Buttermilk Garlic Ranch Spareribs

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I absolutely love grilling season! It’s too hot to cook inside, so I like to fire up the grill and keep the heat outside where it belongs. Grilling is also a great option for a weeknight meal, as we’re a pretty BUSY family and I don’t always have time for a lot of prep work and long cooking processes. I love that I light the grill, gather my ingredients, and in very little time and with very little cleanup, I have a fantastic meal that has everyone begging for seconds. In most cases, we just eat outside and enjoy the beautiful warm weather. It’s a win win situation.

Another reason I love grilling is because I can get really creative and have very little mess in the house to deal with. Yesterday, I made up some Buttermilk Garlic Ranch Spareribs using Farmland® St. Louis Style Pork Spareribs, buttermilk, dry ranch seasoning, garlic season-all and fresh garlic that I picked up from Walmart.

I’m not sure there’s a “secret” to cooking delicious ribs, but what I do is marinate them overnight first, and then when I cook them, I wrap them in foil during the first half of cooking to prevent them from being charred. Since ribs need to cook longer than chicken or steak for example, it’s very important to protect them until the end when you want to make the outsides all nice and browned.

I marinated my spareribs in the buttermilk/garlic/ranch combo overnight, and then topped them with onions to give them a little extra flavor. For the garlic seasoning, it’s hard to give an estimate of how much to use as everyone has different preferences. You may have to do it a few times to get it right for your taste buds. I know how much we like as a family, so that’s how much I used.

My family LOVED them! I’m sometimes amazed at how great of a cook they think I am when I put something simple together. The ribs were tender, juicy, and I think they would have been great with BBQ sauce or a different type of rub as well. I also really liked the convenience of them. I just removed them from the package, marinated them, then took them out of the marinade, and put them on the grill. Other than the marinade, there was no prep work involved.

Buttermilk Garlic Ranch Spareribs Ingredients:

• 1 package Farmland® St. Louis Style Pork Spareribs
• 3 cups cold low-fat buttermilk
• 2 packets dry ranch seasoning
• 5 to 6 cloves of garlic, smashed or finely diced
• garlic season-all, to taste
• black pepper, to taste
• half yellow onion, for garnish (optional)

Directions:

Mince the garlic, set aside (you can use a garlic press or a knife)

In medium bowl, whisk together dry ranch, buttermilk and garlic until thoroughly mixed. Then set aside.

Place ribs in a medium to large sized baking dish and lightly season with the garlic season-all and black pepper. (you don’t need to put a lot of seasoning on the meat — too much seasoning will cause your meat to be salty).

Once you’ve lightly seasoned the ribs, pour the buttermilk garlic ranch marinade over the ribs, then top with onions. For the best results, marinate your ribs overnight. Lastly, place your ribs on the grill (make sure you’ve place them in foil for the first half of cooking) then grill them until they’re done. You can eat the ribs without BBQ sauce but if you can’t eat them without it, then try this delicious homemade BBQ sauce. It’s really delicious!

This recipe can be adapted to an oven/grill combo as well. Simply roast the ribs for about an hour to an hour and a half in the oven and then move them outside and grill them for about 15 minutes. This is a great trick to extending your grill season in places where summers are short.

Inspired to get out and get grilling today?

Visit the Get Fired Up Grilling website http://www.getfiredupgrilling.com for additional recipes and tips from BBQ Pitmasters Moe Cason and Tuffy Stone. Also enter to win a trip to the American Royal BBQ contest and other great grilling prizes!