Go to the Recipe: Chinese Barbecue Ribs
Cannot wait to give this a try!
What a treat. Started this yesterday and cooked it and broiled it in our Joule Oven Air Fryer Pro and it was great. Saving the maltose glaze for a brush or a dipping sauce was key to us to get it to the ribs were used to.
So glad you enjoyed it! Got any pics to share?
I made these without the red yeast rice which neither local Asian market carried. I used red food gel as the alternative. I have always made Chinese BBQ with a recipe that uses the maltose in the marinade and I then glaze with a homemade Ah-So sauce. If you grew up near Boston 5 or 6 decades ago you know what this is. My mom used this on pork chops, pork tenderloins and chicken wings for home cooked Chinese style meals. Also, I have never cut up the ribs prior to cooking. The result from Tim's cooking method was, unsurprisingly, superior.
I cooked the ribs in my oven, which runs a bit cool, and after lowering my oven to 225 degrees my ribs were tender 1.5 hours later (total of 2 hours) with the meat around the rib bones retracted. The final result was pretty perfect for me. The red fermented bean curd added a funk to the ribs that I liked but my wife not so much. My only question is does the red yeast rice add flavor or is it exclusively for color?
I will note that I cooked the entire rack of ribs and did not trim to the weight Tim used in his video. Who wants fewer ribs? Not me. Thanks for the clear instructions, videos and great recipe.
These look great!
Re: the red yeast rice, it is primarily used for color. There isn't much flavor there, beyond maybe the nuttiness of toasted/charred rice. If anything, the red yeast rice increases the viscosity of the marinade and the resulting glaze. It gives the marinade a little shine and creamy texture, if that makes sense.
Can I sous vide the ribs then broil then to finish? I did one batch to test and while great flavor wise, I missed the tenderness of a sous vide rib. My normal sous vide cook for ribs is 145° F for 24 hours.
Thanks in advance!
Yes, you could definitely cook these ribs sous vide! Based on our other recipe for sous vide ribs, here are some time and temperature guidelines based on your preference:
167 °F / 75 °C—3 hours. Juicy, with a good amount of chew and pull
167 °F / 75 °C—4 hours. Succulent and fork-tender
185 °F / 85 °C—6 hours. Braisey, fall-off-the-bone tender
Keep in mind: The ribs here are separated, so the cooking time may be slightly faster at any given temperature, depending on how they are spaced in the bag with the marinade when circulating. If I had to take a shot in the dark, I would say 3 hours at 167 °F would be adequate.
Hope this helps!
hello Tim, this looks like a great recipe and I am definitely going to try it. I have a couple of questions that I’m hoping you can offer insight into. First, concerning the rose wine might one also use Chinese rose liquor, which has a higher alcohol content. I know it’s tons more expensive, but, it’s sometimes recommended to brush the ribs with this because the alcohol helps the soluble spices to penetrate the meat. Second question, five spice powder is many things to many people and the version you have on the sale link does not have certain ingredients that can be found in other brands. White pepper is often included or added separately. But what about red or green cardamom, dried orange peel, angelica dhurika, Galangal (or do you feel you cover that with ginger). One more, where I need the most help is an understanding and balancing the sugars. I see some recipes using honey in the marinade, and I see some using crushed dried balls of monkfruit, or white sugar, or melted rock sugar (and of course there’s yellow and white versions). My understanding is that the monkfruit and rock sugar are much softer and milder. Also, the monk fruit has a much higher burning point than white sugar, and I guess if used to infuse sweetness, it won’t burn off like the sugar. So my understanding is that some roasting times, where they do not use the 3 inches from the broiler method, will work with less “burnable “sugar really towards the middle of the oven. Another question; what about using tapioca starch in the marinade in order to even the surface of the ribs. and finally, I’m given to understand that a lot of Chinese restaurants refrigerate and or freeze the ribs and then intend to reheat them because the refrigeration or freezing process, helps them to exude some of the fat and improves the chew of the meat . I guess one of those situations were the leftovers are better the next day. I’m struggling with a lot of these questions and I’m wondering what your thoughts are or if you know how things might turn out with some of these variations. thank you for any insight and wisdom you can offer.
Hey James,
I'll try to answer each of your questions systematically:
1. Chinese Rose Liquor vs. Chinese Rose "Wine"
These are essentially the same thing, so no need to worry about the distinction. The English translation for "Mei Gui Lu Jiu" is misleading, but refers to a high-proof spirit that often sits around 50% ABV depending on the brand. Even if you found a brand at, for example, ~8% ABV, it would still be functional in the recipe (75g is not a lot of liquid/alcohol, and it will evaporate over the cooking process), as long as it has that distinct rose petal aroma.
1b. Brushing meats with alcohol
The canonical idea of brushing meats with alcohol to help certain spices to penetrate meat is, in my opinion, a dubious claim. Here's why: The only "flavors" that truly penetrate meat deeply through diffusion are those that are soluble in water (i.e. ionic compounds like salt; MSG is another proven one (which dissociates into sodium and glutamate ions). It is true that alcohol (being amphiphilic, or a mix of polar and nonpolar) could dissolve some nonpolar aromatic compounds in spices, but those compounds are not going to penetrate beyond the first couple millimeters of the meat because they don't dissociate and diffuse like salts.
2. Five spice powder
For sure, there are many regional variations on five spice powder. In Southern China, for example, cardamom, chenpi (dried tangerine peel), galangal, and even sand ginger are common. But for our purposes, the most salient and accessible flavors are (in order of importance, IMO): Cassia (cinnamon), star anise, clove, fennel seed, Sichuan peppercorn. At the end of the day, it's just 3 grams in the marinade, so my advice would be: use what you've got, or what excites you. (To that point, some shops don't even use five spice at all.)
3. Sugars
Sugar type matters more when the marinade is more stripped down. For shops that don't load up on spices/flavors, then I would expect sugar type to have greater impact on flavor. The marinade here is intense and carries several flavors. So at minimum, we need two layers of sweetness: Straight sucrose from white granulated sugar does a good job providing baseline sweetness, and maltose gives us mellow sweetness and more importantly, viscosity and cling.
For the alternatives:
Honey: Behaves similarly to maltose in texture/cling, but is slightly sweeter and tends to burn more readily (it has a lower burning point than maltose).
Dried monkfruit: Gives a slightly vegetal, milder sweetness. The higher burning point could be an issue here if you're looking for that characteristic char. Overall, hard to source
Rock sugar: Traditional, but given the marinade here, I think white sugar or light brown sugar are more than serviceable substitutes.
4. Broiler position based on sugar type
Overall, you want a balance of char, caramelization, and tackiness in the finished product. 3 inches from the elements worked for me, but if you choose a lower-burning point sugar like honey, you will probably want to lower the rack position to adjust. It will take some trial and error to nail the proper look and cook.
5. Tapioca starch in the marinade
If your goal is to improve the coating ability of the marinade, I would consider this:
-As written, the recipe here includes ground red yeast rice. This raises the viscosity of the marinade already
-The initial marinade is for flavor, and we do it in bags with an ample amount
-If your question is about glazing with a tapioca starch-fortified marinade before broiling, then you'll need to cook the tapioca starch first to gelatinize the starch and thicken the mixture before brushing/dunking. But again, I would consider: The maltose does plenty of work to further raise the viscosity/cling of the glaze/marinade. I don't think you would need tapioca starch in this situation. (AND tapioca starch doesn't brown readily, so your broiling time might increase)
6. Freezing or refrigerating ribs before cooking/reheating
I'm not sure that refrigeration or even the freeze-thaw process for cooked ribs or char siu improves "fat exuding" or texture. Much of the fat rendering has already occurred during cooking. If anything, chilling the meat down makes it easier to cut and portion for service. I would guess that is the primary reason for this practice. Flavors could deepen over time, as the meat dessicates slightly and water activity decreases (marginally).
My main advice here: I would make the recipe first as written, evaluate it, then make adjustments based on your preferences for flavor or texture.
I hope this helps! Good luck.
