Bourbon Balsamic Ribs

     In my hometown, every year in July (I think), we would have a ribfest. This would include sales at all the shops down Main Street, a corn hole (or bean bags depending on where you're from) tournament, a street dance after dark, a raffle, and, of course, a rib making competition. There would be tons of entries and the city would close down a block (or two) for people to line up with their smokers and grills to make the best ribs in town. There were several judges to decide who was the best but of course everyone else would be allowed to join in to. There was a table where you could buy a meal and someone would hand you a styrofoam clamshell with healthy servings of potato salad and baked beans along with a few tickets to get ribs from the many contestants. I remember them being SO DELICIOUS. Some of the contestants would make racks upon racks of ribs and spend hours preparing for the competition. There were always a few that were guaranteed to be amazing such as the shop teacher who used to own the meat locker and the owner of the local motel. There were also a few that would try something new like the blueberry glazed ribs that were the talk of the town one year although I cannot remember who made them. My dad even entered one year and although he did well he didn't quite win. 

    In my town the rib fest was almost bigger than the county fair (how midwestern does that sound lol) so I grew up hearing how much time and effort it takes to make a good rack of ribs. So, up until now, I never even attempted to make some myself. If I had only known how easy it was! Sure, they probably won't win first prize at next year's ribfest, but they were certainly passable for a delicious contribution to dinner!

    Now one of my hesitations around cooking most kinds of meat is how long it takes to prepare, luckily most of the time consists of sitting and marinating, a very hands off process. I like to prepare my ribs the night before or morning of, at least six hours before I want to stick them in the oven. I started my ribs by putting them in a 9x13 glass baking dish and rubbing on minced garlic, salt, pepper, brown sugar, cayenne pepper, rosemary, onion powder, and balsamic vinegar. I first rubbed everything on top of my ribs then took whatever fell off and rubbed it on the bottom. If your ribs do not fit into a glass baking dish you can also make a boat out of tin foil. Once my ribs are very well covered I cover them with tin foil or a lid and stick them in the fridge for at least 6 hours. You can leave them marinading overnight or up to 24 hours if you want to. 

    Before I pulled my marinading ribs out of the fridge, I preheated my oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Once my oven was preheated, I take my ribs out of the fridge and replace my lid with tin foil. If your ribs are already covered in tin foil though, stick them right into the oven! I baked my ribs for two hours like this. About an hour and 45 minutes in, I start making my sauce. I do this by mixing together bourbon, brown sugar, cayenne, and tomato paste in a small pot. I set it to simmer on medium or low and stir periodically until my ribs are ready. 

    After the two hours is up I pull my ribs out of the oven and crank the temperature to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Then, I uncover my ribs and very carefully pour up to a cup worth of the juices into my sauce. you can add a little extra balsamic vinegar to your sauce if you want but there should be a lot of that flavor leftover from your marinade. Increase the heat of your sauce until it is not quite boiling and stir until it thickens. If it is not thickening you can whisk in up to one tablespoon of cornstarch but try not to add to much or else your sauce can become gelatinous. 

    When my sauce was ready I used a brush to coat the top of my ribs before I returned them to the oven. By this time it had reached 350 degrees. I baked my ribs uncovered for another 50-60 minutes, generously brushing more sauce on it every 20 ish minutes. When my ribs were done I pulled them out of the oven I poured over the remaining sauce and let them sit for a few minutes in my pan before I cut them apart. 

    The first time I made these it was for a dinner party and I wanted to try something fancy so I attempted to flambe them! I did this by dousing them in some extra bourbon and letting it spread around the entire serving dish before I used a lighter to ignite it. Sadly I did not get a super good video and it wasn't like the cooking shows with an explosion of flame but it was still pretty fun to see the little blue flames surround my ribs for a few seconds. 

    Luckily, although the flames were disappointing, the ribs were not! They were so tender and juicy with an immaculate boozy and sweet but a little spicy flavor. With this recipe you truly do not need to be a pro to make amazing ribs! I now want to try this again and again with different flavors to see if I someday can make a ribfest worthy rack.

    How did this recipe work for you? What should I make next? Leave me a comment!