perfect light dessert.
Great to resurrect this. I love the classy photo. Cornbread all dressed up.
with a bit of tea 🙂 Looks delicious!
Berries are in full season still and always a treat with cake and cream too!
And your recipes too! xoxo
This looks just wonderful; a great combination of flavors in a deliciously rustic cake.
Ah! Two days later and I can finally tell you how much I love this! I am intrigued by this list of ingredients, especially the cornmeal and the yeast (in a cake!). But it looks perfect (and yours came out stunningly beautiful!). I lived in Italy for several years and actually loved their cakes and pastries; they were all so much closer to bread than the sweet pastries we ate in France. Very simple, very plain, but wonderful. I will make this cake and try and serve it as you did, with fruit and whipped cream. This is truly perfect!
This looks perfectly sweet to me! Sorry I haven’t been visiting much. Hope to fix that…
Looks great! Awesome photos!
What a very eye-appealing dessert!! More the cream and the berries, the cake is absolutely perfect for my sweet tooth 🙂
Cheers!
Gera
oh wow great cake! You had me at whipped topping and fruit!
to more desserts that is because this one looks awesome. Love cornmeal and have been on a heck of a kick latey and this one with berries and cream sounds perfect. I’m not a big sweet person myself, but this looks perfect.
I have an irrational fear of baking with yeast, but this looks so good I might have to make an exception. 🙂 Hope you guys are having a good weekend!
That cake looks awesome. I like how you’ve made a rustic cornbread/cake into a not-too-sweet dessert. Maybe you SHOULD feature desserts more often 🙂
Your photo looks absolutely lovely. Nice job.
For someone who doesn’t bakes a lot, I think you did a pretty good job. Yummy! I’d take a slice or two of this anytime.