Air Frying Class

Nicholas Gavin is the Culinary Creative Director of ChefSteps, where he develops recipes and is responsible for making all the food look beautiful. Nick has worked at ChefSteps for over a decade; he and ChefSteps co-founder Grant Crilly worked together at Modernist Cuisine. Nick has worked in professional kitchens both in the United States and abroad, most notably at Mugaritz in San Sebastian, Spain.

Nicholas Gavin

Kansas City-style ribs are known for a burnished, sticky, glazed coating that stands in stark contrast to the crust on dry-style barbecue ribs. Pitmasters achieve this lacquered surface by seasoning the ribs with a simple rub and smoking them dry for the first part of the cook before mopping them with a sweet, tangy, and slightly spicy <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/kansas-city-style-barbecue-sauce">sauce</a> to finish. Starting the ribs dry allows for bark to form before layering on the sauce. The final texture of the meat is phenomenal—the surface is sticky, crunchy, and chewy all at once, and it gives way to juicy tenderness on the interior. Barbecue ribs don’t get much better.Achieving these results is hard enough with a real-deal outdoor smoker setup. It’s even more challenging when you’re trying to turn out some tasty ’cue from the confines of a home kitchen, but we’re always up for a challenge. This recipe delivers knockout ribs and only requires an oven. (If you prefer to go the <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/smokerless-smoked-ribs-incredible-barbecue-no-smoker-required">sous vide route</a>, we’ve had that method covered for a while now.)Seasoning ribs with a combination of a <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/rib-rub">sweet-and-spicy rub</a> and the Bark Builder—our secret ingredient for better indoor barbecue—helps us get a crunchy bark that is otherwise impossible to achieve with indoor cooking methods. Check out our <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/bark-builder">complete guide to Bark Builder</a> to learn more about the science behind it, and how to use it.Nailing perfect ribs—tender but with just enough chew and pull that they’re not falling off the bone—in an oven requires a two-stage cooking method. We start them in a humid environment, covered in a pan with a little water, in a relatively hot oven by barbecue standards to generate steam that helps jump-start the cooking process without toughening up the meat. We drop the oven temperature after 30 minutes, let the ribs cook covered until tender, then uncover them to let their surfaces dry out before finally mopping them with sauce and finishing them to the perfect tacky, sticky consistency. Who says indoor barbecue can’t be delicious?

Oven Kansas City-Style Barbecue Ribs