Apply Soy Sauce Braised Pork Ribs

Another pork and apple recipe!!! This was my second submission for the apple challenge contest by KitchenAid.

Amazing, fall-of-the-bone tender baby back ribs braised in soy sauce and apples. What can be more happy 🙂 than that?? This is another amazing recipe creation by moi for the KitchenAid’s contest. As far as I know this is totally my creation. The flavor profile certainly has Korean or Asian combination of soy sauce, ginger and rice wine.  A fabulous dish for the fall, so hearty and good that you have to try cooking some this weekend.

Pork ribs or pork chops brings me back to when I was in 5th or 6th grade. Because my sisters are all 10+ years older than I am and my brother +7 years,  they were either attending colleges or married, living in Korea or US during that time. Which meant I spent most of my 5-9th grade years in India by myself. But in the summertime, they often came and stayed with me and my parents in New Delhi. Because of the big age gap, my sisters always showered their little baby sister with lots of love including cooking some delicious foods. Oh, well, by now, you must know that I LOVE yummy food very very much!! Definitely, if you ask me – ‘The way to a sister’s heart is through her stomach.’ haha..it didn’t help much with my weight though.. 😉

And one of the most memorable food that my sisters cooked for me was this amazing, finger licking good,  pork chop/rib BBQ. I think we named it “Ketchup Deoji Kalbi”.. I recently asked my sisters how they made it and they could only tell me roughly that it was made with tomato sauce, honey, soy sauce, lots of onions and tomato ketchup.

I just remember eating those ribs, so happy that it’s sooo insanely delicious but getting sad that my stomach was filling up too soon and thinking..oh how lucky am I to have such wonderful sisters who makes such tasty foods for me!

So hope you can show your love this weekend to your family or friends…

Now, let’s get cooking –

** Because this is a pretty straightforward cooking process, I will skip most post step-by-step pics for this recipe. But I promise I will do that again when I post Korean recipes with unfamiliar ingredients or cooking methods.**

Servings: 4-6 dinners     Inactive Time: 15 min Cook Time: 2 hrs 15 min              Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

• 1 whole rack of baby back ribs (pork) – about 2- 3lbs (1~1.3 kg) or individual pork ribs
• 2 granny smith apple
• 1 onion
• 1 large or 2 small carrots
• 3/4 cup apple juice
• 1 thumb size ginger
• 6 Tbs dark soy sauce (jinkanjang)
• 4 Tbs rice wine or sake
• 2 Tbs sugar
• 1 1/2 cup water
• 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary, 2 fresh sage leaves (optional)
• 2 Tbs vegetable oil
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• black pepper

1. Heat oven to 325 °F (160°C).
2. Trim as much fat as possible from ribs and cut into individual ribs if it’s a whole rack.
3. Blend following in a blender to make apple soy ginger sauce/marinade:
   • 1 small granny smith apple (if using sweeter apple like fuji, use less sugar and add 1 Tbs of apple cider vinegar)
   • 1 small thumb size ginger
   • 1/4 cup apple juice
   • 2 Tbs soy sauce
   • 2 Tbs rice wine or sake
   • 2 Tbs sugar
   • salt and pepper
4. Marinate pork ribs in the sauce for about 15 min or more. Overnight in refrigerator also works!
5. Clean and peel carrots, onion and apple.
6. Cut carrot, onion and apple into chunks of similar size.
7. Remove ribs from marinade (remove any excess marinade from ribs and save remaining marinade). Heat 1 Tbs oil in a dutch oven over medium high heat and brown ribs on all sides.

   

   

   Take ribs out of pot and set aside.

8. Add 1 more Tbs of oil, add onions, carrots and apples and season with salt and pepper. Stir often to make sure things don’t burn. Adjust heat if you find it’s starting to burn. This part is a bit tricky, you need the med high heat to nicely brown the ingredients but you don’t want to scorch it either. Cook until soft for about 5 min.
9. Deglaze pan by first adding 1/4 cup apple juice, making sure you scrape off all the good brown bits stuck at the bottom and side of pan. Once you feel that you have gotten most of the bits off, add rest of the braising liquid – 1/4 cup apple juice, 1 1/2 cups water, 4 Tbs soy sauce, 2 Tbs rice wine. Also add about 1/2 of the leftover marinade from the ribs, 1 Tbs red pepper flakes, rosemary and sage.

   

10. Now add ribs back in the pot. Bring liquid to simmer and then it’s ready for the oven!

    

11. Bake in oven, covered for 1 1/2 hr. Then uncover and bake for 30 min more to reduce the liquid.

    

    Enjoy!

    

Serving Suggestions/Tips

• Serve with rice and some lighter vinegary, spicy fresh veggie side dish. I made Apple Kimchi Slaw (seen in pic) as a side and it was fantastic! Any kind of Kimchi should be awesome.
• Even though I removed as much fat as possible, there will be a lot of fat on top of the liquid. For easier fat removal, make it a day ahead (reduce cooking time by 10 min or so to allow reheating later without drying out) and cool it in the fridge to harden fat on top. Remove fat and reheat and serve.
• Great article on How to Braising Anything by Bon Appetit magazine.

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  Apple Soy Braised Pork Ribs

  Amazing, fall-of-the-bone tender baby back ribs braised in soy sauce and apples.

  Prep: 15 minutes minutes

  Cook: 2 hours hours 15 minutes minutes

  Total Time: 2 hours hours 30 minutes minutes

  serves: 4

  Ingredients

  • ▢ 1 whole rack of baby back ribs (pork – about 2- 3lbs / 1 -1.3 kg or individual pork ribs)
  • ▢ 2 granny smith apple
  • ▢ 1 onion
  • ▢ 1 large or 2 small carrots
  • ▢ 3/4 cup apple juice
  • ▢ 1 thumb size ginger
  • ▢ 6 Tbsp dark soy sauce (jinkanjang)
  • ▢ 4 Tbsp rice wine or sake
  • ▢ 2 Tbsp sugar
  • ▢ 1 1/2 cup water
  • ▢ 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary (optional)
  • ▢ 2 sage leaves (fresh leaves, optional)
  • ▢ 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
  • ▢ 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
  • ▢ black pepper

  US Customary - Metric

  Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

  Instructions

  • Heat oven to 325 °F (160°C).
  • Trim as much fat as possible from ribs and cut into individual ribs if it’s a whole rack.

  Blend the following in a blender to make the apple soy ginger sauce/marinade

  • 1 small granny smith apple (if using sweeter apple like fuji, use less sugar and add 1 Tbs of apple cider vinegar)
  • 1 small thumb size ginger
  • 1/4 cup apple juice
  • 2 Tbs soy sauce
  • 2 Tbs rice wine or sake
  • 2 Tbs sugar
  • salt and pepper
  • Marinate the pork ribs in the sauce for about 15 min or more
  • Clean and peel carrots, onion and apple.
  • Cut carrot, onion and apple into chunks of similar size.
  • Remove ribs from marinade (remove any excess marinade from ribs and save remaining marinade). Heat 1 Tbs oil in a dutch oven over medium high heat and brown ribs on all sides.
  • Take ribs out of pot and set aside.
  • Add 1 more Tbs of oil, add onions, carrots and apples and season with salt and pepper. Stir often to make sure things don’t burn. Cook until soft for about 5 min.
  • Deglaze pan by first adding 1/4 cup apple juice, making sure you scrape off all the good brown bits stuck at the bottom and side of pan. Add rest of braising liquid – 1/4 cup apple juice, 1 1/2 cups water, 4 Tbs soy sauce, 2 Tbs rice wine. Also add 1/2 of leftover marinade from ribs, 1 Tbs red pepper flakes, rosemary and sage.
  • Add ribs back in the pot. Bring liquid to simmer.
  • Bake in oven, covered for 1 1/2 hr. Bake uncovered for 30 min to reduce liquid.

  Tips & Notes:

  Serve with rice and Kimchi or Apple Kimchi Slaw.
  To reduce fat, make a day ahead cool it in fridge to harden the fat on top and remove fat before serving.

  Nutrition Information:

  Calories: 848kcal (42%)| Carbohydrates: 29g (10%)| Protein: 68g (136%)| Fat: 47g (72%)| Saturated Fat: 13g (81%)| Cholesterol: 251mg (84%)| Sodium: 1607mg (70%)| Potassium: 1324mg (38%)| Fiber: 3g (13%)| Sugar: 24g (27%)| Vitamin A: 2770IU (55%)| Vitamin C: 7.5mg (9%)| Calcium: 98mg (10%)| Iron: 3.2mg (18%)

  Author: JinJoo Lee

  Course:Main Course, Pork

  Cuisine:Koreanfusion

  Keyword:autumn, hearty, oven braised

  Did You Make This?I love seeing what you’ve made! Tag me on Instagram at @Kimchimari or #kimchimari and don’t forget to leave a comment & rating below!