Garlic Lemon pepper almost fried spare ribs

Original Blog Post: https://greedygirlcooks.blogspot.com/2020/04/garlic-lemon-pepper-almost-fried-spare.html

Ingredients

For the dry brine

2 racks ribs

1 tablespoon onion powder

1 tablespoon black pepper

1 tablespoon lemon or lime zest

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon salt

For the lemon pepper sauce

Pan drippings

1 tablespoon chopped garlic

1 teaspoon shredded garlic

2 teaspoon lemon/lime zest

1-2 large lemon (juice)

1 teaspoon black pepper

2 teaspoon sugar

Additional ingredients

1 cup hot water

1 ½ tablespoon oil

(Oil for frying)

Greedy Tips:

    • I tend to use the word broil a lot in my insta-stories and I am not sure persons realize that your oven isn’t a one size fits all system. Do not mistake Broiling for Baking. Baking which is the traditional setting on an oven uses indirect heat at a lower temp which sometimes circulates hot air around the food using a fan (convection baking) the heat source comes from the bottom of the oven. Broiling uses fast direct high heat cooking and is a heat source from the top (ceiling of the oven) So broiled foods would need to get flipped in order for both sides to get a sear. While most time when you bake, the top and bottom are slowing cooking at the same time.
    • Braising is a completely different thing. Braising just means searing/frying the meat in some oil until it develops color and then sealing it in a pan (usually the same pan u seared it in) with a little liquid and allowing it to slowly cook at a low temp until tender. In this recipe, I did my braise completely in the oven starting with the broil setting then changing to the convection bake setting
    • Dry brine just mean its a brine without the added water. Same salt sugar but the sugar and salt seep into the meat mixing with the water in the meat to create a kind of internal brine. Works great for turkey since its very hard to find a container big enough to hold the liquid and the turkey for a traditional wet brine. I have switched to dry brining turkey for a few years now.

Instructions for Oven braising

    • Wash and pat dry the ribs
    • Combine all the ingredients for the dry brine and sprinkle over the ribs evenly back and front
    • Place on a tray in the refrigerator overnight uncovered
    • Preheat oven to broil 550 degrees
    • Slice the whole rack of ribs into individual ribs
    • Lay the ribs in a sheet pan and coat lightly with 1 ½ tablespoon of oil
    • Place in the oven and broil the two large sides until slightly golden about 8 minutes per side
    • Reduce oven heat to 325, pour the 1 cup of hot water over the ribs, cover tightly with foil and let it cook for two hours or until fork tender
    • Once done pour off the liquid (discarding any excess oil)
    • Reduce the drippings with shredded and chopped garlic, lemon/lime zest, and juice black pepper and sugar. Reduce until it is a rich glaze.
    • Toss the ribs in the garlic lemon pepper sauce and serve.

Instructions for frying

    • Follow all the instruction above until its cooked tender in the oven
    • Once done and out the oven, pour off the liquid (discarding any excess oil)
    • Reduce the drippings with shredded and chopped garlic, lemon/lime zest and juice black pepper and sugar. Reduce until it is a rich glaze set aside
    • Allow the ribs to completely cool to room temp and set in the refrigerator to firm up a bit about 30 minutes
    • Meanwhile in a deep pot heat up some oil to 375 degrees
    • Fry the ribs in small batches in the hot oil for about two minutes until the exterior is crispy
    • Quickly drain on a paper towel
    • Then toss the ribs in the garlic lemon pepper sauce and serve immediately.