Homemade Barbecue

I was all bummed out last week as I found out that I'm going to need surgery to repair the partially torn ligament on the side of my knee and to reconstruct the cartilage under the kneecap. I also found out that in order to have said surgery, I need to do physical therapy to the point where I can ride a stationary bike. While I am happy that I have and answer to my knee issue and know that there's a solution, the whole having to wait and go through some rather unpleasant pre-surgery rehab is not exactly my idea of fun.

In addition to this news, my laptop randomly died on me. I tried ordering a new hard drive and replacing the one I had. That didn't work. I brought it to the Apple store and discovered that the cable connecting the hard drive to the logic board needed to be replaced. It was and order was once again restored to the universe. (I've realized just how attached I've become to my laptop when I have to spend a week without it...)

These two incidents, coupled with the lack of my usual physical activity and less than stellar sleep, have made me start to stress eat, crave sugary foods, and consume slightly more alcohol than I'd normally go for. Not cool. I decided that I was going to start another round of the 21 Day Sugar Detox, starting June 3rd, to bash my recent sugar sweet binge and get back on track.

I started thinking about my detox over the weekend when I was craving some barbecue. Justin and I picked up some ribs from Wegmans and went to check out the pre-made sauces. After reading the label on every different brand, I realized that they all contained some sort of sugar and that the only way I'd be able to get a good sauce was to make it myself. I then started searching high and low on the interwebs for a sugar free sauce and couldn't really find one. I did, however, find a tasty sounding one that only contained pineapple and decided that I could probably adapt it to be detox compliant.

21 Day Sugar Detox BBQ Ribs

Ingredients:

• 3-4 pounds pork ribs

Dry Rub:

• 1 tbsp each of salt
• 1 tbsp pepper
• 1 tbsp smoked paprika
• 1 tbsp garlic powder
• 1 tbsp onion powder
• 1 tbsp cumin
• 2 tsp each of cayenne
• 2 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp coriander
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves

BBQ Sauce:

• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 white onion, chopped
• 4-5 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 6 ounce can of tomato paste
• 1 cup bone broth
• 2 tbsp sugar free, spicy brown mustard
• 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp paprika
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp cayenne
• 2 Granny Smith apples, peeled and chopped (I know you're only supposed to eat 1 per day, but you don't use that much sauce on these ribs... Just a little slather towards the end. Plus, this is for multiple people/servings.)

Method:

• Combine all of the dry rub ingredients in a small bowl. Wipe off the ribs and massage the spice mix onto them. Place the seasoned ribs onto the tin foil. Tear off another sheet of tin foil and lay this over the top of the ribs. Tightly crimp the edges of the two sheets of foil together to create a seal. Stick the baking sheet in the fridge to let the ribs marinate for a half an hour or more (you could probably let them sit overnight).
• When you're ready to cook the ribs, preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Throw in the meat and let it cook for 2 1/2 - 3 hours, turning occasionally. The meat should be shrinking away from the bones.
• In the meantime, you can make the sauce. Combine all of the sauce ingredients in a sauce pot or dutch oven, over medium heat. Bring this up to a boil, reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for an hour. Take the pot off the heat. Using an immersion blender, blend until smooth. (Alternately, you could puree this in batches in a regular blender.) Keep the sauce warm until you're ready to use it or store in a container for later use.
• Once the ribs are done, take them out of the oven. Set your oven to broil and move the rack to 4-6 inches from the heating element. Let the ribs rest for 10 minutes. Open up the foil and slather on a little of the barbecue sauce onto the ribs. Place them back in the oven and broil for 2 minutes. Flip the ribs over, brush them with a little more sauce and broil for another 2 minutes. Take the ribs out and serve with your favorite side.
• Enjoy!

(Mmmm... Barbecue sauce...)

I used the recipe from the Paleo Cupboard as the basis for the dry rub and cooking technique for the ribs (I haven't spent a ton of time on her site, but from what I've seen, she's totally legit). The sauce recipe was modified slightly from the Civilized Caveman (I LOVE his website!! The man is a genius when it comes to creating delicious recipes. Seriously... check him out!)

This recipe turned out absolutely FANTASTIC!! The meat was so tender, it just fell off the bones! They had just the right amount of heat from the cayenne and just a hint of sweetness from the apples. I honestly used to be scared of trying to cook ribs in the oven and left it up to places like Dinosaur BBQ. Not anymore! These are going to become a new staple in my house.

Try these out and you'll be completely satisfied!