1 lt. ketchup
½ pc. onions, coarsely chopped
½ pc. granny smith apple, coarsely chopped
1 tbsp. chopped garlic
2 oz. butter
1.5 oz. Jack Daniels
½ cup apple juice
3 tbsp. white vinegar
2 tbsp. Worcestershire
1.5 tbsp. Dijon
1/8 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. cayenne
½ tbsp. dried oregano

I melted the butter in a pot, then lightly sautéed the apples, onions and garlic. Then I deglazed the pot with the Jack Daniels, followed by the apple juice. I allowed the juice to reduce by half, then added the remaining ingredients and allowed the pot to come to a simmer. I allowed the sauce to simmer slowly until the apples were tender. Then I gave it a quick puree and it was ready for smearing. If you’re making this at home be careful not burn, because it does contain a lot of sugar, between the ketchup, brown sugar and apple juice, so it can burn easily.

Once the ribs were fork tender I fired up the grill and gently pulled the ribs out the pan and on to the grill, generously brushing them with the sauce and allowing it to slowly cook into the meat, getting nicely caramelized. Then it was simply a matter of sauce, flip, repeat until they were sticky sweet BBQ’d ribs.

This recipe is definitely a little bit of work and requires some commitment to cooking. I couldn’t even tell you if it follows the Texas, Memphis, or Carolina style “Q”, but I can tell you that stack of ribs disappeared at Sunday dinner, and there was a whole lot of sticky fingers and smiling faces