Baby Back Ribs with Cookie Butter Barbecue Sauce

From the Ray Lampe’s Big Green Egg Cookbook

So I’m thumbing through my Big Green Egg Cookbook and I come across a recipe called Baby Back Ribs with Cookie Butter Barbecue Sauce. “Cookie butter?” I ask myself, “What is cookie butter?” But I trust that Dr. BBQ knows what he’s talking about, or at least I hope Dr. BBQ knows what he’s talking about, because my next thought was, “Well, this is either going to be really good or a hot mess.”

It was really good. No, it was really good. The ribs were fall off the bone delicious, and the sauce… well the sauce was so good I put some on my sweet potato fries too. I’m such a cookie butter fan now that I googled it to see what else it is used for. I have plans for a cookie butter ice cream in the near future.

EGGcessories:

ConvEGGtor

Ingredients:

Rub

• ¼ cup raw sugar
• 3 tablespoons kosher salt
• 3 tablespoons paprika
• 1 teaspoon granulated onion (may be called “Onion Powder” in your store)
• 1 teaspoon granulated garlic (may be called “Garlic Powder” in your store)
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Sauce

• 1 ½ cups cookie butter
• 1 ½ cups ketchup
• 1 cup fresh orange juice
• Juice of ½ lemon
• 2 tablespoons hot sauce
• 2 tablespoons paprika
• 2 teaspoons granulated onion
• 1 teaspoon granulated garlic
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt

• 3 slabs pork loin baby back ribs, about 6 pounds total
• 1 cup fresh orange juice

Directions:

Prepare the EGG to cook indirect with a drip pan at 300° F with cherry wood added for smoke flavor.

To make the rub, combine all of the ingredients in a small bowl and mix well.

Peel the membrane off the back of each slab of ribs.

I see this in every rib recipe I come across but have yet to do it. I’m not sure why it’s done, but I like to pull the membrane off when I’m eating the ribs. It’s kind of like pulling the plastic off the glass of a new cell phone.

Season the ribs liberally on both sides with the rub, using it all.

Don’t have to tell me twice! See the picture above. 😉

Let the ribs rest for 10 minutes, or until the rub is tacky.

I knew my ribs were tacky when I saw it wearing a leisure suit. Thank you! Good night. 😉

Lay the slabs, meaty side up, on the EGG cooking grid and cook for 2 hours.

I gotta tell you, I could smell this cooking almost the whole time they were in the EGG and they smelled so good.

Flip the ribs and cook for 1 hour longer, or until well browned on both sides.

Lay 3 big doubled sheets of heavy-duty aluminum foil on a work surface. Lay a rib slab, meaty side up, on the center of each doubled foil stack. Fold up the edges of each foil stack and then add ⅓ cup of the orange juice to each packet.

You’re only seeing two in the picture above because I only bought one slab that I cut in two before cooking. There’s only 4 of us and one of us is a toddler so three 2 pound slabs of ribs would be excessive.

Close up each rib packet snugly, being careful not to puncture the foil with a rib bone.

Put the ribs back on the EGG and cook for 1 hour, or until tender when poked with a toothpick or fork.

Meanwhile, make the sauce. Melt the cookie butter in a medium sauce pan over medium heat on the stove. Add the ketchup, orange juice, hot sauce, paprika, granulated onion and garlic, soy sauce, and salt. Mix well and cook, stirring often, for about 3 minutes, or until well blended. Set aside.

I meant to take a picture after the cookie butter melted. Even though it looked like creamy peanut butter, it melted into what looked like an ice cream topping.

Cookie butter, by the way, isn’t as hard to find as I thought it was going to be. The customer service rep at my local supermarket didn’t know what it was at first but found it in the computer after looking it up. It was right next to the peanut butter.

When the ribs are tender to your liking, remove them from the foil packets and place them, meaty side down, on the grid. Brush with a liberal coating of the sauce and cook for 15 minutes.

Again, don’t have to tell me twice!

Flip the ribs and brush a liberal coating of the sauce on the meaty side and cook for 15 minutes.

Brush the ribs with a second coat of the sauce and cook for 30 minutes, or until the sauce is set.

Transfer the ribs to a cutting board and cut each slab into thirds. Arrange on a platter and serve.

These ribs came out so tender that I was only cutting at every third rib. Otherwise, they were getting destroyed by falling off the bone (such problems I have!), and I didn’t want a pile of meat with bones sticking out of them. I guess what I’m saying is tread lightly when cutting the ribs up.