Fire Day Friday: Fight Night Ribs

There truly was no way of knowing that I would become as big of a boxing fan as I have become.  You see, Chris is a huge fan of boxing.  Did I say huge?  I mean HUGE!!!  If there is a fight on, you can pretty much guarantee he’s watching it.  When we first started dating, I thought, “crap, how will I ever truly enjoy this?  Ugh..I could easily become a boxing widow”.  But alas, that did not happen.  A strange phenomenon occurred, actually, I found myself looking forward to certain fights.  I found myself being able to hold actual conversations with people who knew the sport.  I found that at times, I actually enjoyed boxing.  It was a strange feeling to say the least.  Now, I’m one to think that boxing is a pretty brutal sport and there are times where I have to leave and go watch Shaun of the Dead in another room (lol), but for the most part, I have not become a boxing widow, but more like a boxing mistress 🙂

So why am I telling you all of this? Well, Saturday nights are usually fight night and I usually try to make something that goes well with boxing.  And let me tell you, ribs and boxing (and beer) are a match made in heaven!!  And these ribs…well, I hate to sound cliche but… they’ll knock your socks off!
The rub is one of my creations, but the BBQ sauce for the ribs…that delicious finger-licking good sauce is a slight adaptation of the notorious Pioneer Woman.  The two combined are magic!

Fight Night Ribs
Rub created by Jenn’s Food Journey, sauce adapted from The Pioneer Woman
Printable Recipe 
Ingredients:
1 teaspoon cocoa powder (I used black onyx but any will really do)
1 Tablespoon paprika (I used Hungarian Sweet)
1 teaspoon ancho chili powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 rack baby back ribs
1/2 cup ketchup
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 Tablespoon white vinegar
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 Tablespoon molasses
2 Tablespoons adobo sauce (the sauce that chipotles are packed in)

Directions:

In a small bowl, mix together the cocoa, paprika, ancho chili powder, garlic salt, and cayenne pepper.  Rub the mixture over both sides of the ribs.  Wrap ribs in plastic wrap and let sit in the refrigerator for 8 hours. (OK, you can do it 4 but I recommend more)
In a sauce pan over medium heat, mix the ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar, Worcestershire, molasses and adobo sauce together and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.  Remove from heat and allow to cool.
Preheat oven to 225 degrees F.  Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and place a wire rack over top of it.  Spray the rack with non-stick spray.  Place in oven and bake for 45 minutes.  Carefully remove the pan from the oven, brush the ribs with a little of the bbq sauce, and cover with foil – be careful, remember that pan is hot!!  Place back in the oven, turn down the heat to 200 degrees and continue to cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Remove from oven and allow to sit covered while you preheat your grill to 350 degrees F.  Brush the ribs with some sauce and place directly over the fire.  Grill for 5-8 minutes per side.  Remove from grill and allow to rest for 5 minutes before cutting into them.  Enjoy!

5 Comments

Martha (MM)

These ribs sure look delicious Jenn!

I’m a boxing mistress too – and a basketball mistress, a baseball mistress, a hockey mistress and… well I loved football before my husband came along. All great reasons for some good man food and cold beer (not that we need a reason 😉

Chris

These look like they have a punch of flavor! The would catch you with a right hook and jab taste into your mouth. After eating a slab of these, I’d be down for the count.

Did I miss any boxing puns? 😉

Great looking ribs, even if they spent time in an oven. Just kidding, I actually told my new grilling convert to use this method this week since she only has a grill and she LOVED it.

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