Artificial Food Coloring Free Honey & Ginger BBQ Pork Ribs
Sticky, smoky, and deeply satisfying, these oven-baked ribs deliver everything you want from a great rack without a single drop of artificial dye. Most store-bought BBQ sauces are loaded with caramel color, Red 40, and other synthetic additives that make label-reading feel like a full-time job — this recipe sidesteps all of that by building the sauce entirely from scratch. Tomato paste, honey, apple cider vinegar, coconut aminos, and fresh ginger come together into a glossy, complex glaze that gets its gorgeous reddish-brown color from real ingredients and oven heat alone. The low-and-slow bake wrapped in foil does the heavy lifting on tenderness, while the final blast at high heat caramelizes the glaze into something truly crave-worthy. A fragrant spice rub of smoked paprika, cumin, turmeric, and ground ginger means every bite is layered with flavor before the sauce even enters the picture. These are the kind of ribs that make people ask for the recipe, and you can serve them with total confidence knowing exactly what went into every component.
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Learn more →Ingredients
4 servings
For the ribs
- 2 racks baby back pork ribs (about 4 lb total)
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- ½ tsp ground turmeric
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp salt
For the BBQ sauce
- 1 can (6 oz) tomato paste
- 3 tbsp honey
- 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 tbsp coconut aminos
- 1 tbsp fresh ginger, finely grated
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ tsp smoked paprika
- ¼ tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
- ¼ cup water
For serving
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped (optional)
Instructions
- 1
Heat the oven to 300°F (150°C). Line a large rimmed baking sheet with two layers of aluminum foil, leaving enough overhang on all sides to wrap the ribs into a sealed packet.
- 2
Flip each rack of ribs bone-side up. Slide a butter knife under the thin membrane at one end of the rack, grip it with a paper towel, and pull it off in one piece — removing it allows the rub to penetrate and the meat to become tender.
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