How to Slow Cook Baby-Back Ribs

The only way to get fall-off-the-bone ribs is to slow cook them. Sure you could use your outdoor grill, but with an oven you have much more control over the environment where you cook your ribs. It's important to make sure you give your ribs enough time, because cooking ribs over high heat in a short amount of time will not yield the best results.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• 2 racks of baby back ribs
• Dry rub
• Heavy duty aluminum foil
• Baking sheet
• Refrigerator
• Medium sauce pan
• White wine
• White wine vinegar
• Worcestershire sauce
• Honey
• Chopped garlic
• Basting brush

1. Place your ribs on heavy duty aluminum foil with the shiny side town. Coat each side of the ribs with a generous portion of dry rub. You can either make your own dry rub using brown sugar and spices or use a commercially sold dry rub. Pull the sides of the foil up and fold together to seal. Roll each end of foil up to seal.
2. Allow ribs to sit in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour, preferably overnight.
3. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.
4. Prepare braising liquid. In a microwave safe container, add 1 cup white wine, 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar, 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce, 1 tablespoon of honey and a couple chopped cloves of garlic. Heat the braising liquid in microwave using high heat for 1 minute.
5. Place rib "packets" onto a baking sheet. Open one end of each foil packet and pour half of the braising liquid into each. To evenly distribute the liquid, tilt the baking sheet. Re-seal each end of the rib packet.
6. Bake in 250 degree F oven for 2 and 1/2 to 3 hours.
7. Drain braising liquid from the rib packets into a medium sauce pan. Bring the liquid to a low boil and reduce by at least half or it reaches the consistency of thick syrup. Using a brush, apply the braise syrup to the ribs.
8. Broil the glazed ribs until the glaze begins to caramelize. You may also use an outdoor grill to do this.
9. Brush again, once ribs have lightly caramelized, with hot glaze and serve as desired.

Tips & Warnings

• You can prepare just one rack of ribs at a time with the same results.
• If you do not have some of the ingredients for the braising liquid, feel free to substitute alternative liquids. Experiment with different flavors.
• Do not try to speed up the cooking time by raising the heat. Ribs need to be slow cooked to produce meat that falls off the bones. By cooking to fast, your meat will end up tough and chewy.
• Be careful not to use too much salt in your dry rub if you decide to make your own. The braising liquid also adds a salty flavor which may result in an overwhelming amount of salt in the end product.