Sticky Pork Ribs
Easy weeknight dinner from Gordon Ramsay, the same instructions would be great adapted to any other protein, especially chicken drumsticks.
Servings: 4 people
Ingredients
- 2.5 lbs pork ribs separated*
- Olive oil
- Sea salt and black pepper
- 3-4 garlic cloves peeled and sliced
- 2 inch piece of fresh ginger peeled and sliced
- 1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes if you like things spicy, add 2 teaspoons
- 1 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns
- 4 whole star anise
- 4 tablespoon honey
- 150 ml soy sauce
- 2-3 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 300 ml Shaoxing rice wine** or medium dry sherry
- 5 spring onions sliced (white and green)
- 400 ml chicken stock
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 355 F.
- Season the ribs with salt and pepper.
- Heat a stove-safe roasting pan*** on the stove-top with a little olive oil and sear the ribs over medium heat for 2 minutes per side, until browned on all sides.
- Meanwhile, mix together the garlic, ginger, chili flakes, Sichuan peppercorns, star anise and honey in a small bowl.
- Once the ribs are browned, add the garlic-honey-spice mix to the pan with the ribs, continue cooking over medium heat for 2 minutes until the honey begins to caramelize.
- Add the soy sauce, rice vinegar and rice wine and bring to a boil, then simmer for 1 minute. Taste and adjust the flavors, adding more vinegar if necessary. Add the spring onions and stock and bring back to a boil for 1 minute.
- Place the roasting pan in the hot oven and cook the ribs for 1 hour (until tender), rotating the pan and turning the ribs halfway through.
- Remove the pan from the oven and place back on the stove-top. Reduce over medium heat for about 20-40 minutes (this timing will vary with your pan(s') size and surface area), stirring occasionally to ensure the ribs are evenly coated.
- The ribs are ready to serve when the sauce is thick and syrupy.
Notes
*St. Louis-style ribs were cheaper at my meat counter and they are larger, so those are what I used. I asked the guy behind the counter to separate them for me and he did - major time saver!
*if you opt for a different type of rib meat, your cook time may change accordingly. If you make this with beef baby ribs, expect the total cooking time to be 2.5 hours and double the aromatics you use. You may need to add a little additional rice vinegar and soy sauce at the end of the cook too because beef ribs are richer and the sauce may need to be cut.
**I used Japanese rice wine (mirin), because I already had it.
***If you don't have a stove-safe roasting pan (I don't), you can use a frying pan or wide dutch oven. If it's oven safe, just toss it in the oven, otherwise you'll need to scoop everything into a roasting pan for 1 hour, then back out into the frying pan for the final simmer. In my case, I needed to use two 12-inch pans to fit all 2.5 lbs of ribs.