It is hard to resist the idea of a nice batch of ribs slow roasted over pinto beans and veggies with a tangy barbecue sauce; so, when the nice folk at Southern Living published a recipe, I quickly took it to heart and changed the heck out of it.
Well, not really. I kept the principle and the basic ingredients, but, where they called for commercial barbecue sauce and pepper jelly (not that there’s anything wrong with that), I went with my own, home made, sauce, peppers relish, and peach butter.
Much more better, but, if you don’t have a stash of home made goodies, store bought will still give you a tasty, spicy sweet batch of ribs and beans.
INGREDIENTS
Ribs and Beans:
•Country style pork ribs
•Seasoned salt
•Black pepper
•Gateway to the North Maple Garlic Seasoning (or your favorite steak seasoning)
•1 red pepper, chopped
•1 green pepper, chopped
•1 onion, chopped
•2 cans pinto beans, drained and rinsed
Sauce:
•12 oz barbecue sauce
•8 oz peppers relish
•1 tbsp Sherry Peppers Sauce
•1 tsp Cajun Power Spicy Garlic Pepper Sauce (or your favorite hot sauce, to taste)
•1/4 cup peach butter
Set your oven to broil and line a rimmed baking sheet with foil.
Arrange the ribs in a single layer on the baking sheet, then season both sides with the salt, pepper, and Maple Garlic Seasoning, rubbing the seasonings in to the ribs with with fingers.
Note: long time readers will be asking, “Wait! Where;s the Aleppo pepper?” Sadly, I have used up all of my stash, even my secret back up, so I need to make a trip to my spice guys to restock. If you have any on hand, by all means feel free to add some to the ribs.
Pop the ribs under the broiler and cook for ten minutes, then turn them over and cook for another nine or ten minutes. You don’t need to cook the ribs all the way, you just want them nicely browned.
While the ribs are broiling, drain and rinse the pinto beans, then add to a slow cooker with the chopped onion and peppers, stirring a bit to mix ’em up.
Combine the sauce ingredients together in a ‘wave-safe bowl, then pop into the ‘wave for mebbe 30 or 60 seconds – just long enough to melt the peach butter (or pepper jelly, if you’re going that route).
If you’re gonna go store bought for the sauce, the nice folk at Southern Living call for:•18 oz jar of barbecue sauce
•10-1/2 oz jar of red jalapeño jelly
•1 tsp green hot sauceArrange the browned ribs over the pinto beans and veggies in the slow cooker, then pour the sauce over all.
Cover and cook on low for nine hours, or on high for five hours or so. As always, slow cookers vary; this, casserole size slow cooker did the job in about 5-1/2 hours on high, my full size Cuisinart cooks hot, so it would’ve probably been done in three hours or so, so judge cooking times by your own slow cooker experience, and keep an eye on things after three hours or so if you can.Once the ribs are done, remove to a platter, cover, and keep warm, then strain the beans and veggies out of the sauce, place them in a bowl, and stash somewhere warm.
Skim the fat off of the sauce – I used this handy contraption I bought from a school fundraiser last year – but don’t be surprised if there isn’t very much; either my ribs were rather lean, or the broiling seems to have gotten rid of most of the fat, my sauce didn’t have a lot.Stir the skimmed sauce back into the beans and veggies, then serve with the ribs.We had ours with Korean potato salad on the side.Sweet.Spicy.And all around good.