Applebee's Baby Back Ribs Secret Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What kind of ribs does Applebee's use? ›

"Riblets" is Applebee's branded name for button ribs or rib tips (as they are called at Walmart), which is a short cut trimmed from the back end of pork spareribs, packed with lots of connective tissue.

Cooking baby back ribs in the oven is one of the easiest methods. First, wrap the ribs in tin foil and slow-roast them in the oven on a low temperature between 275 and 325 degrees. Bake until cooked through and tender, usually around 2 to 2.5 hours.

For tender, flavorful ribs, marinating is the way to go. Our baby back ribs marinade comes together quickly just using a whisk; it's made from soy sauce, whiskey, and honey that's seasoned with fresh ginger, white pepper, sesame oil, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Louis-style ribs cooks evenly. This is often the choice cut for restaurant ribs because their uniformity is easy for a kitchen to manage.

Out of these two types of pork ribs, baby back ribs (or loin ribs) are the cuts of pork taken from the upper portion of the rib cage that connects to the spine. Baby backs tend to have shorter bones and leaner meat, while spare ribs are typically fattier and have juicier meat.

The secret to incredibly tender ribs is baking them low and slow. Baking ribs in the oven is so easy.

Essentially, the vinegar solution "cleanses" the meat and makes the flavors shine through without any "gamey" flavor.

Boiling the meat not only renders out the fat but it also naturally releases the natural juices of the spareribs, both of which are important to maintaining the true flavor of the ribs.

Place ribs bone-side down in smoker at 225 F /110 C and cook for three hours. Remove ribs from the smoker and wrap tightly in aluminum foil to form an airtight seal. Return to the smoker bone-side up and smoke for two hours.

Most ribs hit their sweet spot for doneness around 198 degrees F, but some take until 203 degrees F to be perfectly tender. This spread in final temperature is one reason why thermometers are a great jumping off-point for rib perfection, but not the be-all-end-all indicator.

Do you rinse baby back ribs before cooking? ›

Do Ribs Need To Be Rinsed? Carr says ribs do not need to be rinsed. “Rinsing fresh meat or poultry is unnecessary as the bacteria causing possible foodborne illnesses will be terminated with proper endpoint cooking temperature and time combination,” explains Carr.

While a dry rub adds flavour and crust to your protein, a marinade adds taste and tenderness to the meat. This happens because of the liquid's ability to move within the cell walls of the protein and break them down while delivering taste to the meat.

Properly seasoning meat makes a huge difference to its flavor. Ribs, for instance, are delicious when cooked properly but can easily become dry and tough when overcooked. The solution is to season them overnight, so the meat absorbs all of the seasoning's flavor before it's cooked.

However, what Applebees refers to as “riblets” are actually “button ribs,” which are actually not ribs at all. They're from a long, thin cut of meat that runs along the spine just after the rearmost rib, a cut that's around 6 inches long, 1 ½ inches wide, and ¼ inch thick.

Texas Roadhouse Ribs use pork loin ribs, also known as baby back ribs, which is also what we used for this recipe. It's best to pick ones that have a good thick layer of meat around the bones.

St Louis ribs are flatter and straighter, whereas the baby back ribs are curved and shorter. Because the St Louis ribs are flatter and easier to brown and get just right on the grill, they can cook more evenly, which is excellent. They also have a more succulent and fattier characteristic.

Here are the basics when it comes to a rack of pork ribs: A complete rack of ribs typically weighs about 1 1/2 to 2 pounds and consists of 10 to 13 ribs measuring about 3 to 6 inches long each. A half rack, on the other hand, weighs anywhere between 12 to 16 ounces and has about 5 to 6 ribs on the rack.