Who doesn’t love a good road trip, am I right?!? When I was a kid these outings were common because we used to love spending the day in Buffalo for some good ol’ shop ’til you drop therapy. We would all pile into one car, and by “all” I mean me, best friend Trish, her two brothers, my sister, and the moms. Then on the way home we would all play the game; how many layers of newly acquired clothing can you wear across the boarder so it remained “duty free”. Don’t judge…you know you’ve all done it.

But you know the famous saying when the cats away the mice will play??? Well in this scenario my mom and us kids were the cats and my dad was the mouse, because while we were out shopping up a storm, he was home cooking up a massive rib dinner for one.

You see Jack, or Nilsen (as I like to call him), is not really a big fan of shopping, crowds, and malls, so a whole day in Buffalo where all you do is store hop isn’t exactly high up on his to do list. But a rib dinner might just be his happy place. It actually became a joke when I was growing up that when my mom would go away my dad would immediately pull the ribs out of the freezer and have them in the sink cold water running before she even had the car started.

But ribs can be a little intimidating, and with all those slow cooker recipes out there, and BBQ joints serving up meat sweats by the slab, clearly the home cook could feel a little worried that their attempt would fall short. Well I’m a home cook and I knocked this one out of the park. Standby for a moment while I toot my own horn TOOT TOOT!!!

These baked ribs are so easy — like set it and forget it easy. All you need is a little time to reach that fall off the bone tender and they’re BETTER than restaurant quality.

But first I need to share some important rib baking secrets: one, you need to remove that thin silver skin membrane covering the back of the rack. It can be a bit tough and unpleasant if left on, and will cause rack to curl – so if you want a tasty rack then the membrane has to go. Secret two, you have to cook them bone side up in the oven first, which allows the fat to render off in the oven, rather than into your bbq sauce. Secret three, patience, you need to be able to sit back relax and wait while the magic happens, because for something to taste this good it takes time.

Ingredients

1 full rack of back ribs
Salt and pepper to taste
Neal Brothers BBQ sauce

Heat oven to 350 then line a baking sheet with parchment.

Now remove the thin membrane covering the back of the rack. To remove use a knife and gently slide it under the membrane then using your fingers pull away from the bones. Sometimes this task can be a bit of a work out ie: GIANT pain in the pork butt, but well worth the effort.

Season both sides of the ribs with salt and pepper then place onto a baking sheet bone side up and bake for about an hour.

Once the hour has passed, flip your ribs over and cover with bbq sauce. Once you get them to a saucy consistency you like then back into the oven for another hour. At this point I put the ribs on the lower shelf in my oven so they don’t dry out or burn.

Now they are ready to rock and roll, just cut them up and get ready to enjoy. I like to serve my ribs with my mustard green beans and my modifried french fries.

Don’t you just love it when a recipe calls for the oven to do all the work?!?