Bourbon BBQ Baby Back Ribs

I passed a small, personal milestone this past week. I made ribs for the very first time! Over the last couple of years, as I creep closer to 30 years old and I am still single, I have become aware of a “list” of sorts, buried deep in my unconscious. It is the list of the things that I have been subconsciously waiting to buy or do or enjoy until I am married. What is strange is that I am not really aware that something is on “the list” until I have an internal dialogue like the one I had this week:

Me: “Sigh… I am totally craving ribs!”
Me: “You don’t know how to make ribs.”
Me: “Men know how to make ribs.
Me: “Then you’ll just have to wait until you have a boyfriend or husband and then he can spontaneously grill you some ribs when you get a craving.”

Awareness of the totally irrational nature of these thoughts suddenly dawns…

Me: “HECK! I don’t have to wait for a man! I know how to cook! I can make ribs all by myself!”

A couple years ago, I had a similar internal dialogue to the one above regarding using a grill/bbq and I am very proud to say that I can grill a pretty good steak all on my own! I have no idea what other kinds of irrational thoughts are hanging out on this list, but if more pop up and they pertain to food, then I will be very proud to share my new accomplishments here with all of you!

In the meantime, here is the rib recipe that I used and it was YUMMY! I no longer have access to a grill and needed something that could cook while I was at work. The slow cooker did beautiful things to the meat! By the time I pulled them out, the meat had literally fallen off the bones for several of them. It was super tender!

Bourbon BBQ Baby Back Ribs
(From Cooking Light website)

5 lbs baby back ribs (beef or pork) – I used about 3.5lbs because a girl just doesn’t need that much beef all by herself, even making multiple meals!
1 ½ tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 c. ketchup (I used ½ c. ketchup and ½ c. prepared bbq sauce because I ran out of ketchup)
1 c. loosely packed brown sugar
½ c. bourbon whiskey
¼ c. prepared horseradish (not the creamy kind, the minced/pulpy kind)
½ tsp hot sauce (like Tabasco)

- Place ribs, meaty side up in a roasting pan, sprinkle w/ salt and pepper & roast at 475 degrees for 30 minutes. The point of this is to make the outside of the ribs all brown and crunchy. I was doing this step before work and for some reason, despite the total absence of visible smoke, turning my oven this high set off the smoke alarms in my old-house kitchen, at 6am!! (Don’t you wish you were one of my housemates??!). So I ended up skipping this part and just going straight to the slow cooker after only about 10 minutes in the oven. They still turned out good and also looked very pretty – so I might skip the roasting step all together next time.
- Meanwhile, combine the ketchup/bbq sauce, sugar, bourbon & horseradish in a measuring cup and whisk until blended.
- Arrange ribs in a 6-qt slow cooker and pour sauce over each layer. (You will have to cut them up)
- Cook on LOW for 9 hours.
- Remove sauce from cooker, skim off the fat that rises to the top and simmer on the stove until it thickens and reduces by about ½. This took me roughly 20 minutes.
- Pour sauce over ribs and serve with lots of napkins!!

Lastly, I have a question for those of you who might have an opinion. I simmered the sauce until it thickened and poured some over the ribs, but still had quite a bit left. So I refrigerated the leftovers and put it back in the crock-pot today with some chicken. Was that okay? Do you any of you know of any health safety reasons why a sauce that has already been cooked and then refrigerated, shouldn’t go back into a slow cooker?