Curry Rubbed Grilled Pork with Currywurst Sauce

That looks really good doesn’t it?  It’s not currywurst but some grilled country style pork ribs with a curry dry rub topped with currywurst sauce.  Not only does it look really good but it tastes absolutely delicious!  If you like the flavor and aroma of curry you’re going to love this.

A few weeks ago I was tinkering around in the kitchen to make a dry rub for some country style pork ribs.  The rub I came up with was primarily equal parts curry powder and brown sugar.  One note about country style pork ribs: they’re not actually ribs but instead come from the shoulder.  Country style pork ribs are usually boneless, fairly inexpensive, and good for grilling.  Rub in hand (ha ha) I applied it to the pork, allowed to rest, then grilled.  It turned out really well.  Had a little zip but also a delicately thin crust and sweet finish on the grill marks from the brown sugar.  But it felt like something was missing.  I didn’t give it too much thought though, and just continued to enjoy the curry rubbed grilled pork.

Shortly thereafter I saw something on Twitter from @thegermanfoodie about her Curry Wurst and Curry Ketchup.  Reading the post reminded me of all the currywurst eaten with Cheryl in Munich, Zurich, the Christkindl market and various German neighborhood festivals here in Chicago.  Light bulb!  The missing piece was found.

I’d say currywurst is probably one of Cheryl’s favorite food stall items so I’d know right away if this combo worked or not.  At first I was going to just make the curry ketchup but I noticed The German Foodie had also made a more “complex” currywurst sauce in a Memorial Day post.  Complex in that it was more of a “from-scratch” sauce not just pre-fab ketchup.  Pretty much the same ingredients but because of the brown sugar in the rub I didn’t want to over-sweeten with a ketchup sauce.  Regardless, the sauce was pretty easy to make.

But what did Cheryl think?  She cleaned her plate.  Then went back for more.  And then gave it two thumbs up.  Guess this kitchen experiment is a keeper!

Grilled Country Pork Ribs with Currywurst Sauce

• 2 ½ lbs boneless country style pork ribs

For the dry rub

• 3 Tbs curry powder
• 3 Tbs brown sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp garlic powder

Mix all the seasonings together and rub on the pork.  Set aside for an hour or two.  Grill over low indirect heat.

For the Curry Wurst Sauce (from The German Foodie, Sofie Dittman)

• 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes
• 3 Tbs curry powder
• ¼ C Red Hot sauce
• ½  Tbs garlic powder
• ½ Tbs Salt
• 1/8 C ketchup (my addition, just a little bit to take the edge off the tomatoes)
• ½ tsp sugar (my addition, same reason)

Note: I had about 1 ½ Tbs of the rub left over so I used that first and adjusted down the amount of curry powder in this part.

Combine all ingredients in sauce pan and bring to simmer.  Reduce by a ¼ to ½.  Spoon over grilled curry rubbed pork.  Dust with curry powder and eat.