Apples & Honey Baked BBQ Ribs

Apples & Honey Baked BBQ Ribs cook up low & slow: Enjoy their sticky and just-sweet-enough BBQ goodness!

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I found a cheap pack of ribs at the store this week, so thought it might be fun to bake these up with some fall flavors to match the season. Hence: Today’s Apples & Honey Baked BBQ Ribs recipe! These have been cooking low and slow in my oven all day (and the aroma of slow-cooking ribs will drive you mad…), so I’ve been inordinately hungry and wanting to eat everything else in the house.

But a word to the wise: Resist, because these ribs are worth waiting for.

It’s hard to go wrong with BBQ ribs, and the subtle apples & honey flavor here just enhances their natural goodness. I did feel like I needed to use honey here because Beekeeping MashupDad recently extracted the last of this summer’s honey, and real local honey makes so much of a difference in this (or any other) recipe. It’s one of those ingredients that’s worth the splurge, if you can swing it. (Don’t have local honey on hand, though? Don’t let that deter you — let me reiterate: It’s hard to go wrong with BBQ ribs!)

Apples & Honey Baked BBQ Ribs

Ingredients

3.5-4 lbs pork baby back or spare ribs
2 smallish apples (I used Granny Smith), cored and sliced into rings
1 yellow onion, sliced into rings
1 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp seasoned salt
1 tsp black pepper
One bottle BBQ sauce
1 Tbsp honey

Directions

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Remove the tough membrane from the underside of the ribs, if present (insert a butter knife between the ribs and membrane on one of the middle bones to loosen, then pull off with a paper towel).

Line a rimmed cookie sheet with one long sheet of foil foil, and then place two additional pieces of foil crosswise (long enough to fold over ribs) and spray with cooking spray. Line foil with with apple and onion slices. Combine spices in a small bowl, rub both sides of ribs with the spice mix, and then place ribs meaty side up on top of the apples and onions. Fold foil over ribs to enclose them.

Bake ribs at 250 degrees for two hours. Mix 1 cup of BBQ sauce with 1 Tbsp of honey, then remove ribs from oven, open foil, and pour honey BBQ sauce mixture over them. Fold foil back over the ribs and bake for another 90 minutes at 250 degrees, or until meat is tender and easily pulls off the bone.

Brush ribs generously with additional BBQ sauce (mixed with a little more honey, if you prefer) and broil uncovered for five minutes, or until sauce is caramelized. Discard apples and onion and serve ribs with the rest of the BBQ sauce on the side (optional).

Note: Gala apples and similar also work nicely here, if you don’t have Granny Smith.

FALL into these ribs

Now, how can these be bad? Enjoy the sticky and just-sweet-enough BBQ goodness of Apples & Honey Baked BBQ Ribs; you’ve earned it after suffering through their enticing aromas all day. 😉 This is a great recipe for a lazy Sunday afternoon, since you can largely let it go in the oven while you’re attending to other things. (You could also finish on the grill instead of broiling in the oven, if you prefer.)

These ribs are naturally gluten free.

Apples & Honey Baked BBQ Ribs, printable recipe

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Apples & Honey Baked BBQ Ribs

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It’s hard to go wrong with BBQ ribs, and the subtle apples & honey flavor here just enhances their natural goodness.

Course dinner

Cuisine ribs

Keyword apples, honey, ribs

Total Time 3 hours hours 35 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Author Rachel Singer

Ingredients

• 3.5-4 lbs pork baby back or spare ribs
• 2 smallish apples (I used Granny Smith) cored and sliced into rings
• 1 yellow onion sliced into rings
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1/4 tsp cayenne
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp seasoned salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• One bottle BBQ sauce
• 1 Tbsp honey

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Remove the tough membrane from the underside of the ribs, if present (insert a butter knife between the ribs and membrane on one of the middle bones to loosen, then pull off with a paper towel).
• Line a rimmed cookie sheet with one long sheet of foil foil, and then place two additional pieces of foil crosswise (long enough to fold over ribs) and spray with cooking spray. Line foil with with apple and onion slices. Combine spices in a small bowl, rub both sides of ribs with the spice mix, and then place ribs meaty side up on top of the apples and onions. Fold foil over ribs to enclose them.
• Bake ribs at 250 degrees for two hours. Mix 1 cup of BBQ sauce with 1 Tbsp of honey, then remove ribs from oven, open foil, and pour honey BBQ sauce mixture over them. Fold foil back over the ribs and bake for another 90 minutes at 250 degrees, or until meat is tender and easily pulls off the bone.
• Brush ribs generously with additional BBQ sauce (mixed with a little more honey, if you prefer) and broil uncovered for five minutes, or until sauce is caramelized. Discard apples and onion and serve ribs with the rest of the BBQ sauce on the side (optional).

Notes

Apples & Honey Baked BBQ Ribs are naturally gluten free. Gala apples and similar also work nicely here, if you don’t have Granny Smith.

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