You know, I always have great intentions for a fabulous, involved Sunday supper.   But let’s face it:  I typically don’t wander into the kitchen on the weekend until  I’m actually starting to get hungry.  So when we bought this rack of ribs for the weekend, I’m sure we pictured firing up the charcoal grill and recreating some 3-hour Bobby Flay masterpiece.  This did not come to pass.  Instead, I went for the easy option in half the time.  And gosh darnit, they was gooood.

Lazy Oven Baby Back Ribs
Serves 2

1 rack of pork baby back ribs
2 tbsp bbq rub (I recommend the California BBQ Seasoning from Surfa’s, but most anything will work here.  You can also put together your own my mixing some chili powder, cumin, salt, pepper, granulated garlic and onion etc)
2 tbsp brown sugar
Salt and Pepper
1 1/2 cups of your favorite bbq sauce

Set your oven to a toasty 400°F.  While its coming to temp, wash and trim  your rack of ribs.  It’s good to have a thin layer of fat on the meaty side, but not too much as it won’t have time to fully render in the oven.  Pat it dry and then thoroughly rub in the bbq rub, brown sugar, and salt and pepper into both sides.  You want a nice even coat of seasoning, just like in the pic below.

Now wrap the whole rack up burrito style in two layers of heavy duty aluminum foil.  You’re looking for a very tight seal to trap in all the meat’s juices during cooking.  Toss that onto a baking sheet, bones down and meaty side up, set the timer for an hour and they’re ready for the oven.

Alright, so the hour has passed and these ribs are ready for some tasty bbq sauce.  Tonight I just doctored up a generic bottled sauce with some honey, apple cider vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, and a tasty chipotle hotsauce.  You wanna whip up something homemade?  Knock yourself out.  Open up the foil (and keep it open from this point on), give the ribs a flip, and baste about 1/3 of the sauce onto the bone side of the rib rack.  You’ll notice that the meat has started to pull away from the bone at this point. Return that to the 400° oven for about 15 minutes.

Flip the ribs again and baste the meaty side, and return to the oven for another 15 minutes.  Finally, give them one last baste then slide them under your oven’s broiler for 2-5 minutes, and keep a close eye on them.  This will help caramelize and set the bbq sauce which sorta replicates how the grill would treat them.

And there you have it!  I probably should have let them go a few more minutes in the broiler, but my tummy won the battle.  Slice them up and EAT.  What I really liked about this recipe is that they produced the perfect rib tenderness.  Not so tender that they fall off the bone before they reach your mouth, but just tender enough to very easily pull away when you’re eating.  And yeah, ok, I know it sounds like a lot of work to call them lazy.  But all in all, although it took about 1hr 40 minutes from start to finish, less than 20 minutes was actual hands-on cooking time.  And that suits me just fine.  ENJOY!