Are you a rib lover? So am I! I always welcome the sight of them with a smile… and these succulent Caipirinha Baby Back Ribs (Costelinha de Porco na Caipirinha) are no exception!!! For those who may not know, caipirinha is Brazil’s national cocktail made from lime, sugar, and cachaça (a distilled beverage similar to white rum).
The preparation of our caipirinha baby back ribs is quite simple. Blend cachaça (or white rum if desired), lime juice, brown sugar, garlic cloves, a few seasonings, and fresh parsley in a kitchen blender and pour over the ribs. Marinate, and then cook on the stove top (first pan-searing to brown, and then simmering until tender and liquid evaporates). The result: One of the tenderest and tastiest ribs that you will ever experience.
This recipe took its inspiration from Costelinha de Porco à Mineira (“Fried” Baby Back Ribs) — a traditional dish from Minas Gerais in Southeastern Brazil. The difference here is the caipirinha ingredients! Cachaça, the main ingredient of caipirinha, has many more uses than than just as a base for the caipirinha drink in Brazil– it is also great for marinating meats, and for making pie crust and empanada dough flakier. It is available at large liquor stores in the U.S., but in a pinch white rum is a suitable substitute.
As for side dishes, our caipirinha baby back ribs can be served with farofa, collard greens a la Mineira, and yuca fries, or with pretty much anything else that you want.
Enjoy our caipirinha baby back ribs… and get used to being asked to make them again and again! 🙂
Caipirinha Baby Back Ribs
Ingredients
- 1 stack stack baby back ribs 3.3 pounds or 1.5 kg, buy a stack with 10-14 ribs
- 3/4 cup cachaça or white rum
- 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
- 2 teaspoons light brown sugar
- 6 cloves of garlic chopped
- 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1½ tablespoons anatto powder used most for coloring foods and available at local supermarkets
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley roughly chopped
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil or a bit more if necessary
- 1 cup water
Instructions
- OPTIONAL: Before marinating the caipirinha baby back ribs, place the full stack of ribs on a cutting board, turn the ribs over, and stick a butter knife right under that white membrane.
- Wedge the butter knife in between membrane and meat/bone. Pull membrane off. This will make ribs even more tender but is optional since our ribs are not supposed to fall off the bones.
- MAKE AHEAD (MARINADE): Cut the ribs individually (right over the meat in between each bone) and place them in a large bowl or rectangular pyrex dish, and set aside. In a blender, blend well the cachaça or white rum, lime juice, sugar, garlic, salt, pepper, annatto powder, and parsley until obtaining a smooth mixture. Pour this mixture over the ribs. Using your hands, mix ribs with the marinade to coat both sides of each rib. Cover bowl or pyrex with plastic or foil, and refrigerate for 8 to 12 hours (Inactive Time).
- Drain the marinade from the ribs by simply shaking a bit and seting aside the marinade.
- In a large (wide) pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat and brown the ribs evenly (do not overcrowd the pan). Transfer ribs to a plate and discard leftover oil. Then, add and mix water to the reserved marinade, place ribs back into the pan, and bring to a boil. Cover the pan, reduce heat to medium-low, and let cook for 20 minutes or until the ribs are tender and liquid has evaporated completely.
- These caipirinha baby back ribs can be served hot (brushed with honey if desired) with any side of your choice , or with collard greens a la Mineira, yuca fries, and farofa.
Debora b
I was excited to make this but they came out extremely salty and with a very strong taste of alcohol. My husband agreed and we were both unable to finish them. I made them exactly as the recipe said, and looked at the recipe again after tasting them to be sure I used all the right portions and everything. I don’t get it. Are they supposed to be super salty and alcohol tasting?
Denise Browning
Hi, Debora! I don’t understand either because mine was neither salty nor had an alcohol tasting. I wrote the recipe exactly as I made the dish. The amount of salt required for a dish can vary according to personal taste (what is salty for one may not be for other person). As a general rule, for each pound of meat, 1 teaspoon (or more) of salt is required which is obeyed in the recipe. The longer the time a meat is marinated, more salt is absorbed. How long your ribs were marinated for?
What most surprised me it was the alcohol tasting that you said you experienced. The recipe says to boil the ribs and then cook them covered on medium-low heat for about 20 minutes, which is time more than enough for the alcohol content fully evaporate. Did you use the same ingredients and amounts, or substituted any? For how long the ribs were marinated? Did you cook the meat fully? I ask these questions only because I am trying to make sense on what went wrong — since I can’t understand what happened to your dish especially because I have made this recipe exactly as it is more than once and every time it came out great. Any way, I am so sorry yours did not come out well.
Debora B
Hi Denise… I marinated them overnight so perhaps it was too long. Also, when I was boiling them I had to boil for longer than 20 minutes because the water didn’t fully evaporate after 20. Perhaps it had something to do with those 2 things. Thank you for the response, maybe I’ll try again sometime with less salt and less time marinating.