Sticky Oven-Baked Pork Spare Ribs with honey glaze

Sticky pork spare ribs, oven-baked in a honey and garlic sauce until the meat just falls from the bone. Cut them into individual ribs before cooking so the sauce coats every available surface.

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Sticky oven-baked pork spare ribs

When I lived in South Africa, I used to make these pork spare ribs on the barbeque. They were cooked on the barbeque as a whole rack, and were placed at the edge of the barbeque, away from the direct heat in the centre, so that they could cook slowly. The sticky honey glaze caramelised beautifully and the meat was cooked to melt-in-the-mouth tender perfection.

Since coming to England and having to deal with the unpredictable weather, I’ve adapted the recipe to bake these ribs in the oven.

I cut the rack into individual ribs and marinate in special homemade rib marinade for at least half an hour to let all the flavours sink into the meat. The cornflour in the marinade acts as a tenderiser and helps to keep the meat soft and juicy. And the combination of honey, garlic, soy and ginger provides the special taste.

If you look at the recipe you will see that these ribs take almost 2 hours to cook. Don’t let that put you off. Actual preparation time is only about 10 minutes. The rest of the time is hands-off – half an hour to marinate, and the rest of the time in the oven.

Ingredients for oven-baked spare ribs

You can get the complete list of ingredients and full instructions on how to make these sticky pork spare ribs on the printable recipe card at the end of this post.

To make these spare ribs you will need the following ingredients. This recipe is sufficient for 4 people.

1.8kg pork spare ribs (or 4 pounds) cut into individual ribs. 1 rack provides 10 – 12 ribs, depending on how it has been trimmed by the butcher.

You should allow for 450g (1 pound) spare ribs per person. This takes into account the high bone content of a rack of ribs.

• 6 Tablespoons soy sauce
• 4 Tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons sunflower oil
• 4 Tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon chilli paste – more or less according to your taste
• 2 cloves garlic – finely minced
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 2 tablespoon cornflour – not shown in ingredient image

How to make oven-baked spare ribs

Mix the marinade

Mix all the ingredients for the marinade together in a bowl large enough to hold all the ribs.

Separate the ribs

Using a sharp knife, cut between the ribs to separate into individual pieces. If the ribs are joined with cartilage ease the knife carefully through.

Coat the ribs with the marinade

Add the ribs to the marinade and mix well to ensure each rib is completely covered in the marinade. Cover and set aside for at least half an hour.

Bake

Line a large baking pan (large enough to take all the ribs in a single layer) with tin-foil. This saves on the washing up. You don’t have to do this step, but the marinade tends to get sticky in the oven and it may burn onto the baking dish, making it difficult to clean.

Arrange the ribs in a single layer in the baking dish and pour any remaining marinade over. Cover with a lid of tin-foil. Make sure to wrap the edges of tin-foil tightly around the edges of the baking dish so that the steam does not escape.

Place in a pre-heated medium hot oven (170C / 340F) for 1 hour. Resist the temptation to open the tin-foil and peek. You want the ribs to cook slowly inside the sealed dish and opening the tin-foil will allow the steam to escape.

For those of you with an oven thermometer, the ribs wil be fully cooked once the internal temperature reaches 63C / 145F. However, as there is a lot of connective tissue in spare ribs, they may still be tough at this point. At 88C / 190F internal temperature, the fat and collagen in the meat starts to break down and the meat becomes more tender.

Allow the ribs to brown

Once the hour is up, remove the baking dish from the oven and turn the heat up to grill.

Remove the tin-foil lid – be careful there will be a lot of hot steam inside. Baste the ribs with the juices in the baking dish and brown them (turning occasionally) under the hot grill.

If the weather permits, you could even brown them on the barbeque, using the cooking juices as a basting sauce.

Save time and freeze them

If you want to save time, you can follow the recipe up to the point where the ribs have been coated with marinade. Then just transfer the ribs and marinade into a strong plastic freezer bag and freeze for up to 3 months.

When you are ready to use them, let the ribs defrost in the refrigerator and then bake then as per the recipe instructions.

How to reheat

If you have any leftovers, you can store them in the refrigerator for up to three days.

To reheat them, spread on a baking tray and place in a hot oven for about 10 minutes until the ribs are heated through.

You can also reheat them in the microwave on full power for about 3 minutes.

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Additional resources

Don’t forget to check out my handy Cookery Conversion Calculator if you want to convert any of your recipe measurements from grams to cups, ounces, tablespoons or millilitres and vice versa. You can also use the calculator for converting oven temperatures between Fahrenheit, Celsius and Gas marks.

If you live at a high altitude you may find you need to adjust your baking recipes to compensate for this. You can read all about it in this post on baking at high altitudes.

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Recipe – Sticky Oven-baked Pork Spare Ribs with Honey glaze

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