Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Jamaican Ribs

I really like ribs, but I hardly ever eat them since they're almost always covered in some kind of sweet sugary sauce. They intimidated me for some reason, so I never considered cooking some myself - they just seemed like they required a lot of equipment I don't have, like a grill or a smoker. Well I finally got over my fear of cooking healthy sugarless ribs at home with the following recipe. It uses a Jamaican inspired marinade followed by slow oven cooking to produce some nice tender ribs with a pleasing herby crust. I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did!



serves 2

ingredients:
1.5 lbs pork baby back ribs
1 T dried thyme
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground or crushed coriander
1/2 cup water
2 T extra virgin olive oil

Combine all the ingredients in a plastic bag and marinate for at least 1 hour, but 3 hours is better. Preheat the oven to 290 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet with foil and lightly oil it with some extra olive oil. Lay the ribs on the baking sheet and cover tightly with foil. Bake for 2 hours. Remove from the oven and drain any liquid. Heat up the broiler. Broil ribs meaty side up for 5 minutes to crisp up.

You can double this easily and make some tasty leftovers. I had some leftovers for lunch the next day and they were great.

Recipe is adapted from Eating Stella Style by George Stella.

This recipe is part of the Natural Cures Healthy Recipe Blog Carnival over at Hartke is Online!

13 comments:

Yummy said...

Thanks for the great recipe! I have some ribs in mt freezer and you've inspired me to cook them up this weekend.

Kimberly said...

Ditto on the sugar! Thanks for this great recipe, I love ribs and my husband does too!

I appreciate you sharing this with the Natural Cures blog carnival on healthy recipes!

Kimberly

Jenny @ Nourished Kitchen said...

That looks fantastic. Just what I need for a barbeque we're hosting this Saturday. Do you think it'd work well with lamb ribs (that's all I have).

Elizabeth said...

Jenny - I have no idea if lamb ribs would work or not. I've never cooked ribs before in my life until I made this recipe. I can't imagine that the flavors in the marinade would be bad, but I don't know if lamb needs to be treated differently in terms of cooking time/temperature.

Yummy said...

Hey Elizabeth, I was inspired to cook up some ribs thanks to you!! I think it was the first time I had ever made them myself. I used slightly different spices but your cooking method. They were sooooo good and fall off the bone tender. Thanks so much!

LivingPrimal said...

Incredible recipe!! Finally got a chance to make these this weekend, and the comment I received from a friend was "Wow! The crisping at the end really add something to these!" Really delicious!

Unknown said...

Thank you for the great recipe! Looking forward to trying it tonight. So hard to find a rib recipe with no sugar!

Greg said...

I just made these today, they came out really delicious!! I only marinaded them for an hour, next time I'll try for 3, but even with just 1, they turned out great.

remy said...

I just made these tonight... mouth-watering!

remy said...

Check it out :)

http://www.crossfitsouthbay.com/2009/12/intro-to-zone/

ashe higgs said...

is that broccoli greens in the photo?

Anonymous said...

I can't wait to test this recipe. What a unique combination of spices, thank you. Smells great!

Ben said...

I've made this twice now. They are outstanding. I made them the first time without thyme (cause I forgot) and they still turned out delicious. I'm not sure if this was implied but I put the marinade over the ribs to cook. Great recipe!