Want a truly divine, ethnic-inspired marinade for your spareribs? Try out these Thai-Style Spareribs shared by Stanley Fishman in his newest book, Tender Grassfed Barbecue: Traditional, Primal and Paleo.
Stanley’s well-researched book dives into traditional ways we’ve cooked meat over flames, and guess what? He reveals lost bits of wisdom that not only create incredibly tender, delectable meats, but also prepare them healthfully.
For example, did you know that it’s not traditional to cook meat directly over flames? Turns out that when you do that, the fat from the meat drips down onto your fire, immediately oxidizes and turns into carcinogens, and then wafts back up and binds to your meat in the form of smoke. Instead, traditional food cultures cooked meat indirectly. In your barbecue pit, it’s as simple as starting a fire to one side of the pit, then cooking the meat on the other side over a drip pan to catch the dripping fat.
Tender Grassfed Barbecue is full of such lost techniques and useful tips, plus it’s a treasure trove of amazing recipes like these Thai-Style Spareribs.
Thai-Style Spareribs
The Players
- 1 (3 to 4 pound) rack pastured pork spareribs
- 1/4 C. cilantro stems, finely chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1 (2 inch) piece ginger, very finely chopped
- 3 Tbsp. Thai fish sauce (where to find naturally-fermented fish sauce)
- 2 Tbsp dry white wine
- 2 Tbsp Grade B maple syrup (where to find organic maple syrup)
- 2 Tbsp peanut butter (where to find roasted nut butters from sprouted nuts)
- 2 Tbsp toasted sesame oil (where to find organic unrefined sesame oil)
The How-To
1. The night before you plan to cook the ribs, prepare the marinade. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl, stirring vigorously until the peanut butter has dissolved completely into the marinade. Place the ribs in a glass bowl, and coat all sides of the ribs with the marinade. Cover, and refrigerate overnight.
2. Remove the ribs from the fridge at least 1 hour before cooking to bring them to room temperature.
3. Build a charcoal fire on one side of the cooker only. Bring your cooker to medium high heat, with all vents fully open.
4. When the cooker is ready, place the ribs to the side of, but not over, the heat source, bone side down. Baste with some of the marinade remaining in the bow, cover, and cook for 30 minutes.
5. Baste the ribs once more with the remaining marinade. Turn the ribs bone side up, cover and cook for 20 minutes.
6. Turn the ribs bone side down. Cover, and cook for 10 minutes.
Serve and enjoy!
(photos: top by buyo, lower by 219eastern)
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Thai BBQ. Yum! Thanks for the helpful advice on the indirect cooking method. It’s funny, as soon as you say it, it’s like…well of course, makes total sense.
I don’t have a grill, but these sound delicious – do you think it would still work in a slow cooker?
I would not try to cook these in a slow cooker.
What would work well would be to preheat the oven(not a microwave) to 350 degrees, and to put the ribs on a greased rack set in a roasting pan.
If you the cooking instructions in the recipe above, substituting the oven for the grill, you should have some terrific Thai spareribs.
Thanks Stanley!
I miss some of these great grilling recipes living in an apt – that is a good tip I’ll use for all my ribs going forward.
My pleasure, Colleen. I can remember when I lived in a no grill apartment. I missed it too!
Hi Kristen!
I’ve made this recipe twice this month and both times it was awesome… such great traditional Thai flavors! It tasted so amazing, and it felt great knowing we’re eating wholesome, healthy foods! Thanks so much! This recipe is going into the ‘heavy-rotation’ file!
Sounds really good. I would do them in the oven as I am a health freak and do not BBQ unless the grate is covered and no fats hit the coals. I don’t eat pork so I would do lamb or beef ribs. I will certainly try it Thank you so much for these recipes. I have to change a lot of recipes because of allergies but hey we gotta eat right?