CCCowbelle’s Beef Recipe

I’ve been asked, how can you make “smoked and grilled beef ribs” if you don’t have a grill or a smoker? You just buy some ribs, turn on that oven, and make some fall-off-the-bone beef ribs! You won’t believe these oven-baked results; the ribs smell and taste smoked and grilled. Of course a smoker is better, but this is a great (and easy!) alternative. I used back ribs, but this recipe will work for any beef ribs.

Oven-Baked Dry-Rubbed Fall-Off-The-Bone Beef Ribs

Ingredients

2.5 pounds of beef ribs 1 tablespoon onion powder 1 tablespoon garlic powder 2 tablespoons brown sugar 1 tablespoon oil 1/2 teaspoon cumin 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon chili powder 1 teaspoon smoked paprika About 2 tablespoons your favorite BBQ sauce Equipment: Large baking sheet • Aluminum foil • Ziploc bag or large air-tight container • Basting or pastry brush • Spoon

Directions:

Remove the inedible silverskin on the underside of the ribs to ensure the dry rub gets to the meat on the underside. Use a sharp knife to get underneath the connective tissue sitting just on top of the bone on the underside of the ribs. Once you have a flap, use your hands (with a paper towel helps) to pull it off. Put all of the spices in a bowl. Add in the oil and then mix the ingredients together very well until they form a crumbly paste. Apply the spice mixture liberally to the beef ribs and cover each side of the ribs. Use all of the spice mixture. Place the spice covered ribs into a ziploc bag or an air-tight container and leave them outside of the fridge for 1-2 hours to marinate for same day preparation (or overnight in the fridge for next day preparation). After marinating (ie, when ready to cook), pre-heat oven to 250 degrees F. Put a large sheet of aluminum foil over a large baking sheet and then place the beef ribs on the foil. Wrap the ribs up by either using another foil sheet, or folding the sheet you already have down, whichever is easiest. The goal is to create a sealed pouch for the ribs to sit in. Make sure not to pile the ribs on top of one another. Put the ribs into the oven on the middle rack, close the oven door, and forget about them for 3-4 hours (I went 3.5) then take out of the oven and open up the pouch to see how the ribs are doing. They won’t look right at first, but you will notice that they are already fall-off-the-bone tender. At this point, set the oven to broil. Once the broiler is fully hot, place the ribs under the broiler on the middle rack for 5 minutes. This allows the ribs to take on color and get a much crispier texture on the outside. Be careful and watch the ribs the entire time. The fat from the ribs that ends up on the foil can sometimes catch fire under high heat. If that happens, simply remove the ribs, sop up any grease from the foil that may be catching fire with paper towel, and return ribs to the broiler. You can now eat the ribs, but I highly recommend first taking some of your favorite barbecue sauce and brushing about 2 tablespoons lightly over all of the ribs. You can use a basting/pastry brush. I don’t recommend baking/broiling with the barbecue sauce because it burns very easily. If the ribs were all connected as one rack, you can now cut up the ribs using a large butcher knife before serving. Otherwise, just tear off pieces and enjoy. Be careful moving them around before serving because these ribs really do fall off the bone.