Santodonto’s Baby Back Ribs

Signature Baby Back Ribs
By Vegas Food Nerd

One of our go-to dishes when entertaining a crowd is our baby back ribs. They are an easy, yet impressive main dish that you can serve this month. Our recipe is pretty chill, taking the stress that often accompanies hosting a party down to a minimum. Be sure to have plenty of ice, a variety of drinks and ask your friends to bring a dish to pass. Maybe we can collectively bring back a new wave that makes potlucks cool again. Bringing people together is just what the doctor ordered. Our collective souls long for a simpler time. I don’t know how your childhood went, but mine was filled with gatherings like that where no one person was responsible for the meal. It was a group effort. Everyone would have a signature dish they would bring to display on the table proudly. Layered salads, Jell-O molds, fried chicken, cookies of every variety, sloppy joes, chips, and lots and lots of potato and macaroni salads. I miss those gatherings and even those weird mesh folding chairs you’d perch on while eating your haul from the food table.

Two full racks of baby back ribs. (Make sure they are baby back!)
olive oil 
apple cider vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Set oven to 250 degrees. Place the baby back ribs in a large kitchen roasting pan. Massage them generously with olive oil. Sprinkle the ribs with apple cider vinegar, then salt and pepper both sides of the ribs. Then place the pan in the oven. Slow roast them for about 40 minutes and then remove the ribs and use a knife to slide off the silver skin off the back of each rack. Continue roasting slowly for another four to six hours or until they are fall off the bone tender. Every 20 minutes or so, baste the ribs with our homemade barbeque sauce see the recipe below. Yes, you can just use a bottle of your favorite sauce from the grocery store, but you won’t get to brag about your custom sauce. Go ahead and put your spin on it and call it your custom sauce. We won’t tell anyone. 

Jack and Coke BBQ Sauce

3 cups of Coca-Cola
20 ounces of ketchup
¼ cup apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon molasses
1 shot of Jack Daniel’s whiskey
½ teaspoon hot sauce
1 ½ tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
¼ teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon ground mustard
1 heaping tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Mix together all of the above ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer for a least an hour. Feel free to riff on this recipe to make it your own. With Barbeque sauce, you want the perfect balance between sweet, sour, and spicy. This recipe makes enough for two to four racks of ribs. It’s a great sauce for dipping so feel free to double the ingredients to ensure you have enough left over to dunk the finished ribs in. The sauce should thicken up after you cook it down, but if you’d prefer a thicker sauce mix two tablespoons cornstarch in a small glass with a little water and add it to your saucepan to thicken it.