Use Bobby Flay's Bourbon Glaze To Make Pork Ribs Taste Like $40 BBQ

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If you're looking for an easy way to upgrade pork ribs and make them taste like they came from an upscale restaurant, we suggest turning to Bobby Flay. This celebrity chef famed for his contemporary Southwestern cuisine is also a big, big bourbon fan and has a few favorite brands, including Woodford Reserve, which he uses for a two-ingredient glaze with honey. On a 2021 episode of the Food Network show "Brunch at Bobby's," Flay used this simple mixture on bacon. This same glaze is also perfect for pork ribs, especially if you're smoking them since these two pork products have somewhat similar taste profiles.

Flay cooks down a couple ounces of bourbon, which, as he points out, can have a "sort of honey, caramel-like flavor... undertones to it" and about ¼ cup of clover honey until reduced by half. For our needs, prepare your ribs as you normally would and slather them with the glaze when there's about 20 minutes left of cooking time. You don't have to pay $40 or more for these babies, which deliver the same level of flavor and texture with a sticky, caramelized, bourbon-rich flavor.

Bobby Flay's honey-bourbon glaze works on pork ribs using other cooking methods besides smoking, whether that's in the oven or slow-cooking in a Crock-Pot before finishing in the oven. You could also include a few other ingredients to take this glaze to even higher heights of tastiness, looking no further than Flay's own cooking repertoire for inspiration.

In his recipe for Southwest meatloaf from a 2017 episode of Food Network's "The Bobby and Damaris Show," he combines pureed reconstituted ancho and New Mexico chiles with honey, apple cider vinegar, and cloves. Adding bourbon to these ingredients makes sense considering this spirit's tendency to have baking spice-like flavors, which play well with ancho's sweet earthiness and the New Mexico chile's bright and spicy fruitiness.

Flay does something similar with his New Mexican spice-rubbed pork tenderloin from his book "Bobby Flay: Chapter One." He combines bourbon with ancho and other chiles, along with a few other ingredients, for a sauce. Doing something similar with his honey-bourbon glaze would definitely up the flavor. Other possibilities to consider adding to Flay's honey-bourbon glaze include orange zest (or a little juice), molasses, or apple juice. You can also keep it simple with just honey and bourbon and sit down to a rack of ribs that taste like they came from an expensive restaurant, rather than your kitchen or backyard smoker.