Wednesday, May 1, 2019

BBQ'ed Country Style Ribs

I'm going to cook country style ribs in my new Instant Pot for the first time today.  I got a BOGO deal at the local grocery, so I bought two packs of the ribs: 3 ribs in each pack ,which is just right for us. So, first pack is our test subject. Hopefully, I won't screw it up so bad I have to order pizza. :)

I've already cooked St. Louis style ribs, a pot roast, chicken and dumplings, Spanish rice, and baby lima beans in my new toy so I have a pretty good idea how to do this. Length of cooking time is really the only question. I googled it, of course, but the time to cook country style ribs seems to fall into two camps: ~10 minutes or ~45 minutes. I'm afraid 10 minutes won't get them done and certainly not tender. I'm also afraid that 45 minutes will overcook the ribs making them drier than I want...and also completely falling apart. 

Completely falling apart would work if I was going for pulled pork, and I really love my pulled pork, but that's not the texture I'm going for. I want the meat well done and tender, but still hanging together so I can get the ribs out of the pot in one piece for the next step.

I plan to put a dry rub on the ribs before they go into the pot, cook them, then put them on a baking sheet, slather barbecue sauce all over them and then put them under the broiler for a few minutes so the sauce will caramelize and really get tasty!

So, here's my plan:

  1. Coat each of the ribs with a dry rub. I make my own.
  2. Put the trivet in the pot with 1 cup of water (broth might be better, but I don't have any right now).
  3. Put the ribs on the trivet, and pour some barbecue sauce over them. I use the bottled Kraft stuff because we all like the flavor of it.
  4. Cook under pressure for 20 minutes (split the difference).
  5. Do a 15 minute natural pressure release, then vent the remaining pressure.
  6. Check for internal temperature with my instant read thermometer. For pork I look for 160 degrees, but with the 15 minute rest it might be a bit lower, but I'm not taking chances with underdone pork!

    6b. If the ribs need more cooking, I'll put them back under pressure for another few minutes followed by a quick release and check again.
  7. Move the ribs to a foil lined baking sheet and slather on the bbq sauce.
  8. Broil the ribs at 450 degrees in the toaster oven until the sauce on the ribs begins to caramelize and blacken. I actually like the slightly burned bits, but I only want a few spots to start to blacken. I'm not looking to really burn these ribs.
I'll let you know how they come out!

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