These mouthwatering pork back ribs with Asian influences have a spicy sweetness from the rub that is balanced by the fruit and spice flavors of the sauce.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 4 hrs |
| Additional Time: | 1 hr |
| Total Time: | 5 hrs 20 mins |
| Servings: | 6 |
| Yield: | 6 servings |
Ingredients
- 2 racks Smithfield® Extra Tender Pork Back Ribs, membrane removed
- ¼ cup packed light brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons fine sea salt
- 4 ½ teaspoons onion powder
- 4 ½ teaspoons chili powder
- 4 ½ teaspoons paprika
- 2 teaspoons ground black pepper
- ¾ cup clover honey
- ½ cup reduced-sodium soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons red plum jam
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon chili garlic sauce*
- 1 cup Handful hickory or apple wood chips for smoking, soaked in water and drained
- ¾ cup tamarind juice, in a spray bottle*
Instructions
- About one hour before you plan to start grilling, make the rub: In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, salt, onion powder, chili powder, paprika and pepper. Pat the ribs dry with paper towels, then sprinkle both sides of each rack with the rub. Set aside at room temperature for one hour.
- Preheat the grill for indirect cooking at 250 to 300 degrees F. Add the drained wood chips, if using.
- Place the ribs, meaty side up, over a drip pan, close the grill, and cook for 2 hours, adding about 12 coals to a charcoal grill every 45 minutes or so to maintain the heat.
- Meanwhile, make the sauce: In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the honey, soy sauce, jam, vinegar and garlic sauce and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook 15 minutes, stirring frequently, until lightly thickened. Set aside to cool to room temperature, then refrigerate.
- Continue to cook the ribs until they’re so tender the rack will easily break when bent with tongs, 1 to 2 more hours, spraying on both sides with the tamarind juice every 20 to 30 minutes. Brush the ribs on both sides with the sauce and continue to cook for about 5 minutes, until the sauce is set. Remove from the grill and let stand for 5 minutes.
- Cut the racks into 3- or 4-rib sections and serve. Pass any remaining sauce at the table.
- * Look for chili garlic sauce in the Asian foods section of your supermarket. Look for tamarind juice in the Asian or Hispanic foods section. If necessary, you can substitute tamarind soda or even apple juice.
- Serving Suggestions: Serve these Asian-influence ribs with white rice, grilled scallions and fresh pineapple. And if you like things spicy, try adding more chili garlic sauce to the barbecue sauce mixture-or simply sprinkle the finished ribs with crushed red pepper.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 1954 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 63 g |
| Cholesterol | 491 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 2 g |
| Protein | 100 g |
| Saturated Fat | 53 g |
| Sodium | 3937 mg |
| Sugars | 49 g |
| Fat | 144 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I like the review about using the oven. In my area we in an apartment & are not allowed to have our own grills due to fire laws in Southern California. We only have community grills. i can’t take up a grill for 2 hours, its just rude! So using my oven is a great idea & I know they will come out great! Being an accomplished cook I understand how the ingredients will work together to bring amazing flavors & a very tender piece of meat. My family will love it, especially my asian studies son!
Are use the rub for pork that I used to make pork fried rice. The rub was delicious. I made the sauce to put on the fried rice and it was great to?o. I didn’t use the tamarind juice but I did add a quarter cup of apple juice to the sauce before cooking it. I will definitely make again.
This review is for the sauce alone as I made it to go with the Roast Pork recipe on this site. Since the pork roast recipe called for a soy sauce and lime juice based marinade and cooking liquid, I wanted an Asian style barbecue sauce to accompany it. I used this one and made it just as described with the exception that since I didn’t have garlic chili sauce, I used Heinz chili sauce and added minced garlic. I also added some red pepper flakes as well to up the heat just a notch. Perfect!
We thought these were a nice change of pace but, honestly, we still prefer the more traditional BBQ sauce pork back ribs. It took much longer than 15 minutes for the sauce to slightly thicken (the consistency was as thin as a marinade initially), and I was a bit disappointed that there wasn’t more of an “Asian” flavor in the sauce…maybe a bit too much honey IMO. The sauce was just a little too sweet for us, so I did add some crushed red pepper flakes while simmering. I served these ribs with grilled fresh pineapple with chili oil and Asian slaw. I will say that these were the meatiest pork back ribs that I’ve ever had, plenty moist, and they did grill up nicely.
So juicy and delicious! My entire family thoroughly enjoyed these ribs. The sweet and spicy Asian flavors were a nice change from the traditional BBQ ribs. I couldn’t find the tamarind juice, so I used apple juice instead. Rather than cook these for 2-3 hours on the grill, I baked these in a 250 degree oven on a baking sheet with a cooling rack to raise the ribs up a bit, added some apple juice to the baking sheet and covered the baking sheet really well with aluminum foil. This keeps the ribs nice and moist. Then I finished them on the grill, basting them with the glaze. They were fantastic, and I will make these again!