Homemade Bacon & Bourbon Back Ribs
Recipe Courtesy of Marlaine Hogben
Ingredients
- 3 full racks Johnston’s Baby Back Ribs
- 1/2-1 cup onions thinly sliced
- Whole branches rosemary sprigs
- chicken stock
Bacon & Bourbon Sauce
- 4 slices Johnston’s Bacon cut in half length-wise, then cross-wise into 1/4”
- 4 large garlic cloves peeled and chopped random-size
- ¼ cup worcestershire sauce
- 1 cup apple cider vinegar
- 3/4-1 cup brown sugar (light or dark)
- ¼ cup dijon mustard
- grated rind of an orange
- ¾ cup ketchup
- ¾ cup steak sauce
- ¼ cup bourbon or regular whiskey
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- Sprinkle onion slices (about 1/2 cup) into a bake pan, pour in low sodium chicken stock (enough to cover bottom of pan) and arrange the rib racks, overlapping but not completely on top of one another. Add more onion slices and rosemary on top of the ribs and cover pan with foil.
- Put ribs into a 400°F oven to start then turn down to 275°F to bake for about 2 hours, or until meat is fork-tender. Midway, remove foil and baste the ribs with pan juices (aroma fantastic!) and add a little more stock if bottom of pan is too dry.
- When the ribs are done, remove foil and rosemary; pour BBQ sauce over the ribs. Place pan back into the oven at about 350°F until sauce is bubbling over the ribs (about 30 minutes).
- Remove pan from the oven, let the ribs rest for about 5 minutes before cutting.
- Serve and Enjoy!
Bacon & Bourbon Sauce
- In a saucepan over medium heat, cook bacon pieces until lightly browned, stirring often. Add garlic and cook until bacon is crisp (but not hard) and garlic is soft and golden. Remove pan from heat and pour off excess fat.
- In a bowl combine remaining ingredients (except whiskey) and add to the bacon/garlic mixture. Stir sauce over med-low heat (about 5-10 minutes) until sugars are dissolved and mixture is smooth and bubbling.
- Add whiskey and cook for another few minutes to allow the alcohol to evaporate. Sauce will be thick like cream in texture.
- Cool sauce before pouring into a container and refrigerate until the next day.
