Oven Cooked Baby Backs with Ancho BBQ Glaze

Not the best picture, I failed to take any others.

By wife brought home some really nice baby backs from Costco the other day. I really wanted to smoke them outside but the weather just would not cooperate.  I'll sit up all night with a brisket in the smoker when the weather is decent but I refuse to stand outside when its 45 degrees and raining just for a couple slabs of ribs. I waited as long as I could to see if the weather cleared up and by noon Sunday morning is was still wet and chilly out so I decided to use the oven.  This might be the easiest way to cook ribs if you don't have a smoker or a grill. The homemade BBQ sauce will make it seem like you cooked these outside over a fire. Its a little smokey, a little spicy and very bold.


Baby Backs 101:  If you pick up the rack on one end, and it breaks and completely falls apart, its overdone.  You want to be able to pull the bone out but it needs to have just a little resistance.  The meat should still hold together and be tender when you bite into it. Tough ribs are undercooked or cooked too fast.  Mushy ribs are simply overcooked. I like mine where you can pick up 2 or 3 bone section, pull the first bone out and still have the meat intact to bite into.


When you buy your ribs take them out of the package and flip them over.  If you see a sliver skin, or very thin translucent membrane on the back then you need to pull it off.  Its difficult at best.  You might need a small knife to get under it. Keep your hands dry so you can get a good grip or you'll never get it off.  That membrane is inedible.  Some people like to leave it on to keep the ribs together. Some say it keeps the moisture in. I say no, take it off. It doesn't help anything. If you don't have a pan (or an oven) than can hold the full rack of ribs then cut the slabs in half. They are also easier to handle this way.  Trim away any hard white fat or any large pieces of fat that might be on the ribs.


Preheat your oven to 350.  In a medium sized bowl, mix together 1 cup dark brown sugar, 2 tablespoons coarse ground black pepper and 1 tablespoon kosher salt.  Rub this mixture into both sides of the ribs and let the ribs sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes. They will cook more evenly if they are not right out of the fridge. 


Place the ribs in a baking dish, cover tightly with foil and bake them for 1 hour.  Remove from oven, drain any juices from the pan, put the foil back on and bake for another hour.  Remove from the oven, remove the foil and drain any juice in the pan. The ribs might look a little gray at this point. Don't worry. Coat both sides with the Ancho BBQ Sauce making sure to get the ends and edges. Place back into the oven and cook for another hour.  Check the ribs after 30 minutes. If the meat is pulling away from the end of the bones and you can wiggle the bone inside the meat, then they are done. if they still seem too firm then continue cooking and check them every 15 minutes. You should have ribs that have a nice outside crust, that are not overly sauced and that you would swear were cooked on a grill.  Serve the extra BBQ sauce on the side.

Ancho BBQ Sauce

6-8 Dried Ancho Chiles
1 1/2 Cups Ketchup
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/4 White Wine Vinegar
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon chile powder
1 teaspoon dry mustard powder
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 teaspoons black pepper
1 teaspoon olive oil
Optional Items:
 1 tablespoon Agave Nectar ( for sweet sauce)
 2 tablespoons Sirahcha sauce (for heat)

Remove stems and seeds from Ancho pods.  Tear each into several pieces and place in a medium sauce pan. Cover with water, bring to a boil and turn off the heat. Place a plate on top of the chiles to keep them submerged. Let them steep for 30 minutes to 1 hour to rehydrate them.
Transfer chiles and 1 cup of the cooking water to a blender.  Blend until you have a smooth puree. You may need to add a little more of the cooking water if your puree is too thick to pour. Discard the rest of the cooking water.
Pour the contents of the blender into the sauce pan and whisk in the remaining ingredients. Slowly bring to a boil, reduce the heat and let simmer for 30 minutes.  Sauce is done.  I would suggest making the BBQ sauce a few hours or a full day ahead. Its much better once it sits for awhile and the flavors have time toe blend.  Heat it up before you serve it.

Chile Verde Con Cerdo (Pork In Green Mole)

I had made the mole for this the night before and popped this into the oven at a low temp to simmer away while we ran some errands. As we pulled up in the driveway we were almost knocked over by the aroma that was being vented out of the kitchen. I think the whole neighborhood could smell it.  I just had to rush inside to see if indeed it was my kitchen making that wonderful smell.  It was. I pulled the cover off the dutch oven to have a peek. The mole had darkened and thickened just like I had expected and the pork was still firm but fell apart with the least little pressure. We could not wait to get the rest of the meal ready so we could try this.

I served this over basic white rice and some spinach sauteed with red onion and garlic then creamed with goat cheese. It could have stood alone. It was crazy good. I'll add the recipe for the spinach on its own post.




Ingredients

2 lbs Pork Loin, Cubed (1-2 inch pieces)
1 cup Flour
2 tsp Ground Cumin
1 tsp Garlic Powder
1 tsp Black Pepper
1/2 cup Olive Oil
Green Chile Mole  (click for recipe)

Method

Preheat your oven to 275 degrees.

Mix together flour, cumin, garlic powder and black pepper in a bowl.

Heat your dutch oven on the cook top over medium high heat.  Add the oil.

Dredge each piece of pork in the seasoned flour. Be sure to coat it on all sides.  Add to the hot oil.

Cook the pork until its a dark brown then turn it. You want to brown it on all sides.

Once the pork is all browned, pour in just enough of the mole to cover the pork.  Stir with a flat bottomed wooden spoon to incorporate and be sure to scrape any flour from the bottom of the
pan.  Bring to a boil then cover and place in the oven.

Cook at 275 degrees for approx 4 hours. The pork should fall apart with just a gentle nudge.

Remove from the oven and serve immediately over white rice with a couple of tortillas on the side.

This is also good just on a tortilla by itself and would make an excellent burrito filling.

Enjoy!

Candied Bacon

Yes, its the new trend. Candied bacon, chocolate bacon, deep fried bacon, bacon bacon bacon! If there's anything better than bacon its more bacon. Right? It is just one of those foods that's hard to beat.

This is actually very easy and has very little mess.  Cooking bacon in the oven gives you a much "prettier" product and doesn't leave you with a splattered mess on your stove top.

Ingredients

1 lb of thick cut bacon
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
2 teaspoons fresh chopped rosemary (optional)
1 tablespoon chopped pecans (optional)


Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line a sheet pan/jelly roll pan with foil and place a baking/cooling rack in the pan. Lay the bacon strips out on the rack and put as much as you like but don't overlap them. Sprinkle with half the brown sugar being sure to cover most of the bacon strip but don't pile it on. If using, sprinkle the rosemary and/or half of the pecans on the bacon at this point.

Bake until the bacon is about half done. Pull the pan from the oven, flip the bacon And sprinkle on more brown sugar and the rest of the pecans if using. Put it back in the oven and cook until the bacon is done. Pull it from the oven, remove it from the rack and let it cool on wax paper, parchment paper or a plate but do not stack it yet.. It will be sticky when it first comes out but that should change to a hard candy shell after it cools. 

Sweet and Spicy Mesquite Smoked Baby Back Ribs

It was a perfect day to fire up the smoker. Not like last time where it was 105 degrees and tending the fire around a 250 degree smoke chamber was just a miserable experience. The weather was clear, sunny and in the low 80's. Fall has arrived in Texas.

My wood of choice for baby backs is mesquite.  I really like the flavor it gives when it mixes with my rub.  Hickory tends to be a little too strong with this mix but if you control the smoke it works well too.  There are two methods with this rub. The first one is you can leave all the excess rub on the ribs while they are smoking. This will form a very tasty but bold crust on the outside of the ribs.  Be sure to have plenty of napkins available too.  The second is to shake off and wipe off any remaining rub. You will still have a crust but it will be a very thin crust and the meat will take on a little more smoke.  I don't have a preference. I just depends on my mood that day.

Ingredients

1 full rack of baby back ribs,
   membrane removed from the back (crucial step here)
1 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon chile powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon garlic powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons black pepper
2 teaspoons kosher/sea salt
1 teaspoon white sugar

Method

Prepare your smoking vessel. You want an even heat of 225-250.

If your smoker can't handle an intact full rack then cut the rack into manageable pieces. I cut mine in half. 

Mix the sugars and seasonings together in a bowl. Be sure to work out any lumps from the brown sugar.

Place the ribs in a deep pan and coat liberally with the rub on both sides.  Cover the pan with plastic wrap and let sit in the refrigerator overnight.

Remove the pan from the fridge, remove the wrap and let sit at room temperature for 20 minutes.  You want to get the chill off the meat. 

Place the ribs in the smoker, bone side down. Leave as much room around them as you can to allow proper circulation.

Smoke the ribs at 225/250 for 3 hours.  Check the meat after 3 hours. If you the bones are loose and the rib starts to break when you pick it up then its done. If its not quite tender enough wrap with foil and continue cooking for another hour and up to 2 more hours.  The longer you cook it the more tender it will get but it will get to the point where it just falls apart and looses its texture. You want the meat to stay on the bone while you handle it but come off with just the smallest of tugs.  If you don't wrap them after 3 hours they will start to dry out.  You can use a mop sauce after the 3 hour mark to keep them moist and eliminate the foil.

Once they reach the desired tenderness remove them from the smoker and let them sit, at room temp for a few minutes before you serve them. I cut them into 2 rib portions.That gives you a good amount of meat per person and its easy to handle. 

*You can finish these in the over after they smoke for 3 hours. Just follow the same procedures.  Heat your oven to 250, wrap in foil and check them every 30 minutes. 

** You can of course do the whole process in the oven. Same temps and times.  Don't touch them for at least 3 hours and bake them on a rack over a sheet pan...but line it with foil to minimize the clean up.

Garlic Pork Enchiladas with Green Chile Sour Cream Sauce

Ok, so I made a huge batch of my pork filling and green chile sauce and needed another use for it. These are so easy and so good that I couldn't pass them up.


Ingredients

12 corn tortillas
3 cups Garlic Pork Filling (click for recipe)
2-3 cups Green Chile Sour Cream Sauce (click for recipe)
2 cups grated jack or chihuahua cheese
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro leaves
2 lime wedges

Method

Preheat oven to 400
Place 6 tortillas each in a Ziploc bag, seal it and microwave for 1 minute.
In 9x13 (non-metal) baking dish add a couple tablespoons of sauce to coat the bottom.
Take a tortilla, lay it in the bottom of the pan then flip it over so you have sauce on both sides.  Fill the tortilla with the pork filling and a sprinkle of cheese. Roll it up and move to the end of the pan, seam side down. Put as much filling as you can but don't over stuff them or they will fall apart. Repeat this step 11 more times. Yo should have enough room in the pan for 12 enchiladas.   Keep spooning sauce into the pan as you need it.  You want both sides of the tortillas to have at least some sauce.  Warning...the tortillas will be excessively hot coming out of the Ziploc bags. 

If there is any pork filling left, sprinkle it on top of the enchiladas, cover the whole thing with sour cream sauce, leaving the tips on each side exposed.  Sprinkle with the remaining cheese.

Bake at 400 degrees until the cheese on top starts to brown and the sauce is bubbling.

Plating:  Place 2-3 enchiladas on a plate with a couple of lime wedges. Sprinkle the chopped cilantro on top.


FYI:  I use the microwave and plastic bag technique to A) Save time  B) Cut down on the grease & oil.  I like these particular enchiladas to be soft and tender and steaming them in the bags works best for my taste.  You can par-fry the tortillas instead of steaming. Just drain them well and I would suggest crisco or peanut oil.

Garlic Pork & Goat Cheese Quesadilla with Green Chile Sour Cream Sauce

I had thought about a goat cheese and pork quesadilla for some time before I decided to give it a try.  My first idea was to just add chunks of the cheese into the pork filling but I recently saw a recipe posted by Chef Tim Love where he spread the goat cheese on the tortilla. Genius idea. It really holds it together and makes it work.

The key to this is to have your two main ingredients prepped and ready to go.  Those being the Garlic Pork Filling and the Sour Cream sauce.  Aside from that is it very very simple.

Ingredients

4 Flour Tortillas
2 cups Garlic Pork Filling (click for recipe)
1/2 cup Green Chile Sour Cream Sauce (click for recipe)
1 teaspoon olive oil
4 oz Goat Cheese
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro leaves.

Method

Heat up your sour cream sauce in a small sauce pan.

Spread 1 oz of goat cheese on each tortilla. Evenly distribute the pork filling between the tortillas, keeping the filling all to one side of each one. Fold the tortilla over like a taco.  in a large skillet, heat the oil and spread it around the skillet with a paper towel.  Bring the heat up to medium-high.  Cooking 2 at a time, toast each side of the folded tortillas until they are golden brown.

To plate, add a couple spoonfuls of the sauce to the center of the plate.  Cut each quesadilla into 3 triangular pieces, stack on the sauce and drizzle with the sour cream sauce. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve.

Garlic Pork (Filling)

Not a whole lot of explanation on this one. I was really just thinking of ways to tweak my other shredded pork recipe to bring out some other flavors. I feel that I succeeded. The addition of a whole head of garlic and orange juice really did the trick.

Ingredients

4 lbs Pork Loin

1 head of garlic (8-10 cloves)
2 small/medium white onions
1 cup orange juice (with some pulp)
4 cups water

1 tablespoon Goya Adobo Seasoning

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons Spanish olive oil
2 poblanos

Method

Cut the pork loin into 1-2 inch chunks. 

Peel and rough chop the garlic.  Rough chop 1 of the onions.

In a stock pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat.  Add the pork to the pot and season with salt, pepper and adobo.  Cook until there is no pink showing on the pork. To the stock pot, add the water, orange juice, garlic and onion. Stir.   Bring to a full rolling boil then reduce the heat to medium so the liquid is still slowly bubbling.  Cook until the liquid is just about gone, stirring occasionally.

While the pork is cooking, remove the stems and seeds from the Poblanos and cut length-wise into 1/4 wide strips.  Cut the onion into quarters then slice into half moon shaped pieces. 

When there is just a little liquid left toss in the poblanos and sliced onions. Start breaking up the pork chunks with your stirring spoon until is all shredded. Leave a few small chunks...they are great for a burst of flavor.  Turn up the heat to medium high and cook (stirring often) until pork mixture starts to stick to the bottom of the pan and turn brown.  The poblanos and onions should have cooked and softened by this time.  Remove from heat. 

This can be used for tacos, enchiladas, quesadillas, sandwiches, nachos...its good all by itself as well.

Shredded Pork Enchiladas with Tomatillo Sauce

I have been making these enchiladas for many years now. Even the pickiest eater has liked them.  The whole things started off with me just learning to make a salsa verde. Then I figured out the best way to make alot of pork for filling a bunch of enchiladas and tweaked the recipe until it was what I was wanting. 

I make these over a 3 day period when I am making a large batch of them. First I make the pork, then the sauce, then heat it all up, assemble and bake.  You can certainly make it all at one time if you are not making a huge quantity.

This recipe makes 1 batch (9x13 pan) of enchiladas: (For more than 1 batch: For the sauce, just multiply times the number of batches you want to make. For the pork, you have to use your judgment on the quantity)



Tomatillo Sauce

2 -11oz cans whole tomatillos, drained
     (or 1 lb of fresh tomatillos, shucked, rinsed, cooked drained)
2 –Serrano Chiles or 3 Jalapeno Chiles…depends on your taste.
     Use more of either for more heat. Remove seeds to reduce the heat.
1 bunch of cilantro
1 tsp ground cumin
1 lime
3-4 cloves of garlic or ½ to 1 clove of elephant garlic
       (more if you like)
1 15 oz can of chicken broth/stock
Salt & pepper to taste
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil (Spanish preferred)

Chop the garlic and fry it in a large deep skillet or pan over medium heat in a couple tablespoons of olive oil. Do not brown it or over cook it…just want it to soften. Tear or cut the long stems from the cilantro. Rinse & drain it. Drain the tomatillos & put them into a blender/food processor with the chicken broth, cilantro, cumin , salt, pepper and a drizzle of olive oil. Blend until pretty smooth. You don’t want any big chunks of tomatillo, add a squeeze of lime at the end.
Turn up the heat on the skillet to high and pour in the blended tomatillo mixture. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer (usually about 15 to 20 minutes..longer for bigger batches)

Salt and pepper to taste. It will seem a little tart but it all comes together with the entire dish.

Set aside for at least a few hours so the flavors can combine. Overnight in the fridge is best.



Shredded Pork

Large pork roast or loin (Pork Shoulder is good if you trim
most of the fat off I use the big pork loin as it makes a lot of filling)
1 large white onion – rough chopped
1 tablespoon chile powder
2 Jalapenos – rough chopped (remove the seeds for no heat)
2/3 Poblanos, rough chopped
As many cloves of garlic as you want….I use a 1-2 cloves
of elephant garlic. – rough chopped
Salt & Fresh Cracked Pepper
¼ cup Chicken Base (buillion)
Tablespoon of cumin
3 tablespoons Spanish Paprika
1 large lime
1 15oz can Chicken Stock/Broth
Water

Cut the pork into large chunks.
In a large stock pot sauté the onions and jalapenos, poblanos and all spices/seasonings. Cook until tender.
Add the pork and stir around to mix the onions, peppers and spices with the meat. Add in chicken broth and enough water to cover the meat about 90%.  Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Let it boil for awhile until you can see the water level starting to lower from evaporation. Reduce to medium and cook until all or almost all the water is gone.

The fat should all render out. If you see any big pieces of fat remaining then take it out.

Squeeze the lime into the meat about halfway through the cooking.

Shred the meat by hand and put it into a seperate dish. It should come apart easily.  At this point you can toss in more sauted onions & peppers and mix into the shredded meat if you like.

Cover and set aside to rest. Overnight in fridge is best.



Assembly

22 Corn tortillas
Shredded Cheese (Cheddar/Jack mix or Chihuahua cheese is very good)
Non-stick spray
Prepared Tomatillo sauce (above)
Prepared Shredded Pork (above)
1 large sheet pan

Spray your pan with the non-stick spray.

Heat the pork in the oven until tips start to brown and heat the sauce on the stovetop. You want everything hot but not too hot to handle.

Put the tortillas in sealable plastic sandwich bags, about 10 or so in each. Heat each bag in microwave for 1 minute. Only heat them as you need them.

Spread some sauce on bottom of pan to coat it.

Place a tortilla in the pan on the sauce, flip it over to get a little sauce on both sides, fill it with pork and cheese, roll it up and place at end of the pan, seam side down. Use however much you like.

Repeat until the pan is full…put as many as you can fit. On a large sheet pan I usually get 22 enchiladas….2 rows of 11.

Cover with sauce but don’t drown them in it…but do it to whatever you like. I try to leave some tortilla exposed so they brown on the edges and add flavor.

Cover with cheese.

Bake at 350-400 until cheese is melted and edges of tortillas start to brown.

Serve right out of the oven with a drizzle of Mexican crema and a wedge of lime.

Pulled Pork

This one came as a result of a trip through Memphis and Mississippi. We ended up in Clarksdale (Mississippi) because I wanted to see the Delta Blues Museum.  While that was interesting and I was glad I got to go, the real gem of the trip was the discovery of the best pork sandwich I had ever tried. 

I had heard about Abe's BBQ on one of the food or travel shows on tv and when I saw the sign just had to stop in and try it out.  I had never had real southern pulled pork and boy was I missing out. Abe's sits at the fabled "Crossroads" where Robert Johnson was said to have sold his soul to the Devil.  You'd probably never stop here unless some locals told you about it or, like me, saw it on tv.  If you are ever down that way give it a try.

I cook this half way in a smoker and finish in the oven. You can certainly do the whole thing in the oven but you won't get that good smokey flavor.

Ingredients

2 Bone-in Pork Shoulders
1 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup paprika (sweet or hot...not smoked)
2 tablespoons garlic powder
2 tablespoons onion powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon chile powder (Gephardts is pretty good)
2 teaspoons of white sugar
1 tablespoon cayenne
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup water

Prep

For pulled pork you want a bone in pork shoulder. Trim off any excess fat or pieces of hard fat.  Look around the bone end for traces of blood. There is a vein that you need to remove or the meat in that area will have an off taste.  Pat both pieces dry with a paper towel and place in a large baking dish.

In a large bowl mix all the dry ingredients. Rub the mixture on the pork shoulders, coating it all over. Keep a 1/4 cup of the rub for the mop sauce

To make the mop sauce, heat up a sauce pan and add in the water, vinegar and left over rub. Bring it to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer until the rub is dissolved.  remove from the heat at set aside.

Mop Sauce

Cooking

If using a smoker, get it prepped and have the temperature at 250 degrees. You want to maintain close to that temperature the entire time.  A hickory/oak mix works well. The hickory gives great flavor and the oak burns hot and long. I use a digital probe to monitor the temperature of the smoker as well as the pork. Place the meat directly on the rack and smoke the shoulders until they reach an internal temperature of 145. They really wont take in the smoke after that point and your just burning up your wood.  Move the meat to a 225 degree oven and cook uncovered until the internal temperature reaches 190.   At this time, mop or spoon the sauce you made all over the shoulders. Continue cooking until the internal temp is 205-210.  At this point the internal fat has mostly rendered out and it will pull apart easily.  Remove from the oven and let sit for 20 minutes.

If you don't have a smoker, just follow the same procedure except start in the oven at 250 until the temperature reaches 145. Then reduce and finish the same way.

You should have something that look like this:

Once the pork has cooled enough to handle, start tearing it apart with your hands. Pull out the bone and any large pieces of fat that may not have rendered.  Toss the pulled (shredded) pork with the mop sauce or any BBQ sauce that you like. Don't use too much. You just want to keep the pork moist and give it a kick.  Makes excellent sandwiches, tacos, quesadillas, nachos, etc....Also great on eggs or just by itself.  The 2 shoulders are going to make enough for about 12 people or more. You can store the meat in the fridge for about a week.  Just heat up a skillet and toss it around to warm it up.