This post brought to you by Netflix. All opinions are 100% mine.
Netflix has partnered with Celebrity Chef Curtis Stone to bring you a delicious barbecue recipe to enjoy along with a great comedy (or your other favorite type of movies) to help escape the stress of the upcoming back-to-back holiday seasons of Thanksgiving and Christmas. We would recommend a movie like Hitch, a romantic comedy, with our favorite scene being this dance scene:
Check out what the Mayo Clinic has to say about how laughter can truly help relieve your stress, not only just during the holiday seasons upon us: Stress relief from laughter? It’s no joke. So be sure and check out the selection of comedies offered by Netflix.
If you are unfamiliar with Netflix, they enable members to enjoy favorite TV shows and movies anytime, anywhere, whether that’s in the kitchen while preparing the Thanksgiving meal or in your family room with your kids relaxing after holiday festivities. Movies or shows can be watched on an iPad or a phone in addition to the big screen TV.
Now, the recipe created by Chef Curtis Stone for Netflix was inspired by the show, House of Cards, on Netflix, starring Kevin Spacey, Michael Gill and Robin Wright. If you are unfamiliar with the show, it has an 8.8 out of 10 star rating on IMDb and has won three prime time Emmy awards. Being that I enjoy following politics, I am planning on checking it out!
One of the House of Cards characters, Frank, owns a BBQ joint. He’s originally from North Carolina, so Chef Curtis Stone developed the recipe for Freddy’s Sticky Sauce Barbecued Ribs with the vinegar flavor in North Carolina barbecue.
We made several modifications to his recipe, because we did not have a few of the exact ingredients and we are starting to use coconut sugar in place of other sugars in recipes. You can see my 5-Minute Ice Cream post for more details on that. Below the recipe, I will get into more detail about all modifications we made.
But this barbecue sauce recipe turned out fantastic! Chef John — to whom I normally refer as The Chef but I thought it might be confusing since we also are talking about another chef in this post — is a huge John Boy and Billy Big Show fan and says this sauce reminds him a lot of their grilling sauce, just not as spicy.
Here’s the recipe, with our modifications, a must-try!
- *[Spice Rub]: ⅛ cup coconut sugar
- 1½ tablespoons sweet paprika
- 1 teaspoons course ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoons kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
- *[Barbecue Sauce]: 1 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ yellow onion, chopped
- 1½ garlic cloves, finely chopped
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- ⅝ cups apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup chicken broth
- ¾ cups ketchup
- ½ cup agave nectar
- 1 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoons yellow mustard
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- *[Ribs]: 2 racks pork baby back ribs (2½-pounds each)
- *[To prepare the spice rub]: The day before you cook the ribs, make the spice rub. In a medium bowl, mix the sugar, paprika, black pepper, salt, cayenne pepper, and cumin together. Place the ribs on 2 large baking sheets and rub the ribs all over with the spice mixture. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours and up to 24 hours.
- *[Meanwhile, to make the barbecue sauce]: In a large saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring often, for about 5 minutes, or until tender. Stir in the garlic and cook for about 3 minutes, or until the garlic is tender.
- Stir in the paprika, then stir in the vinegar, bring just to a simmer, and simmer for 3 minutes. Stir in the broth, ketchup, agave nectar, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, salt, black pepper, and cayenne. Bring the sauce to a simmer over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer uncovered, stirring often to prevent scorching, for about 30 minutes, or until the sauce reduces and thickens slightly. Remove from the heat.
- *[To bake the ribs]: Position the racks in the center and upper third of the oven and preheat the oven to 375°F. Cover the ribs on the baking sheets with foil. Bake the ribs, rotating the baking sheets and basting the ribs after the first 45 minutes, and recovering them with foil, for 1½ hours, or until the ribs are tender and the meat has shrunk from the ends of the bones.
- Uncover the ribs, baste them with the barbecue sauce and continue baking for 10 minutes, brushing them lightly with the barbecue sauce every few minutes or so, allowing the sauce to set before applying the next coat.
- *[To serve]: Using a large sharp knife, cut the racks into individual ribs. Arrange the ribs on a platter and serve with the remaining sauce on the side.
If you want to attempt to make this recipe exactly as Chef Curtis wrote it, all of the modifications we made are:
- We halved the recipe because as written it was going to be too much for us to eat.
- Coconut sugar was used in place of brown sugar.
- Agave nectar was used in place of honey.
- The barbecue sauce included 1/2 cup of whiskey, which is to be added in between the paprika and vinegar.
- We used course ground black pepper in place of freshly ground black pepper.
- We used olive oil in place of canola oil.
- We used regular chicken broth instead of reduced sodium chicken broth.
- We used apple cider vinegar in place of regular cider vinegar.
Don’t forget to get your favorite movie from Netflix to enjoy with your barbecue!
What I love most about Netflix is the recommendations for movies you may like based on your ratings of previously watched movies. This can make it so much simpler to pick out a new movie that your family is more likely to enjoy rather than blindly selecting a movie and hoping for the best.
I can’t wait to see what kinds of movies will be recommended for our family after I have a chance to rate some of the more recent ones they have watched and loved, like Ice Age, Monsters University and Monsters, Inc. They love movies and I love hearing them giggle from the other room while I’m cleaning up the kitchen.
Following Thanksgiving lunch will be the perfect time to settle in for a family movie.
What are some of your family’s favorite movies or shows from Netflix to watch?
Please leave us a comment. We’d love to know what you and/or your kids most love watching!
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About the Author
Adopted at age 2, grew up in the Charlotte, NC area. Obtained Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Appalachian State University. Loves being a Mom of two and taste-testing Chef John's culinary creations and sharing them with readers.
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