An Okie Girl’s Take on Chinese Pork Ribs ((4 ingredients including the ribs!!))
Ribs are on sale this week at Whole Foods so they made it on the weekly menu for our hungry herd of 6!! After a week of neglecting my meal-making duties, I decided it was time to cook again.
We have been so busy working on my garden, that I have just worked straight through dinner time, pausing briefly to slap together sandwiches or quesadillas. You know you are on a sandwich “roll” when Brod picks up a wedge of a homemade quesadilla and says “Mom, I will just call these “Mexican Sandwiches”. Point taken Brod.
I was determined, sandwiches “shall not pass” for dinner for another night. ((Now pause for a second as I admit — sandwiches will be on the menu for the remainder of the week, except for one yummy batch of homemade chunky-style Bolognese – similar to this recipe))
As I prepared these ribs, I had approximately 17 minutes before I needed to run out the door to pick Kade up ((late)). So you can imagine,I didn’t have time for recipes and messing with a pantry full of ingredients! When trying to figure out how long to bake these ribs, I hit a “bump” in the dinner prep. Several recipes emphatically suggested “silverskin” — needs to be removed. Eww.
Apparently, the silverskin acts as a barrier, keeping seasoning from absorbing into the ribs. I wanted these ribs to be all they could be, so I hunkered down and started stripping off this cantankerous slippery covering on the underside of the ribs ((aka the silverskin — you can read about silverskin and how to remove it HERE)). Well, that took 13 of my 17 minutes.
With no more seconds to spare, I laid the ribs out on long strips of foil & covered them in tamari & sweet chili sauce. I topped them off with a dash of my favorite seasoning: McCormick’s Montreal Steakhouse Seasoning, folded the foil neatly around the ribs and sealed the packets tightly.
I placed the packets on a baking sheet & into a 250° oven, all the while hoping for the best.
Almost 4 hours later, the house was filled with the most tantalizing aroma. Something good had happened while we were gone!! I mean REALLY good.
I quickly made a pan of my favorite oven roasted veggies. I had a quarter of cabbage, some rainbow carrots & some celery stalks. I chopped them up nicely, topped with some fresh parsley, a bounty (2 tablespoons) of lemon zest and a nice shaving of parmesan. Into the oven it went.
45 minutes later a delicious meal was on the table. It really was “finger-lickin” good.
The kids were begging for more!! Keeping a good quality sweet chili sauce and tamari on hand make these Chinese-style ribs a breeze to make ((I picked the sweet chili sauce up from the local Asian market)). I will be watching for the next sale for sure!
- 3 lbs St. Louis-style pork ribs
- 1/2 c tamari ((or soy sauce))
- 1/2 c sweet chili sauce
- several dashes of McCormick's Montreal Steakhouse Seasoning
- Preheat oven to 250°. If desired, remove the silverskin from the underside of the ribs. Divide ribs into 2 to 3 equal portions & place each portion of ribs on a sheet of foil large enough to wrap each portion.
- Pour equal amounts of tamarin and sweet chili sauce over each portion of ribs, season kwith a few dashes of seasoning blend. Fold the foil in such a way that the seam is on the topside of each packet & seal tightly.
- Place the packets on a baking sheet and bake on 250° for 4 to 4.5 hours. When cooking is complete, remove from the oven. Leave the packets on the baking sheet & carefully open each packet ((taking caution to spill juices)). Set the oven to broil and return the ribs to the oven. Broil until the top side of the ribs turns crisp and medium golden brown.
- Serves 4 to 6