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.
Chris Scheuer
March 3, 2015 at 11:07 amOh my word, Denise! These sound absolutely amazing. Such a delightful twist on barbecued ribs!
Shashi at RunninSrilankan
March 3, 2015 at 11:27 amThis sounds so flavorful with all that rum and lime juice and brown sugar combining with that meat!
Deb|EastofEdenCooking
March 3, 2015 at 12:34 pmFabulous flavor with easy preparation make this an outstanding recipe!
Juliana
March 3, 2015 at 4:16 pmWow Denise, these baby back ribs look awesome, I love the idea of “caipirinha” in these ribs…delicious!
Thanks for this great recipe…have a wonderful week 🙂
Amira
March 3, 2015 at 5:02 pmHow lovely… look at the color of this.. amazing. Well done my dear. I have a question though.. do you have any non-alcoholic sub for the cachaça ?
Denise Browning
March 3, 2015 at 7:10 pmAmira:
You can use sprite soda instead of cachaça, or you can use all the ingredients from the recipe, omitting the cachaça and increasing the amount of lime juice.
Anne@FromMySweetHeart
March 3, 2015 at 7:27 pmWow Denise! I am licking my fingers already! These are so inviting! : )
Rekha
March 3, 2015 at 7:16 pmThey looks succulent and delicious Denise. I am not much a ribs fan but would love to give this a try some day 🙂
Little Cooking Tips
March 4, 2015 at 12:04 amThose pork ribs look fantastic Denise! We never tried marinating with rum, so that’s really a must-try:) We bet it’ll be amazing.
Thank you for another wonderful recipe!
Love,
Panos and Mirella
xoxoxoxo
marcela
March 4, 2015 at 8:18 amoohh! Defilitely I must try this recipe ! My family loves ribs so bad!
Coffee and Crumpets
March 4, 2015 at 10:22 amLove the flavours on these ribs, Denise! They look fantastic! Denitely, finger licking 🙂
John@Kitchen Riffs
March 4, 2015 at 11:12 amWhat an inspired recipe! I would never have thought to pair the flavors of Caiprinha and ribs. But it’s a natural! Really good — thanks.
Gourmet Getaways
March 5, 2015 at 10:25 amSimply mouthwatering, Denise!!!
Julie & Alesah
Gourmet Getaways xx
Julia | JuliasAlbum.com
March 5, 2015 at 1:50 pmI love ribs – one of my favorite types of food! These look delicious! I still remember your Brazilian-style pork ribs too – they looked so appetizing on a picture!
Ash-foodfashionparty
March 5, 2015 at 3:32 pmWow, Denise this looks so so delicious. I’m wondering how it would pair with chicken. i’ll give it a shot.
Great one.
Denise Browning
March 5, 2015 at 4:08 pmNo worries, Ash! It will pair well with chicken too. xx
Kiran @ KiranTarun.com
March 7, 2015 at 1:10 amLooks so delicious! Pretty sure it pairs very well with Caipirinha cocktail 🙂
Raymund
March 8, 2015 at 1:50 pmWow, I can already imagine myself licking my fingers after having those delicious ribs 🙂
marcela
March 9, 2015 at 8:25 amoh, your ribs look delicious! I can imagine their taste… So great!
Cathleen @ A Taste Of Madness
March 11, 2015 at 10:12 pmWhy have I never made ribs before? This looks amazing!
Denise Browning
March 12, 2015 at 7:24 amHi, Cathleen! Welcome to FBTY.
I hope you try this recipe one of these days. You won’t regret it. Have a great day!
Anna @ shenANNAgans
March 23, 2015 at 5:04 amHawt dang…. I love me some ribs. It has only been in recent years that I actually discovered my love for them, they are a little messy to eat, but that kind of makes the experience all the better. Love the tip to remove that layer of skin stuff. Excellent recipe, will be sure to get some ribs on the weekend and have a go at your recipe. 🙂
Jasline (Foodie Baker)
July 1, 2015 at 11:45 pmThis is the second rib recipe that I’m seeing today and it’s making me so hungry! Can’t wait to grab some ribs and try making this, this looks amazing!
Debora b
April 20, 2018 at 7:33 pmI 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
April 21, 2018 at 11:08 amHi, 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
April 21, 2018 at 12:34 pmHi 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.