An Oven BBQ

Recently several of my friends had been going on and on about a chain of smokehouses in So-Cal called Lucille's.  Every time they would bring it up I'd realize that I hadn't had BBQ since it became winter and food trucks stopped coming to the office park where I work.  With each passing mention I wanted some BBQ more and more, until eventually I decided it was time to take action into my own hands.  And since no BBQ is quite complete without at least a side, I decided to go all in on the BBQ and try to get rid of one of my bottles of Sauce at the same time.

Ingredients:

4 Baking Potatoes

1 cup Sour Cream

1 cup Shredded Cheese

1 cup Milk

Bacon Bits

BBQ Sauce of choice

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400

Bake potatoes for an hour

Begin prepping ribs

Remove potatoes and lower heat to 350

Cut potatoes in half and scoop out centers

Mash potato scoopings

Mix mashed potatoes with sour cream, milk, bacon, shredded cheese, and BBQ sauce

Add potato mixture to hollowed out potatoes

Cover with cheese

Bake for an additional 20 minutes

Lower heat to 300

Ingredients:

1 rack of Pork Ribs

1 packet of Memphis Pit BBQ rub

BBQ Sauce of choice

Instructions:

Cut ribs in half 

Rub rub into ribs

Add rubbed ribs to gallon bags and let set (one until oven is ready, the other until you're ready for more ribs)

Remove ribs from bag and place in a baking pan and cover in foil

Bake for an hour per pound of ribs

Remove foil from ribs

Move ribs to broiler and broil for 5-10 minutes

Remove from broiler, cover with foil, and let set for 5-10 minutes

Serve alongside the potatoes (which will need to be reheated) and a side salad

This turned out extremely well.  The potatoes turned out better than I'd really expected, though I could have added a more substantial layer of cheese on top of the mixture.  They also freeze extremely well, so this is a meal that can keep on giving.  The rub gave the ribs an extremely good flavor, and after baking with a broiler finish, they were tender with a nice bit of crispiness on the outside.  There was one mistake I made with the first half rack.  I'd added sauce to the ribs before the broiler step, which resulted in the ribs having a layer of char over the top of them.  With the second set I added the sauce while the ribs were tented and resting, and it turned out a lot better, and in all honesty, the sauce isn't really necessary with the rub.  This is something that I'd absolutely recommend.