Easy Oven-Baked Cherry Barbecue Short Ribs

Look at that lacquer! Scrumptious beef ribs, melting off the bone, and basking in a sweet and savory, cherry BBQ sauce. The glaze is sugary, tangy and smoky, with hints of onion and garlic. And the oven does ALL the work - you just glaze and bake. I'd call that a winning meal on every level.

If you haven't tried slow-baking ribs before, this is a great recipe for you to start with. Why? Because it's EASY and tried-and-true. You can't mess up. Even if you forget the ribs in the oven (like that would happen... ) and they bake for another half hour or so, they'll be fine. The meat will just continue to soften, caramelize and fall off the bone.

About the ribs: I chose bone-in, flanken-style ribs. That means the ribs are cut across the bone, not parallel to it. You might be more familiar with English-style, where the ribs are cut parallel to the bone, with one bone per piece. In flanken-style ribs, each piece has two to four short sections of bone with a generous portion of meat around them. Generous portion of meat was what I was going for. And the meat tends to fall off the bones more readily in flanken-style ribs. That said, you can use English-style ribs AND boneless ribs too. Instructions for bone-in and boneless are below.  

If you want to marinate: Great idea. Coat the ribs with all but 1/4 cup of the glaze as instructed; then cover the pan and reserved glaze with plastic wrap. Refrigerate the ribs and extra glaze for up to 24 hours. Pull the ribs and glaze from the fridge 30 minutes before baking. 

Easy Oven-Baked Cherry Barbecue Short Ribs 

3 pounds bone-in or 2 1/2 pounds boneless beef short ribs (I used bone-in, cut flanken-style)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup cherry preserves
1/3 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 teaspoons cider vinegar
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon liquid smoke
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
Pat the ribs dry and season them all over with salt and pepper. Transfer the ribs to a shallow baking dish and set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the remaining ingredients.
Spoon all but 1/4 cup of the sauce all over the ribs. Turn to coat the ribs on both sides. Cover the pan with foil and bake for 2 1/2 to 3 hours for boneless and 3 to 3 1/2 hours for bone-in, until the meat is very tender. 
Remove the foil and, if necessary, spoon out any watery liquid from the bottom of the pan and discard it. Spoon the remaining cherry mixture over the ribs. Return the pan to the oven and bake, uncovered, for 30 minutes, until the top is browned and the meat is very soft (for bone-in, it will be falling off the bone; for boneless, it will be easy to pull the meat apart with a fork). 
Serves 4