Greedy Girl : Cocoa Chipotle baby back ribs

"Feast of Saint Valentine"

I’m finally back from my long hiatus with a new last name. It was an interesting experience to not have the weight of two blog posts per week resting on my shoulders. Instead I had to deal with caterers, decor, wedding dresses, and all that comes with planning your own wedding. The honeymoon certainly made up for all the hard work. So now that all the excitement has passed, I’m in a new house with a new kitchen ready to bet back to greedy girl cooking. In case you forgot its chocolate month and the first recipe up is a chocolate chipotle baby back rib.

This is my second attempt at a chocolate rib, the first I did a very long time ago in my early blog days. It was a nice mix of chocolate and raspberry. Today its cocoa and chipotle with a hint of coffee and dark rum infused in there. I always say finding ways to make chocolate and meat work is one of the hardest yet rewarding foodie accomplishments. I have the idea and wonder, will this work? And when it does work and is delicious on top of that, it’s pretty cool.

The one thing you should prepare for is everyone asking you why you burnt the ribs. I kept saying, it’s not burnt its chocolate. The second they bite into it and the meat falls off the bone, then everyone has an aha moment. A few persons who had it, I didn’t tell them it was seasoned with cocoa until after they cleaned their plate. You can imagine all the surprised faces. I only made two racks (which is really nothing at all) Just in case they didn’t come out as I had planned I would not have wasted a whole lot of meat. However, crisis averted, they were absolutely delicious.

Ingredients (printable recipe)

To season

2 babyback ribs

4 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa

½ teaspoon instant coffee

1 ½ teaspoon Salt

½ teaspoon Black pepper

1 teaspoon Chipotle powder

2 tablespoon oil

To Glaze

1 tablespoon brown sugar

½ teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder

¼ cup dark rum

¼ teaspoon salt

To grill

4 pimento leaves (optional)

Instructions

Wash and pat dry the ribs
Season with cocoa powder, coffee, salt, black pepper, chipotle powder and oil
Make sure to rub all the ingredients into the meat
Wrap in foil place in the refrigerate and allow it to marinate for 24 hours
After it has marinated allow the meat to rest and come to almost room temp
Preheat the oven to 230 degrees F
Heat the grill to high heat, place the pimento leaves down on the grill and rest the ribs on top
Cover and allow it to infuse the smoke about 5 minutes per side
In a bowl combine all the glaze ingredients
Periodically baste the glaze on both sides of the ribs
Remove from the grill when a nice charred bar begins to develop
Place it onto several layers of thick heavy duty foil pour the remaining glaze ingredients onto the meat and wrap tightly with foil, but making sure to tent it so that there is room for steam to develop in the parcel.
Allow this to cook in the oven for 3-4 hours
After the time has elapsed remove from the heat and allow the ribs to rest
Pour off the excess juices and mix with salt, brown sugar, dark rum and cocoa powder, place in a sauce pan to thicken
Pour over the ribs and serve.