Applebee's style ribs

As I get older, I'm becoming more and more aware that I show love through baking and cooking.  One of the most obvious examples of that, is ribs and wings.  I'm not a big fan, but hubby is, so I make them for him as often as I can...it's a little twisted but it makes him so very happy - how could I not? lol  He claims that I make the best wings on the planet, so I figured I would branch out and give ribs a try. 

Yesterday, I grabbed a falt of ribs and did a search for a good ribs recipe.  I found (what appears to be) a great one over at food.com for "Applebee's style ribs"  I sent the link to him and he replied with "I Love you" so I was confident that I had a winner. :)

So - the recipe says:

1.  Place ribs in a large pot and fill pot with enough water to cover ribs.

2.  Bring water to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 1 hour, or until ribs are fork tender.

 

I cut the ribs into smaller pieces and tossed them into the roaster covered in water. 

 

 I didn't notice till later in the recipe that I should toss in a cup of apple cider vinegar with the water if we wanted them "fall off the bone" tender...oops! I added this at the end so I hope it helped. In the middle of this process, I had to run in town so hubby stepped in to help. In total - I think they boiled for longer than an hour (closer to 2 in fact) so we'll see how it goes. 

I put the sauce together to boil. It said to boil/simmer till it thickened...but it was already pretty thick so I didn't really pay much attention to that part - I just boiled/simmered it till I was ready.

 

 

My kitchen assistant sat nearby, waiting hopefully... 

When they were done boiling - I pulled them out of the pot and layed them on a broiler pan - meat side down. (Like the recipe says)



I wasn't sure if I should put sauce only on 1 side...or both - so - I put it on both sides, but made sure they were back on the meaty side before putting them back in the oven.

 Then I slapped it all over the ribbs - flipped them and slathered with more sauce (cuz I made a double batch that's why) :) I like saucy things. :)  

The recipe also said to broil them 4" to 5" away from heat...I left them a little further down to be honest cuz I was worried about them burning/drying out. (I don't like burnt dried out things)...

I took them out of the oven - flipped them over and slapped on more sauce (I saved some, though, for hubby cuz he always wants extra). Because it was the meaty side cooking this time, though, I raised the rack so that they'll actuall be about 4" away from the heat source. crossing my fingers that it's not a mistake to do this (*insert pretty please dance here*)...
 



and now...they're flipped over and saucy - sitting pretty darn close to the broil element and I've got my fingers crossed (which makes typing a real pain to be honest). :)  

 *fast forward 30+ minutes*

The ribs turned out "great" according to hubby. :)  I thought they were yummy too.  I've never really had ribs before (cuz they're not my preference) but they were prerty good.  (But I don't have anything to compare it to.) 

 

Since we have all enjoyed the ribs (and my kitchen assistant has since realized she is not getting any) she has changed her position and giving quite a thoughtful look. :) As mentioned before - I'm no rib expert...but hubby (who is) gives this recipe a solid thumbs up, so it looks like I'll be making them more often.