hello this is chef john from food wishes calm with boneless baby back ribs
sandwich that's Mick right this incredibly amazing sandwich is inspired
by the McRib and while there are some similarities there's also some big
differences for example this is actually made with pork ribs while the fast-food
franchise version is made with specially molded mystery meat and if you're
thinking hey I like that specially molded mystery meat well then in that
case you are absolutely gonna love this since this really was one of the best
sandwiches I've ever had so with that let's go ahead and get started and first
up we'll place a couple racks of baby back ribs on a foil lined baking sheet
and sometimes we actually peel off the membrane that's on the underside but
this time we're not going to because that's gonna help hold things together
later and what we're gonna have to do here is seasoned this very generously on
both sides with the dry rub of our choice which as you know is a mixture of
salt sugar and spices and of course I would give you the measurements of what
I used on the block but having said that I don't think I've ever used the same
dry rub twice so how exactly you season these is gonna be up to you I mean you
guys are after all the Barry Gibbs of making very good ribs and speaking of
stayin alive if for the sake of argument your dry rub has nine ingredients which
is a lot and you include the pork your boneless rib sandwich will have
literally sixty less ingredients than the fast food version which is a fun but
very horrifying fact but anyway once those racks are seasoned
I like to top them with a piece of parchment paper although that is
optional but I do feel like it provides sort of a protective membrane and then
what we'll do is bring that foil in from around the outside around the outside
around the outside at which point we'll cover everything
with one large piece of foil and seal that up nice and tightly around the
edges and once that set it is now ready to transfer into the center of a 325
degree oven for exactly 2 hours and 45 minutes or however long it takes for our
meat to become tender enough so that we can easily pull out the bones since that
really is the key to this whole operation so after 2 and 3/4 hours I
pulled my doubts and went ahead and carefully unwrapped it and once
unwrapped what we'll do is very very carefully flip these over
and proceed to push and slide out those bones which if these have cooked long
enough is going to be very very easy and by the way well we want these tender
enough so we can do the next step if you cook them so tender that they're falling
apart it's gonna make it very very difficult to work with on the grill so
be careful not to cook these too far but anyway like I said we'll go ahead and
slide out those bones although these were too hot and I was burning my
fingers so you really do want to let them cool down a little bit and by the
way if any pieces of meat or bone marrow fall out just shove that right back in
one of the holes so I did let those sit and cool down for a few minutes before
continuing on and above and beyond pulling those bones out which is gonna
be very easy we also have to be extremely careful we're also pulling out
any small pieces of bone or pieces of cartilage left behind okay there's one
right there and depending on how your racks were cut
that might just be a couple pieces or a whole bunch of pieces so you really want
to make sure you very carefully and thoughtfully feel along all those edges
so that once you're done you have nothing left but pure meat otherwise you
might have problems and by problems I mean lawsuits so that's something we
will double and triple check before anyone eats these speaking of which if
you had to eat these now I guess you could paint in with barbecue sauce
and finish them on the grill but I think this works much much better if we wrap
these back up and refrigerate them until nice and cold which I actually did
overnight so yes this is something you could prep the day before the cookout
and I just think that cold for me makes everything easier to work with plus if
we sauce these and put them on the grill cold that'll give us more time to glaze
that barbecue sauce on before the inside the rib heats through too much and
starts falling apart so like I said I did pop mine in the fridge overnight at
which point we'll go ahead and pull those out unwrap them and cut them in
half because I'm going to be doing half a rack per sandwich although if you're
gonna use smaller hamburger buns for these you could probably get four
portions per rack Bob regardless of how many portions you do before these go on
the grill we want to brush them very generously on both sides with the
barbecue sauce of our choice and today I'll be using a little something called
sfq which as you may or may not know is something my wife Michelle and I make
but whatever your favorite barbecue sauce is will work
unless it's like one of those really cheap ons with the high-fructose corn
syrup in that case you should probably use something a little better or maybe
even whip up a batch of your own but regardless we're gonna want to brush
that generously on both sides at which point we are ready to grab our tongs and
head outside to finish these on the grill preferably over some nice hot
smokey coals and since these are already cooked they're only gonna take like
three or four minutes per side okay all we're doing here is searing on that
sauce and heating these through and if we cook them too long they might start
to fall apart so I gave that first side about three or four minutes and that
very carefully flip them over and hopefully not too much sticks but if you
do get some superficial abrasions well of course hide those by brushing on
a little extra sauce oh and I should probably also mention if you know your
way around a smoker you could totally skip that oven step and just smoke these
low and slow the day before which is probably not a bad idea if it's really
hot and you don't want the oven on in the house but either way they're gonna
get finished like this and then once we feel like those have been grilled enough
and that meats been heated through we'll go ahead and carefully pull them off
along with any delicious scraps and we will head back inside and then while
these are still hot I always like to brush on a little extra sauce just to
sort of shine him up at which point that's ready to transfer out to whatever
bread or roll we're using which for me were some rectangular shape rolls that I
made using our famous hamburger bun recipe and as you can see I'm squirting
on a little extra sauce before I lay in the meat down and by the way because I
just guessed it the size of the roll I needed I'm breaking one of the cardinal
rules of barbecued meat sandwiches that states that the meat must be as big or
bigger than the roll and as you can see I was a little bit short but anyway I
went ahead and topped that with even more sauce as well as a nice pile of our
hot and sweet mustard slaw and we'll go ahead and top that with the other half
of our roll and that is looking just about perfect except for that empty spot
at the end that I'm about to food style away with a piece of rib eye slice from
the other rack oh yeah that's better but anyway I took a few pictures and then
grabbed this with both hands and went in for a taste
and that my friends really was one of the best sandwiches I've ever eaten okay
I absolutely love baby back ribs and really have no problem eating them off
the bone but to be able to enjoy it on this roll with no bones and just totally
luxuriate in the experience really was something special and even though these
weren't over the coals that long they really do pick up a nice amount of
smokiness which of course adds to the whole experience but anyway that's it
where we're calling a boneless baby back rib sandwich with this lacks in like
over 60 ingredients it more than makes up for by being actual meat and not a
bunch of glued together scraps and it really is a very simple and easy
technique to pull off so whether you're gonna make this to really impress dad on
Father's Day or any other time you're gonna have the grill fired up in the
backyard I really do hope you give this a try soon so head over to food wishes
dot-com for all the ingredient amounts of more info as usual and as always
you