How to Make the Best Teriyaki Ribs | Food Wishes

Hello, this is Chef John from foodwishes.com with the best teriyaki ribs. That's right, I'm a huge fan of teriyaki chicken and we posted several videos for that, but I've never posted one featuring ribs. And after tasting how incredible these came out, I'm thinking that rib teriyaki might be the best teriyaki. And I'm going to show you what I think is by far the best method. And to get started, we will add three ingredients to a bowl that should be included in any proper teriyaki preparation. And that includes a high quality real soy sauce. We will also need some sake, which of course is Japanese rice wine, followed by something called mirin, which is basically a sweet Japanese cooking wine. And yes, you can easily find that at the store. And it's usually right next to the next ingredient, which would be some seasoned rice vinegar. And then to this, we'll also want to add some brown sugar, as well as some freshly ground black pepper, some garlic powder, and then a little bit of cayenne for some heat, and good luck. And once all that's in there, we'll take a whisk and give this a mix. And once that's been accomplished, we will simply set this aside until we need it. And we will move on to prepping our racks of ribs, which for me this time are going to be two racks of baby back ribs. And what we need to do is flip this over and deal with the membrane, which is a piece of thin, tough connective tissue attached to the bone. And what I usually do is just simply make some slashes with the tip of a knife, in kind of a crisscross pattern like this. But many chefs insist you have to actually peel off the membrane, which we do initially by scraping with a knife. And once we have enough we can grab with a paper towel, we can start pulling. And while it really doesn't take a tremendous amount of effort, it does take a little longer. And it's kind of annoying, which is why I almost never do it. And I simply go with the slash method, which I think does the same thing, in that it breaks it up and allows any flavors to penetrate through. But whether you're a slasher or a peeler, once we're done we'll go ahead and take the tip of a knife and we'll give this the old polka polka, so that our marinade can penetrate and penetrate deep. And then I'm going to go ahead and cut this in half, so it fits into my container better. So I went ahead and did that to two racks, which are generally going to be about two and a half pounds each. And once I have those nice and snug in this container, I went ahead and poured over the marinade, which ideally should cover the meat, or be very close to covering the meat. And that's it. We'll pop on the lid and transfer that into the fridge to marinate for a minimum of four hours. But I'm going to go overnight, which I think is best. And of course while they're in there it's not a bad idea to toss them around and rearrange them, so everything gets a nice even soak. But anyway, the next day when we're ready to go, we will cover a sheet pan with a large piece of heavy duty foil. And yes, we want to use the large roll, so we have enough foil to wrap this up properly. What we'll do is place our ribs down. And by the way, do not throw away the excess marinade. Okay, go ahead and pop that in the fridge, because we're going to use it. And then before putting the second piece of foil over the top, sometimes I'll lay a piece of parchment paper down, which I actually didn't do this time, to see if it would make a difference. And it really did. But anyway, once we place that second piece of foil over the top, we will fold the bottom piece up over the top, and then fold it and crimp it so it stays in shape. And then we'll go ahead and do that to all four sides. And no, don't worry about trying to get this airtight. We just want it sealed in the upward direction, since we don't want any of the precious juices leaking out. And that's it, one seal. We will transfer that into the center of a 250 degree oven for exactly two hours, at which point we'll pull it out and then not unwrap it. Right, mostly so we don't get a steam burn, but also I do like to let the meat rest and relax. So I think we should let that sit there for 10 to 15 minutes before very, very carefully opening that up and removing that top layer of foil. And no, our ribs are not cooked yet, although they should be sort of getting close. But we still need to finish them in the oven with the teriyaki glaze we're about to make, using the aforementioned precious juices. So we'll remove the ribs to a plate and set them aside for now, at which point we'll pour our reserve marinade into a saucepan, along with all these juices from the sheet pan. And this was already smelling insanely good at this point, but it's going to get even better after the next step. So what we'll do is take that to the stove and place it on medium-high heat. We will add some freshly sliced ginger, some sliced garlic, as well as some freshly sliced green onion. And besides those aromatics, I also like to add a little bit of sesame oil, since I really love that nutty fragrance it brings. And what we'll do is bring this up to a boil, and then we'll simply let it reduce by roughly half, right, maybe a little bit more, or until it looks something like this, and it's just starting to thicken up a little bit. And by the way, as you'll see, as this cools down to room temp, it's going to thicken up a lot more, like twice as thick. So at this point, we do not need to reduce it any further than that. And that's it. We'll take this and brush it onto our ribs, which we have placed back on the sheet pan. And yes, I did put down a clean piece of foil, but if it's in good shape, you can reuse the foil from earlier. And what we'll do is raise our oven temp to 350, and after this initial light first brushing, we'll pop it in the oven for 10 minutes, at which point we'll pull it out and give it another brushing. And we're going to repeat this process for as many times as it takes for our ribs to be cooked to perfection. And I'll show you what that means in a little bit. And you'll see with each brushing, our teriyaki sauce is getting thicker and thicker as it cools. And also as our ribs bake, we're building up a beautiful sticky layer of that sauce on the surface, which makes it easier for the new layer of glaze to attach. And with each baking, it's going to get thicker and more beautiful, and more shiny, and more impressive. And in case you're keeping score at home, I ended up doing a total of four brushing. And as you can see on this last one, our sauce is nice and thick, and our ribs are looking absolutely stunning. When I pulled mine out after the final glaze, they look like this. Oh yeah. I mean the terry part of teriyaki actually means shine. And as you can see, these are very, very terry. So these look perfect, but we have to test. And for me, the perfect doneness is when we can slide the tip of a knife in easily, but our meat is not falling off the bone. All right, if it is falling off the bone, that would mean it's overcooked. But anyway, I'm happy to report these felt perfect. So I transferred those onto a cutting board, and then for a finishing touch, I sprinkled over some toasted sesame seeds, as well as a few freshly sliced green onions, which I think are pretty, and pretty appropriate. But anyway, as usual, that'll be up to you. I mean, you are after all the assisting coach of your final garnishing approach. But personally, I think the sesame seeds and the green onions make for a beautiful contrast. And that's it. My teriyaki ribs were ready to enjoy. So I went ahead and sliced one off the end, and went in for the official taste. And that, my friends, was absolutely perfect in every way. Like I said, the meat should not be falling off the bone. But once bitten or pulled, it should come off perfectly clean, and it should be very moist and succulent, and extremely flavorful. Okay, if you follow this recipe exactly, I think you're going to have a perfect balance between sweet and salty. And don't even get me started on the next level of umami, which is what we call an intense savoriness in the business. And besides being incredibly delicious, these ribs are also a great change of pace from your standard American barbecued ribs, which I love. And if you're watching a rib video, you probably do too. But when we are in the mood for something different, I cannot think of a tastier, easier, or better way to go. Which is why I really do hope you give these a try soon. So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe, and much more info, as usual. And as always, enjoy.