Costillas de Puerco (Pork Spare Ribs)

These Costillas de Puerco (Pork Spare Ribs) are full of flavor, hyper moist and deliciously tender. Seasoned with a simple yet delicious dry rub and marinated in a game changing garlic sauce. Then served with a mind blowing horseradish lime sauce. Bake or grill for tender fall off the bone ribs!

When it comes to ribs, there are two components that are the most important to me.

Of course flavor and how tenderness of the ribs.

I don’t necessarily care whether the ribs are boneless, country style, baby back or any other cut, because I love them all. I do, however, care whether they’re bland and tough!

That’s not a concern here! These ribs are infused with a ton of flavor and are fall off the bone tender! Plus, they’re perfect for either baking or grilling.

What Cut of Ribs is Best

Of course you can use whatever cut of ribs you prefer but do note, baby back or spare ribs work best for this recipe.

The garlic soy sauce marinade I used for these costillas, seeps just enough into the meat making these two cuts the absolute best for this particular rib recipe.

Ingredients for Costillas de Puerco

• Ribs
• Oregano
• garlic powder
• adobo
• cumin
• paprika
• brown sugar
• low sodium soy sauce
• garlic cloves
• oil

Horseradish Lime Sauce

• bottled horseradish
• lime juice
• mayonnaise

How to Make Costillas de Puerco

Rinse Begin with rinsing the ribs and remove any excess fat.

Poke With the tip of a knife, poke a few tiny holes into the skin to allow rub and marinade to seep inside meat. This simple technique really allows the spices and wet marinade to infuse inside of the meat for maximum flavor.

Dry Rub In this step, we will combine dry spices but do keep in mind, for this recipe we will use both a dry and wet marinade to bring out maximum taste and flavor of the ribs.

Garlic Every piece of meat tastes better with tons of garlic! Add at least 5 whole cloves of garlic to a mortar and pestle, mash, add the oil and the soy sauce to mortar. This is our wet marinade.

Sprinkle and Rub Sprinkle some but not all of the dry rub on both sides of the ribs.

Garlic Soy Sauce Pour the marinade over ribs and rub in well on both sides. Sprinkle the rest of the dry rub on both sides.

Marinade Let ribs marinade for a minimum of 2 hours before baking or grilling.

Cooking Cook ribs at 400 degrees for 1½ or until internal temperature is 195 degrees for maximum tenderness.

What Should Internal Temperature of Ribs Be?

The USDA recommends cooking pork ribs to an internal temperature of 145 ° for safety reasons, however, at this temperature the ribs will still be tough and rubbery. The collagen and fat has not had enough time to melt inside the ribs to produce that perfect tender bite.

Instead, allow the ribs to cook to an internal temperature of 195° to allow the collagen to become gelatin and produce the perfect fall off the bone meat tenderness.

How Can You Tell if Costillas de Puerco (Pork Spare Ribs) are Done?

Not everyone has a meat thermometer and truthfully you do not need it to make sure your ribs are perfectly done.

To check if ribs are ready to serve, there are a few techniques you can follow.

First, check to see if rib bones have started to “peak” out of meat along the slab as pictured above. This is a good indication the ribs will be ready soon.

Secondly, using a pair of tongs, pick up slab from the center with tongs, ribs should droop into a u-shape and crack slightly.

Lastly, test the meat that it pulls easily off the bone but not fall off.

These are great tips to follow when checking for the perfect cooked rack of ribs.

Other Pork Rib Recipes you will love

Instant Pot Boneless Spare Ribs

Hoison Garlic Baby Back Ribs

Slow Cooker Ribs

📖 Recipe