Preheat oven to 180°. In a small bowl, combine the salt, black pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, and white pepper.
Cut two 18-inch long pieces of foil from a standard aluminum foil pack. Place each rack of ribs on one of the pieces of foil and season all over with the spice mixture.
Wrap the ribs in the foil, crimping the edges together to form a packet, and arrange the packets in a single layer on a large rimmed baking sheet.
Bake the ribs until the meat is tender, a knife should easily pierce the meat, 2 to 2 ½ hours. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly.
Meanwhile, make the BBQ sauce:
On a cutting board, smash the garlic with ½ teaspoon salt until pureed. Scrape the garlic into a small saucepan and add all the remaining sauce ingredients.
Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce the heat to medium-low. Simmer, until thickened and slightly darkened, about 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside.
Preheat a grill or grill pan over medium-high heat. Oil the grates. Carefully, remove the baked ribs from the foil, the liquid inside will be hot. Brush both sides with the BBQ sauce.
Grill until sauce is bubbling and ribs are lightly charred, about 4 minutes per side, brushing with more sauce if desired. Serve hot with extra sauce.
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Ingredients
BBQ SAUCE
1/2 c. apple cider vinegar
1/2 c. ketchup
1/2 c. packed light brown sugar
1 tbsp. garlic powder
1 tbsp. smoked paprika
1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
RIBS
1/4 c. light brown sugar
1/4 c. smoked paprika
2 tbsp. kosher salt
1 tbsp. garlic powder
1 tbsp. ground cumin
1 (3 1/2- to 4-lb.) full rack baby back pork ribs, patted dry
Directions
BBQ SAUCE
In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine vinegar, ketchup, brown sugar, garlic powder, paprika, Worcestershire, salt, and black pepper. Cook, whisking often, until sauce begins to thicken, about 5 to 7 minutes. Let cool.
RIBS
In a small bowl, whisk brown sugar, paprika, salt, garlic powder, and cumin.
Heat one burner on your gas grill to low, or preheat to 100°c. (Or prep your charcoal grill with charcoal stacked on one side.) Place ribs on a large piece of foil and coat all sides with dry rub. Let sit 10 minutes, then tightly wrap in foil.
Place ribs bone side up on cooler side of braai and cover. After 1 1/2 hours, rotate ribs 180° and cook 1 1/2 hours more. (Make sure grill temperature does not exceed 100°c.) Once they’ve cooked 3 hours total, you should be able to see bones protruding from meat when you peek inside foil. Remove ribs from grill and transfer to a large baking sheet. Open foil and let ribs rest 10 minutes.
Adjust grill to high heat, or preheat to about 220°c. (Turn on all burners or add more coals and spread them out evenly.) Remove ribs from foil and place directly on grill. Using a pastry brush, generously baste with BBQ sauce. Flip rack and baste other side with sauce. It helps to have 2 sets of tongs (or a set of tongs and a spatula) to flip the rack.
Grill until sauce is caramelized and meat has visible grill marks, 1 to 3 minutes. Flip again and continue to grill until sauce on other side is caramelized, 1 to 2 minutes.
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Ingredients
60ml vegetable oil
1 small red onion, diced (150g)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons chilli powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon lime zest
1 tablespoon finely grated ginger
80ml cider vinegar
6 1/2 tbsps tomato puree
6 1/2 tbsps honey
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
80ml soy sauce
60ml fresh orange juice
4 racks country ribs (8 to 10 pounds)
Directions
Heat the vegetable oil in a large saucepan over medium-low heat, and saute the onions and garlic for 5 to 7 minutes, until the onions are translucent but not browned. Add the chilli powder, ground cumin and red pepper flakes and continue cooking for 1 minute. Add the zest and ginger and cook for an additional minute. Add the vinegar, tomato puree, honey, mustard, soy sauce and orange juice and simmer uncovered on low heat for 15 minutes, until thick.
Marinate the ribs in 2/3 of the barbecue sauce for a few hours or overnight in the refrigerator.
Prepare a barbeque with a single layer of hot coals and then add a few more coals 5 minutes before cooking, which will keep the fire going longer. Place the ribs on the barbeque and cook for about 25 to 30 minutes, turning once or twice to cook evenly on both sides. Brush with the marinade as needed.
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Ingredients
Marinade:
3/4 cup chicken broth
3/4 cup soy sauce
1 cup sugar, divided
6 tablespoons cider vinegar
6 tablespoons olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
Meat:
2 racks baby-rack ribs (about 4-1/2 pounds)
Spice rub:
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
Dash cayenne pepper
Directions
Insert a knife between the membrane and the meat at one end of the ribs. Be careful not to pierce the membrane. Work your fingers under the skin to loosen it. Now you’re going to tug it off. Wrap a paper towel around your hand so you can get a good grip. Gently but firmly, pull off the silverskin. It should peel off quite cleanly.
Making a marinade is easy. It’s really just stirring together a variety of liquids and spices and letting the meat soak in them overnight. For this recipe, combine the broth, soy sauce, 1/2 cup sugar, vinegar, olive oil and garlic in a bowl or measuring cup with a pour spout. Place the ribs in a shallow baking dish, like a 13×9 pan. Pour two-thirds of the marinade over the meat. Turn to coat both sides, then refrigerate overnight. Turn the meat occasionally, to ensure that the meat is marinading evenly. (No need to get out of bed to do this. Just turn at night just before bedtime and turn again in the morning.)
Don’t toss that remaining marinade. Cover and refrigerate it. You’ll use it while you’re grilling.
Take the ribs out of the fridge. Drain and discard the marinade from the 13×9. Pat the ribs dry (this helps the spice rub stick). Rub the spice mixture over all sides of the ribs, patting with your fingertips to encourage it to adhere.
First, preheat a clean grill to medium heat (about 120°c), then oil the grill.
Place the ribs right on the grill, using tongs to maneuver them into place. Grill, covered, over indirect medium heat for 30 minutes on each side.
After the first hour, move the ribs to direct medium heat and cook 20-40 minutes longer, or until the pork is tender (more on this in a minute).
Occasionally, turn and baste with the reserved marinade (or barbecue sauce, if you prefer).
Start testing for doneness once the meat begins to pull away from the ends of the bones. This visual cue means it’s time to test. Pierce the meat with a fork and the tines should glide through easily.
You also can twist a rib bone a little bit; you should feel it move easily but not fall apart from the meat. If the meat falls off the bone, your ribs are overcooked. Remove from heat right away and make sure to have sauce at the table in case they’re a bit dry. Don’t beat yourself up! Next time, remember to check earlier.
After letting your ribs rest for 10 to 15 minutes, you’ll want to split them up into manageable portions. Using a sharp chef’s knife, carefully cut them into two-bone sections. Make the cuts as close to the bone as possible so there’s a lot of meat on each one.
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Ingredients
1 (2kg) pork shoulder roast, preferably Boston butt, boneless or bone-in (you can easily make two 4 pound roasts in about the same amount of time if your grill is big enough to accommodate them both)
5 to 6 cups wood chips, such as hickory, oak, apple, or other fruit wood
Prepare the rub: Mix all the ingredients for the rub together, breaking up any clumps. Taste the rub as you make it and see if you like the taste, adjust accordingly.
Rub the roast with the rub: Unwrap the pork roast and place it on its butcher paper or in a roasting pan, something that can catch the rub. With your (clean) hands work the rub mixture into the pork shoulder all over, including inside any crevasses you may find in a boneless roast where the bone had been. Be generous with the amount of rub.Rewrap it in the butcher paper or wrap it in plastic and place it in a pan (to catch any liquid that may drip out), and refrigerate it overnight.
Prepare your grill:Remove one of the grill grates. This will be your “hot” side, where the wood chips will go. The other side of the grill will be the “cool” side, and where the meat will be, away from direct heat.
Depending on the structure of your grill, you may want to remove the “flavor bar”, the thin metal piece with lots of holes in it that sits over the burner. The wood chips will smoke more easily if they lay in a (fireproof metal or foil) container directly on the burner.
Place a tray of water on the grill: If there is room on your grill, place a small aluminum tray of water on the grill to help moderate the heat and help keep the roast from getting too dry. A good place to place this is on an upper rack if you grill has one.
Get the grill smoking: Create a double layered aluminum foil boat with a handful or two of damp wood chips in it.
Place the boat directly on the burner on the “hot” side of the grill if you can (otherwise place on the flavor bar). Turn the grill on to medium flame, cover the grill and let it heat up until the the wood chips start smoking. You’ll either see smoke coming out of the grill, or if you raise the lid, you’ll see smoke coming out of the wood chip boat. You should see and smell the smoke. You’ll be replenishing the wood chips periodically for the next several hours so put more dry chips into water to soak if needed.
Cook roast on cool side of grill, fat side up: Once the grill is smoking, place the roast on the grill grates on the cool side of the grill, away from direct heat. If your grill has a hot spot, position the roast away from it. If there is a fatty side to the meat, put that side facing up; the fat will render over time and baste the pork.
Cover the grill, lower the flame, and let the cooking begin. The temperature you want to maintain ideally is 225°F. Try to keep it close to that temperature, within a range of 210°F to 240°F. If the temperature goes too high, the roast may dry out. If it’s too low, it will take forever to cook.
Maintain the smoke and the 100C temperature:This is the tricky part. You will want to maintain smoke in the grill for at least 4 hours (6 hours for a bigger roast). You will also want to maintain a cooking temperature of around 100°c. So, you have to check the grill!
Check if the temperature is being maintained between 90°c and 120°c, and check to make sure the chips are still producing smoke, every half hour. About once an hour you will likely need to replenish the chip boat with more wood chips.
Resist the temptation to open the grill more than once an hour. Every time you open the grill the inside temperature drops and you increase your overall cooking time.
I found the best way to check the temperature, since I don’t have a gauge in the grill itself, is to put an instant read meat thermometer into an opening in the hood on the meat side (cool side) of the grill, and just keep checking it. Make sure sensor tip of the probe is not touching the meat itself.
You want to avoid opening up the hood too often, because every time you do that, you lose heat. Of course, if your gas grill gets too hot, opening the hood can cool it down quickly.
Expect a minimum cooking time, if you have been diligent at maintaining a 100°c, of 90 minutes per pound. So if you are cooking a 4 pound roast, total cooking time will be at least 6 hours (and easily more). An 8 pound roast will take at least 12 hours of cooking time.
If you want to cook 4kg of pork shoulder more quickly, I recommend starting with two 2kg roasts, spaced on the grill a few inches apart, which will cook in just a little more time than an 4kg roast.
Reposition the roast: After 2 or 3 hours, during one of your hourly opening of the grill to refresh the wood chips, reposition the roast so that the side that was closest to the heat is now furthest from the heat.
Test internal temperature of meat: After about 5 hours, start taking the pork’s internal temperature: You can eat it at 85c, but if you are making pulled pork the meat needs to be ideally 95c
Remove from heat, let rest: When the meat reaches 90°c, remove it from the heat, tent it loosely with foil over a cutting board (to catch the juices) and let it rest for at least 30 minutes, and preferably 1 hour. If after 6 hours of cooking, if the meat hasn’t reached 95°c internal temp , my recommendation is to remove it from the grill and finish in the oven.
To finish in the oven, wrap the roast in aluminum foil to help prevent it from drying out in the oven, and place it in a roasting pan, in a 150°c oven.Cook until the internal temperature of the roast reaches 95°c. If your starting internal meat temperature is 150°c or so, this can take anywhere from an hour to two hours.When it reaches temperature, remove the roast from the oven and let rest for at least 30 minutes, up to an hour.
Pull the pork:
Pull the pork with 2 forks. Only now do you add any barbecue sauce (and any accumulated juices) to the meat. Taste it first! It might not need sauce at all, and if it does, add only a little at a time. One of the biggest sins of barbecue is to over-sauce perfectly good meat.
Note that this cooking time is for a 4-pound Boston butt pork shoulder. A general rule on barbecued pork is to cook it at about 105°c to 125°F for 90 minutes per 500g. If using a rub, you’ll need to get the rub on the night before and refrigerate.
Cooking a 4 pound roast, allowing time for the barbecue to heat up and for the meat to rest once done, can easily take 9 hours, so start early in the morning if you want to have the roast done in time for dinner.
You need to keep smoke on the meat for at least 4 hours for a 2kg roast. If the roast isn’t done after 6 hours, finish it in the oven, wrapped tightly in foil to hold in the moisture.
Two rub recipes are provided here. Pick one for a 2kg roast, or if barbecuing two roasts, try one each.
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Ingredients:
FOR THE CUCUMBER NƯỚC CHẤM SAUCE
6 tbsp. hot water
2 tbsp. granulated sugar
2 tbsp. fish sauce
1 tbsp. plus 2 tsp. lime juice
1/4 c. cucumber, finely chopped
1 tbsp. fresh cilantro, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 Thai bird’s eye chili, thinly sliced (optional)
FOR THE KEBABS
3 tbsp. reduced-sodium soy sauce
3 tbsp. honey
2 tbsp. fish sauce
1 tbsp. vegetable oil, plus more for cooking
1 lb. thick pork chops, cut into 1” pieces
2 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1” chunks
2 tbsp. water
1 large daikon, peeled and cut into 1” chunks
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Directions
Make the cucumber nước chấm: In a medium bowl, whisk together all the ingredients. Transfer to the fridge until ready to serve.
Make the kebabs: In a large bowl, whisk together soy sauce, honey, fish sauce, and oil until thoroughly combined. Add pork and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or up to 2 hours.
Soak skewers in a shallow pan filled with water for 10 minutes to prevent scorching. In a medium bowl, add carrots and 2 tablespoons of water. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and use a fork to pierce plastic a few times. Transfer bowl to a microwave and steam carrots until just beginning to soften (but still have some bite), 2 to 3 minutes.
Remove pork from marinade and transfer marinade to a medium saucepan. Bring sauce to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce to a simmer.
Cook until the sauce is reduced slightly and coats the back of a spoon, 5 to 7 minutes. Set aside.
Preheat grill to medium-high for 3 minutes. Thread pork, carrots, and daikon onto skewers. Brush skewers with a bit of neutral oil and season with salt and pepper.
Grill kebabs for 5 minutes, flipping every minute or so to ensure even cooking.
After 5 minutes, start brushing the kebabs with the reduced marinade after each flip, and cook for an additional 3 to 5 minutes, or until the thickest piece of pork reaches 145ºF on an instant read thermometer.
Transfer skewers to a platter, drizzle with the cucumber nước chấm and serve.
For more similar fantastic braai sosatie recipes click here! more recipes…
For more similar fantastic pork braai recipes click here! more recipes…
Ingredients:
1 rack St Louis Style Ribs or baby back
4 tablespoons honey
2-3 teaspoons chipotle chili powder
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
BBQ Sauce, choose your favorite- I like to use this
Directions
With a knife, remove the membrane on the back of the ribs. Rinse and pat dry the ribs.
Brush front and backs of ribs with honey.
Combine chipotle chili powder, paprika, garlic powder, salt, and pepper and sprinkle on ribs, using about 75% on the meaty side of the ribs.
Wrap ribs in a double layer of heavy-duty aluminum foil. Let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 150 degrees. Place ribs on a baking sheet and place in oven for 2 hours and 30 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool slightly before proceeding. Or you can refrigerate them overnight.
Heat grill to medium-high heat. Remove rack of ribs from aluminum foil and brush both sides with BBQ sauce.
Place on grill meaty side down and grill until you get nice char marks, about 5-10 minutes. Flip over and grill another 5-10 minutes.
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Ingredients:
2kg baby back or St. Louis Style Ribs 2 racks
1 1/2 cups sweet thai chili sauce
3/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons thai red curry paste
2 teaspoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons fresh ginger grated
2 cloves garlic minced or grated
pinch of pepper
Peanut BBQ Sauce
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup ketchup
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter warmed/melted
1/4 cup sweet thai chili sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 teaspoons thai red curry paste
1/2-1 tablespoon Chinese 5 spice
1 lime juice
1/4 cup cilantro chopped
Sweet Thai Ginger Slaw
4 cups cabbage shredded, use both green and purple
1 zucchini cut into strips
1 red pepper cut into strips
1 orange pepper. cut into strips
1 large jalapeno seeded + chopped
1/2 cup fresh cilantro chopped
1/2 cup fresh basil chopped
2 lime juiced
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons sweet thai chili sauce
1-2 tablespoons peanut butter warmed/melted, used 2
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon fresh ginger grated
1/2 cup salted peanuts chopped
Directions
If using baby back ribs take a butter knife, wedge it just underneath the membrane to loosen and pull the membrane up and off the bone. Then just use your hands to pull the rest of the membrane off.
Place the ribs in a large baking dish or roasting pan.
In a large 4 cup glass measuring cup or bowl combine the sweet thai chili sauce, soy sauce, red curry paste, fish sauce, ginger, garlic and pepper. Whisk to combine and then pour the marinade over the ribs. Place the ribs in the fridge overnight, turning then once or twice if possible to make sure they get fully covered in the marinade.
The next morning or afternoon (depending on when you plan to eat) preheat the oven 150C. Cover the baking dish tightly with foil and bake for 2 1/2-6 hours (if you go the full six hours bake them at 165C degrees .) or until very tender. Try to baste the ribs once or twice during cooking. During this time I prepare the BBQ sauce and slaw (recipes below).
When the ribs are done cooking preheat the grill to medium high heat and grease the grates. Remove the ribs from the baking dish and place them a baking sheet or large tray. Cover the ribs in the Peanut BBQ sauce (recipe below) and grill 3-5 minutes per side or until lightly charred. Be careful flipping the ribs as the will be very tender. Serve the ribs with more Peanut BBQ sauce and the Thai Slaw (recipes below).
Peanut BBQ Sauce
In a large glass measuring cup or bowl whisk together the soy sauce, ketchup, warm/melted peanut butter, sweet thai chili sauce, rice vinegar, thai red curry paste, Chinese 5 spice, lime juice and cilantro.
If the sauce is not mixing place it in the microwave or over the stove and warm until everything is melted together.
If the sauce is to thick add water to your liking.
Thai Peanut Slaw
Add the cabbage, zucchini, red pepper, orange pepper, jalapeno, cilantro and basil to a large bowl.
In another small bowl whisk together the lime juice, rice wine vinegar, sweet thai chili sauce, warmed/melted peanut butter, fish sauce, soy sauce and fresh ginger.
Pour the dressing over the slaw and toss well to coat. Place in the fridge until ready to serve and then add the peanut.
