Chinese BBQ Boneless Ribs

Pork shoulder (aka Boston Butt, or Pork Butt**) is one of my favorite cuts of meat. I'm particularly fond of using it as "ribs" - which are sold in my local grocery store as "western ribs", but are really just 2" thick slices of pork shoulder roast. They cost a LOT less than real ribs do around here - as low as $1.29/lb, where spare ribs never seem to go below $2.19 a pound. When you consider all the extra meat you get out of the western ribs as compared to the spare ribs, it is quite the deal.*

Ingredients:

• 4lbs "western ribs", or a boneless pork butt roast cut lengthwise into 2" strips

Marinade ingredients:

• ½ cup sugar
• ½ cup soy sauce
• ¼ cup Hoisin sauce
• ¼ cup 2 tablespoon dry sherry
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder
• 1" piece of ginger, grated
• 3 garlic cloves, minced

Sauce ingredients:

• ¼ cup marinade, reserved
• ¼ cup hoisin sauce
• ½ cup ketchup

Directions:

1. Marinate the pork for 4 hours:

Prepare the pork by poking each piece with a fork - I do it on both sides, roughly every half inch. Put the pork in a non-reactive bowl, pyrex dish, or gallon zip-lock bag. Whisk the marinade ingredients together until the sugar dissolves, reserve ¼ cup for use in the sauce, and pour the rest over the pork. Refrigerate the marinating pork for up to 4 hours, turning it occasionally to make sure it's marinating evenly.

Make the sauce by whisking together the reserved marinade, hoisin sauce, and ketchup. Store, refrigerated, for later.

Pork Butt

Forking my pork...OK, I'll stop.

Marinade (½ cup reserved)

Marinating pork

2. Cook the pork: Set your grill up for indirect low heat, and cook for 4 hours, wrapped in foil for the last hour.

Fill a charcoal chimney half full with charcoal (roughly 50 charcoal briquettes), light it, and wait for it to light completely (covered with gray ashes). Divide the charcoal into two piles on opposite sides of the grill, and put an aluminum foil pan (13x9") between the piles. Pour 1 quart hot tap water into the foil pan.

Put the grate on the grill, then the pork on the grate, over the foil pan. Cover the grill, and close the top vent ⅓ closed to slow down the charcoal. (The water in the foil pan and the partially closed vent will even out the temperature.) You are trying to maintain a temperature between 250*F and 300*F.

Cook for 3 hours. After every hour of cooking, quickly remove the lid and add 12 coals (6 to each side).

After cooking for 3 hours, it should look like this:

At this point, add another 12 coals, then transfer the pork to a sheet of aluminum foil, pour ½ cup of the sauce we made earlier over the pork, then wrap in foil and put the foil pork packet back on the grill, still over indirect heat. Open the top vent all the way at this point.

Cook for 1 more hour in the foil, then remove from the grill. Let rest for at least 15 minutes before opening the foil pack. Serve with the remaining sauce for dipping.

*Hoisin Sauce is sometimes called plum sauce, or chinese barbecue sauce. I've "sold" it to the kids that way, when they insist on having "barbecue sauce" with a dinner like this. I prefer to mix in some ketchup and soy sauce to thin it out if I'm using it as a barbecue sauce - it can be too thick if served straight up. You'll be able to find it in the asian section of any good-sized grocery store nowadays, but I try to get mine from the local asian market - it's sold in larger bottles, for less money.

Adapted from Chinese Barbecued Pork from Cook's Illustrated.

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