Cut of Meat for Maple Chicken and Ribs

Our answer

Nigella's Maple Chicken and Ribs recipe (from Nigella Express and on the Nigella website) is a mixture of pork ribs and chicken thigs that are marinated in apple juice and maple syrup and then roasted. The ingredients list specifies pork spare ribs.

In the UK there is less choice in ribs than in the US and the type of ribs that are in the recipe would be known in the US as spareribs. Our preference would also be for a St Louis style spareribs (which are spareribs that have the flap and breastbone section trimmed away). In the US they are usually still sold as a rack so you need to cut the rack into individual ribs (or ask your butcher to do this for you). Baby back ribs could be used but as they are smaller and have less fat than spareribs they may become slightly dry during roasting. Country-style ribs do not have any bones in them and are not really suitable for this recipe.