This recipe is one of my mother's absolute favorites for sweet and sour ribs and I can definitely understand why. She used to use this rib sauce for sweet and sour meat balls but they just seem to taste extra spectacular when it's used with short ribs instead. The ribs become so tender and the flavor of the sauce suits the pork extremely well. It's difficult to limit yourself to only a few of these!
It's best to brown up the ribs in a pan before cooking in the sauce so that you can drain any excess fat. Don't cook them all the way through in the pan though – you just want the outsides browned a little. This will help seal in the juiciness of the meat.
Once your ribs have been browned put them into a roasting pan with 2 whole onions and pour the prepared sauce over everything.
Now let these babies cook in the oven for a couple of hours until the sauce thickens up.
They should come out looking like these lovely little meaty bones!
Sweet and Sour Short Ribs
- Yield: 6–8 Servings 1x
Ingredients
- 3 lbs short ribs
- ground sage
- salt and pepper
- 2 medium onions, peeled but not chopped
For the Sauce:
- 3 cups brown sugar
- 1 1/2 cup vinegar
- 1 1/2 cup water
- 2 tbsps mustard
- 1 cup ketchup
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
- In a large skillet, season the ribs with salt, pepper and a sprinkling of ground sage. Brown the short ribs on all sides, but you don't have to cook all the way through since they'll be cooking in the oven.
- Place the ribs in a roasting pan with the 2 peeled onions. Leave the onions whole.
- Whisk together all the ingredients for the sweet and sour sauce until combined. Pour this over the ribs and stir them up a bit to make sure they're coated.
- Put the roasting pan in the oven (with the lib on) for 2 hours to cook. Check on the ribs a couple times during cooking and stir them up a bit to make sure the sauce is evenly coating everything.
- When the 2 hours are done, check to make sure the sauce is thick enough to your liking. If you'd like the sauce thicker you can put it back in the oven for a little longer- maybe 15 minutes or so – it just depends on how thick you want it.
Notes
These are great served with potato wedges or white rice.
