But.
I made a discovery tonight.
Go to your Facebook page and look over at the left-hand side, right underneath your profile picture. Why, yes I do have 76 unread Facebook messages. Sent me a Facebook message and wondered why I never wrote you back? There’s your answer. You’ll see a link that says “Pages Feed.”
And voila! There are all the pages you’ve liked, subscribed to, wondered if they fell off the face of the planet. So if you’ve pondered our sudden disappearance from Facebook (or the disappearance of any of your other favorite blogs/pages/people/whatevers) have gone, we’re still here, I promise!
So anyway.
I love ribs. We’ve talked about this before. In addition to my love for ribs, I feel very strongly that they should be eaten caveman-style with no forks or knives. When it comes to ribs, pizza, burgers, and Snickers bars, table etiquette goes out the window.
Anyone who has spent even a little time with me knows that I run on sleepless nights and Diet Coke. When I was in college (another time when I ran on sleepless nights and Diet Coke, which was no small feat since caffeine wasn’t sold on campus), a friend taught me how to mix Diet Coke with a little fruit punch or juice and it became one of my favorite things. So when I started thinking of a new way of cooking ribs, I thought that would be such an amazing flavor combo. Except that you can’t cook with Diet Coke because cooking with Diet Coke is gross and, if you’re talking about glazing something, you’d need the sugar from regular Coke.
You’re going to need NON-DIET Coke (or Pepsi…I guess…), cranberry juice (100% juice, not juice cocktail), brown sugar, freshly squeezed lime juice, red wine vinegar, fresh garlic, fresh ginger, Creole mustard (or other mild grainy mustard), and some canned chipotle sauce. Try and find a small can of just plain chipotle sauce that doesn’t have the peppers in it–it tends to be milder and it’s easier to measure out what you need.
Combine all the ingredients except for the liquid smoke and the ribs in the jar of your blender or, if you have an immersion blender, in a pitcher. Blend until the ingredients are combined.
Reserve 1 cup of the liquid per rack of ribs (if making a lot, you may want to double the recipe–better to have too much than not enough). Now…you can either pre-cook the ribs in the oven or in your crockpot, depending on what’s easier for you. The oven method cooks faster, but with the crockpot, you can cook them all day and then finish them off right before dinner. So just do whatever’s easiest for you. If you’re making these in the oven, preheat oven to 300. Cut the ribs into portions that have 2-3 bones per portion. Place in a heavy lidded pot or Dutch oven (don’t use a baking dish covered with foil–it won’t retain enough heat and the ribs won’t be as tender) or in the crockpot.
Pour the unreserved liquid over the ribs, cover, and cook for 2 1/2-3 hours in the oven (about 6-8 hours on low in the crockpot) or until the meat is very tender (you may want to turn the ribs halfway through the cooking time, especially if they’re not all completely covered by the liquid). Place the reserved liquid in a small saucepan or skillet. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, for 5-7 minutes or until the liquid is starting to reduce and thicken slightly (if you’re starting with 1 cup, you want to reduce it by about 1/4 cup).
Remove from heat and set aside.
When the ribs are done braising, remove the pot from the oven and carefully transfer the ribs to a foil-lined pan. Sprinkle with liquid smoke or smoked paprika. Either turn the broiler on your oven to high or heat an outdoor grill to medium-high heat. Brush one side of the ribs with half of the reduced glaze and cook on the heated grill or under the broiler for 3-5 minutes or until the ribs are shiny and glazed. Flip the ribs and brush the opposite side with the remaining glaze and cook for another 3-5 minutes, being careful not to scorch the ribs. They should just be fall-off-the-bone tender.
Serve immediately. 1 rack serves about 2-3 adults.
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