Oven Barbecue Ribs
Inspired by the lovely and amazingJennie ^[1]

Ingredients:

2 whole slabs pork baby back ribs (you can use beef ribs here if you don’t eat pork)

Dry Rub
½ cup brown sugar
2 tsp sweet paprika
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp garlic powder
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp salt
1 teaspoons instant espresso powder
¼ tsp allspice
1 tsp chipotle powder (optional – if you don’t have it – not the end of the world)
a few pinches of cayenne

Braising Liquid/BBQ Glaze
1 cup cola (preferably not with high-fructose corn syrup, but all the stores around me only had Coca Cola)
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp maple syrup

Preparation:

Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl until well combined.

Rub mixture evenly all over each rack of ribs, making sure to coat top and bottom. Place ribs in a roasting pan, cover, and let sit in the refrigerator for a few hours, or overnight. Overnight is way, way better.

When ready to cook ribs – preheat oven to 200ºF.

While the oven is preheating, heat your liquid ingredients in a microwave for 1 minute.

Remove the ribs from the refrigerator and pour the warm liquid over the ribs, cover the baking dish with foil and place the ribs in the oven. Mine required two roasting pans. I placed the ribs side by side – as my own size allows for it. Cook them for about 3 to 3 1/2 hours. If cooking on separate racks, alternate pans halfway through. If the ribs are cooking on the same level, rotate pans around halfway through.

After the time period above passes, remove pans from the oven, throw away the foil, and pour the liquid into a medium sauce pot. Bring the sauce to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer, cooking until the liquid is reduced by half. The liquid will get thicker and more viscous.

Preheat broiler and brush the reduced glaze on top of each rack of ribs. Be generous with the glaze. Place ribs under the broiler for 2 minutes until the glaze starts to caramelize. Don’t overcook, or you might be eating charred ribs – and no one wants that.

Let the meat rest for a few minutes, then slice and serve.