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!

Hello friends! Today I’m going to share with you an ancient knowledge imparted to me by the internets. How to make the perfect steak. If you are anything like I was, then you make terrible steak. It’s grey and bland and if you cooked it on a Foreman Grill, disturbingly flat. No more! Let me show you:

You’ll need:

- steaks of your choice
- kosher salt
- olive oil

Seriously. That’s it.

Step 1:

Salt! Take those steaks and place them on a cutting board, plate, loved one; the surface of your choice. Next, pour kosher salt all over them. Both sides. I’m talking coated. Like this:

I know, it seems questionable. Trust me on this. The salt de-natures any connective tissue in the meat, making it tender and awesome. This method can turn crap steaks very tasty. The crappier the steak, the longer amount of time the salt should be left on. These are filet mignons, cause I’m fancy like that, so I only salted them for about 15 minutes. For lower quality steaks, increase the salting time up to 1 hour. No more than that though, or bad and scary things will happen.

Also, use only kosher salt please! Iodized table salt will only make your steak taste like iodine. I’m sure sea salt would be fine, but kosher is cheaper.

Now that your steaks are all nice and salty, wash all of that salt off. Thoroughly. Or your steak will not be tasty. Don’t you want a tasty steak? I thought you did. There will be enough salt absorbed by the steak to season it. And bonus! It also creates a sexy crust on the outside when you sear it. Which brings us to.

Step 2:

Searing! Get an oven safe pan hot over medium heat. Not stupidly hot, but water should evaporate almost immediately when sprinkled on it. Also, turn your oven on to 400 degrees. Take your rinsed steaks and coat the outside lightly with olive oil. Regular stuff is preferable, the extra virgin stuff will just burn. Now, sear the crap out of those mofos! Both sides please!

I can’t give you a specific time on this, cause all stoves and cookware will vary, but you want a nice, brown crust to form. Like this!

Don’t worry if they’re not super caramelized, the next step will take care of that.

Step 3:

Oven time! Stick them in! I use a probe thermometer, cause I don’t mind a hole in my steaks, but use your preferred method to test doneness. Leave them in until they are done. I prefer my steaks Medium Rare, so I set the alarm on the thermometer to go off at 125 degrees. My hub likes his Medium Well, so his stays in until internal temperature is 145 degrees. Medium, 135 degrees! These numbers probably aren’t exact since quite a bit of the probe is exposed to the oven temperature, but these numbers get me really close. That’s all! Again, I can’t give you time on this, but normally it takes between 10 and 15 minutes in my oven.

Step 4:

Rest! Once you remove the steaks from the oven, allow them to rest for at least 10 minutes. If you skip this, the lovely steak juices will run out and this will make you sad. Cover them up with some tin foil while you finish cooking the rest of your meal.

Step 5:

Devour!!! Serve with some sauteed green beans and mashed potatoes, like I did tonight, or some sweet potato fries. But that’s another post.