How to make Sous Vide Honey Garlic Spare Ribs

Good morning everyone! Today we are going to do something a little different. Just before Christmas, I bought myself some new tools for work and one of the things I got was a sous vide circulator. If you don't know what that is, it's okay. We're going to get into it in a second. What's important is that today, we are going to look at how to use it to make sous vide honey garlic spare ribs. Delicious! And yes, you can make these without the sous vide circulator.

Jump to:

• Sous Vide: What Is It?
• Benefits of Sous Vide Cooking
• Foods That Can Be Cooked Sous Vide
• Sous Vide Honey Garlic Spare Ribs
• Recipe
• Honey Garlic Sauce
• Wrapping Up

Sous Vide: What Is It?

First and foremost what is sous vide? Literally, sous vide means "under vacuum" in French. However, the term has come to refer to a low heat cooking technique where food is vacuum-sealed, then submerged and heated in water.

Sous Vide Circulator

The sous vide circulator is a tool for precisely controlling the temperature of the cooking water. The circulator is made up of two main parts. It has a heating element to control the temperature. And, it has a small water pump. The pump keeps the water moving very gently to make sure the temperature is consistent the whole way through.

Benefits of Sous Vide Cooking

To be clear, food is vacuum-sealed in bags. Those bags are then submerged into very precisely heated water. They are then left to cook over a period of time. Essentially, it is a very modern and precise slow cooker.

There are a few benefits to this cooking technique:

• Precise temperature control -- imagine you want a perfect mid-rare steak (135 F). You set the water to 130 F, vacuum seal the steak with thyme and garlic, and put it in. That steak will never go above the temperature you set. You could leave it in there a week and it won't ever be well done.
• Maximum flavour retention -- as the steak cooks the connective tissue breaks down and the fat renders out. The steak essentially cooks in its own juices. None of the flavour escapes.
• Set it and forget it -- your food won't overcook or dry out. After the cook, you pat it dry and sear in a very hot pan for a nice brown crust. This searing is done quickly so the internal temperature doesn't rise too much.

If you're interested in learning more about cooking meat to perfection, I have a whole guide on that.

Foods That Can Be Cooked Sous Vide

You can cook anything in this style. I mean anything. From stew to fruit and vegetables, to ribs, or pork shoulder (if you have a big enough bag), even fish and seafood.

Sous Vide Honey Garlic Spare Ribs

Now that we are all on the same page about what sous vide cooking is, let's take a look at how to make sous vide honey garlic spare ribs. First up, the marinade.

The Marinade

To make the marinade for the ribs I combined ¼ cup soy sauce (gluten-free tamari), ¼ cup honey, 2 tablespoon rice vinegar (you can use white vinegar), 2 tablespoon sesame oil, the juice and zest from one navel orange, 4 chopped green onions, 8 chopped cloves of garlic, 1 tablespoon Chinese 5 Spice, ¼ teaspoon chilli flakes, ½ teaspoon black pepper, and 1 teaspoon kosher salt.

Preparing the Ribs

The ribs I used are the really small cut spare ribs but you can use whatever you want. To prepare the ribs, I used a paper towel to pull the membrane off the underside. Then I cut the ribs between the bones to give myself a lot of little riblets. It was about 1.1 kg (2.5 lbs) in total.

Marinating the Ribs

I added the ribs to the marinade, put them in a ziplock bag and let them sit in the fridge for two days. One day would have been fine but I got busy and didn't have a chance to cook them on the first day.

Cooking the Ribs

When it came time to cook the ribs, I took them out of the marinade, put them in a vacuum-sealed bag, sealed them and put them in the water heated to 167 F for 4 hours. I could have done this for a longer period of time on a lower heat, but I was hungry.

I also could have sealed the ribs with the marinade into the vacuum bag, but it could have gotten a bit messy. So, I opted to take them out of the marinade. They were very flavourful so I don't feel like I lost anything.

Finishing the Ribs

After 4 hours the ribs were just about done. They were tender and everything, but one thing sous vide can't do is brown, or add colour to foods. So, I heated the broiler on my oven, spread the ribs out on a sheet pan and broiled them for about eight minutes in total. This gave them a nice colour and a more complex flavour.

Recipe

Honey Garlic Sauce

While the ribs were finishing in the oven I made a quick honey garlic sauce. I sauteed 4 cloves of garlic in 2 teaspoon of sesame oil. Next, I added in 2 tablespoon of honey, 2 tablespoon soy sauce, 2 teaspoon rice vinegar, and 1 teaspoon of corn starch mixed with 1 tablespoon of water. I boiled this for about 2 minutes then poured it over the ribs. Finally, I added sesame seeds and green onions as garnish.

Wrapping Up

These ribs turned out incredibly tender and flavourful, and the sous vide technique made it almost effortless. If you don't have a sous vide circulator you can still make these -- put the ribs, marinade, and 1-2 cups of water in a pot, bring to a boil, turn the heat down, and simmer until tender (about 1-2 hours), then broil as described above.