These Blackberry Apricot Glazed Ribs in the Oven are slow cooked to near fall-off-the-bone tenderness, then glazed with a spicy, tangy blackberry, apricot barbecue sauce and quick-broiled to sweet, sticky, caramelized perfection!
Slow cooking the ribs in the oven makes them tender and juicy.
Barbecue ribs are the classic summer comfort food! To get that moist tender porky goodness, you’ve got to cook them low and slow. That way the fat slowly melts and bastes the meat, the tough collagen breaks down and the result is addictively tender, juicy pork. The low, slow treatment can be done in a smoker, or over indirect heat on a grill, but it’s kind of a tricky process, keeping the temperature just right over hours of cooking time. Using the oven really simplifies and gives ultimate control.
Roasting the ribs in a pot in the oven seals in moisture.
This recipe starts with a simple yet super tasty spice rub that’s patted into the meat, which then sits in the fridge for a couple hours so the flavors can penetrate. To keep in moisture while in the oven, the ribs are placed in a well-sealed pot. You can use a Dutch oven or any pot big enough. Placing foil over the top of the pot before putting on the lid, helps make a good seal.
Placing the rack of ribs on its side and curling it around the pot allows the excess liquid to drain away from the meat and helps the ribs heat uniformly.
You’ll be amazed at how much fat and gelatin (from the collagen) drain away from the ribs in the oven, but the meat will still be wonderfully moist and the flavor concentrated.
The blackberry apricot barbecue sauce for the ribs is so yummy and nightshade free!
The blackberry apricot barbecue sauce is flavored with onion, garlic, cider and balsamic vinegars, red wine, molasses, mustard, bay leaf, allspice berries, and a tiny bit of cloves. It is just WOW-good! It’s tomato and nightshade free, but has just as much sweet, tangy, complex flavor as any tomato-based barbecue sauce. White pepper gives it a nice heat, too.
The spice rub can easily be done in a nightshade free version.
On the subject of nightshades, hubby came up with the awesome spice rub for the pork and it does have cayenne pepper and smoked paprika in it, so not nightshade free. If you want to make it nightshade free, just omit those – it will still have plenty of flavor and some heat from the white pepper. If you can get your hands on some smoked salt, you could substitute that for the Kosher salt to impart some smokiness. Smoked salt can be found online at Savory Spice Shop.
Once the ribs have slow-cooked to tender perfection, remove them from the pot, place on a foil-lined sheet pan and brush with the blackberry apricot barbecue sauce. Broil on low, about 6 inches away from the heat, for 5-10 minutes until the glaze is browned and bubbly.
These blackberry apricot glazed ribs are so good! Be careful – you can’t eat just one!
- For the ribs:
- One rack of back ribs (about 3 ½ pounds)
- 1 Tbsp kosher salt
- 1 Tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp granulated garlic (roasted if available)
- 1 tsp granulated onion
- 1 tsp ground cumin seed
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper (can be omitted for nightshade free version)
- 1 tsp sweet smoked paprika (can be omitted for nightshade free version – substituting smoked salt for the kosher salt above can provide smoky flavor)
- 1 tsp ground white pepper
- For the barbecue sauce:
- ¼ cup finely chopped onion
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 Tbsp cooking oil
- ¼ cup dry red wine
- ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 Tbsp molasses
- ¼ tsp allspice berries
- ½ tsp dry mustard
- a small pinch of ground cloves
- ⅛ tsp white pepper
- ⅛ tsp salt
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 1 bay leaf
- ¼ cup apricot preserves
- ¼ cup blackberry preserves
- Mix spice rub for ribs: kosher salt through white pepper in a small bowl.
- Sprinkle spices over pork and pat/rub in.
- Place pork in refrigerator for about 2 hours.
- Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.
- Place rack of ribs on its side, curled around the inside of a large pot or Dutch oven.
- Cover pot with foil crimping it around the edges to seal and place lid on pot.
- Place pot in middle of oven and let cook 3 hours.
- Meanwhile, make barbecue sauce by cooking onion in oil in a small saucepan over medium heat until starting to brown.
- Add minced garlic and stir just until aroma comes, 30 seconds to a minute.
- Add wine and rest of ingredients and simmer 10 – 15 minutes until reduced and thickened. Set aside until pork is done.
- Once pork has cooked 3 hours, remove from oven and turn broiler on low.
- Remove pork carefully from pot and lay out on a foil-lined sheet pan. (The pork is so tender now that if you grab it with just one set of tongs it may come apart. You can grab it with 2 tongs and ease it out or you can drain the liquid out of the pot with the lid ajar holding the ribs in and then slide the ribs out on to your sheet pan.)
- Brush with blackberry apricot barbecue sauce.
- Broil about 6 inches from heat for 5 – 10 minutes, until browned and bubbly, watching it to prevent overcooking/burning.
My mouth is watering! Your recipes all look so delicious! I might make the save to go with fish (can’t eat meat.)