Friday, June 11, 2010

Baby Back Ribs Quick and Easy

I used to hate fooling with ribs. I was brought up that you had to boil them first to get them tender. Then you had finish them on the grill and put the sauce on. It was too much trouble to do very often. I read a couple of alternative ways of making ribs and came up with a hybrid of all those recipes. These taste as good as my family's favorite ribs from Zea's Restaurant in New Orleans (of course it doesn't hurt that we use Zea's Tai sauce on them sometimes!) So here's how I do it. 

 First I make a rub -- 
1 cup brown sugar, packed 
1/4 cup Tony Chachere's or other Cajun seasoning (McCormick's Season-All would work also) 
1 Tbsp. garlic powder 
1 Tbsp. onion powder

 Mix dry ingredients together 

Next, use two to three full racks of baby back ribs -- leaner is better. Cut into four slabs each. Coat each slab with dry rub and layer in your crock pot. You can fill it up to the top. You should use all the dry rub in the above recipe for full flavor on three racks. If you do only two, you would use about 2/3 of rub, etc. 

Once you have all the ribs in the crock pot, pour a Coca-Cola over the ribs for moisture (you can substitute Dr. Pepper if you like). Cook on high for about four hours. 

 The ribs will be tender and delicious -- but there is one more step for perfection. To finish them off, remove the ribs from the crock pot and place them on two baking trays. Put your favorite barbeque sauce on top and then broil them on high for about 4 -5 minutes until the sauce is set and somewhat browned. 

Most people who eat these think you slaved forever. But, you won't even have to pull out the grill. (You can grill to set the sauce instead of using the broiler, if you prefer) Good Luck!