Barbecue Ribs
recipe update April 2025
This easy recipe for fall off the bone tender barbecue ribs is no fail. Dry rub your favorite style pork ribs, slow cook in the oven, and finish off on the grill with your favorite bbq sauce.
Why these are the best ribs
If you have never made barbecue ribs at home, this recipe will be the first and last recipe you will ever need. It is no fail. I have spent big and little money on racks of ribs, and they have all turned out tender and fall-of-the-bone delicious. I got the idea for oven-baking the ribs first from, you guessed it, a Food Network show. With trial and error, I landed on my dry rub mix. If I want to get in good with my family, like if I want wood chips laid and landscaping weeded, I make ribs. If I want to say I love you without actually saying the words I love you (Which I have no problem with! I throw those three words around like nobody’s business!) I make ribs. If we have out-of-town guests, I make ribs because who doesn’t want to get all messy and sticky eating ribs with friends? Also, they are not fussy, so if people stay with us, having a barbecue is just an easy choice.
Gather these ingredients
How to make the best bbq ribs
Start by mixing the dry rub ingredients together in a small bowl. You can double or triple this depending on the amount of ribs you are making.
First thing you want to do is clean up your ribs. Rinse them in cold water and pat dry. Remove any connective tissue with a sharp knife. The connective tissue looks blueish and lays over the meat like a skin; get your knife under it and strip it off. It should peel off easily. Do this on both sides—place ribs in a large roasting pan or baking sheet. Start by rubbing a couple tablespoons of spice mix on the bottom side or bone side of rack ribs. Turn over and sprinkle ribs generously on the meat side of the ribs, then massage your ribs. Not literally your ribs, but the pork ribs, Silly Goose! However, you might be rubbing your ribs and moaning after dinner.
Now that the rib meat is completely covered in the dry rub, cover the pan tightly with heavy-duty aluminum foil. At this point in you can place ribs in your refrigerator over night or you can place them in your oven to start the cooking process.
Slow-cooking BBQ ribs: Oven baking ribs before grilling is the key to getting fall off the bone tender ribs. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Adjust oven rack so it is in the middle of your oven. Place the ribs covered in aluminum foil in the preheated oven for 3 hours.
Remove oven-baked ribs, peel back aluminum foil and poke a fork into the ribs if it inserts easily and meat starts to pull away from the bone, they are done baking.
Either a charcoal or gas grill works. Get the grill started. You want to use indirect heat when grilling your ribs. Place ribs meat side down first. Give the bottom of the ribs a light brush with your favorite barbecue sauce. Cover the grill for 5 minutes. Turn the ribs over the meat side up and apply a generous amount of sauce —grill 10-15 minutes or until the sauce caramelizes on the ribs.
Tips & Variations
- Types of ribs: St. Louis-style ribs and baby back ribs are the two types of ribs that I use for this recipe. I have never used country-style pork ribs for this recipe. I have used spare ribs; however, we prefer the first two style bone-inribs I mentioned.
- Dry Rub: You must let the ribs rest for at least one hour after applying the dry rub before baking; allowing ribs to marinate in the rub for up to 24 hours is best. If you would like to add some heat to your spice rub, add 1/4-1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper.
- Sauce: For the sake of ease and consistency, I always use Sweet Baby Rays barbecue sauce. I have made my sauce, and you can, too, if you have a recipe you love. I find it easier to use this one since my whole family loves it. Serve with extra sauce on the side.
- Grilling: Grilling is for getting a grilled flavor and char on your ribs; it is not for cooking them. I often will cut ribs into serving sized portions before grilling. Having ribs in smaller portions makes turning them on the grill easier. Watch your ribs closely on the grill because the high sugar content in the BBQ sauce can burn easily. This is why the heat of your grill should be indirectly cooking.
- Oven-baked ribs: I you want to finish ribs off in the oven. I often use this method in the winter when it’s too cold to get out my grill. Turn oven temperature up to 400 degrees f. Pour any excess pan juices off, baste ribs in barbecue sauce, and bake for 20 minutes.
- Spice Level: My family loves spicy everything, but not everyone does, so I stick to this recipe and let them add their Sriracha, Cholula, Tabasco, and Franks Red Hot we have all the sauces.
- Serving size: I figure 3/4 pounds of ribs per person. If you are feeding people you know will eat more, or if you like to have leftovers a make 1 pound of ribs per person. If you are serving hamburgers, hot dogs, or grilled chicken with your BBQ ribs, you can figure 1/2 pound or less.
There are so many rib recipes out there. I hope you choose to make this one because it is the easiest and best rib recipe you will ever make! It’s fall-off-the-bone delicious. Serve it with your favorite sides, like Roasted Potatoes, Baked Beans, Cole Slaw, or Mexican Street Corn.
Please take a second to rate this recipe on the recipe card below. PIN it on your Pinterest board, and share it on all your socials! It’s important to me that you are inspired to get around the table often with those you love! XO Sheila
Barbecue Ribs
Ingredients
- 6 pounds Baby Back Ribs
Rib Rub
- 1 1/2 tbsp Kosher Salt
- 1 1/2 tbsp Lawrys Season Pepper heaping
- 1 1/2 tbsp Brown Sugar
- 1 tsp Smoked Paprika
- 1/2 tsp Roasted Cumin regular cumin works as well
- 1/2 tsp Ancho Chili Powder
Grilling
- 1 cup Sweet Baby Rays Original Barbecue Sauce or you can use your favorite
Instructions
- Mix all the rub ingredients together in a small bowl.
- Rinse ribs in cold water and pat dry with paper towel, lay ribs in a shallow roasting pan. Sprinkle all of the Rib Rub over the ribs and rub it in. Cover roaster with heavy duty oven proof plastic wrap making sure it’s tight over the pan not laying on ribs, then cover the plastic wrap with tight layer of aluminum foil. Bake for 3 hours at 300 degrees. Remove from oven, allow to cool for a few minutes before removing cover, there will be a lot of steam when you remove the foil, be careful not to burn yourself.
- Place pre-baked ribs on grill over medium to low heat. Slather with your favorite barbecue sauce, shut lid of grill and allowing sauce to cook into and caramelize on the ribs. Cook time: approximately 15 minutes.
- Remove ribs from grill using meat tongs. Cut into serving size portions, place on a platter for serving.
Sheila is right, this is by far the Best Rib Recipe on the planet! Everyone always asks for my recipe or my secret and I refer them to this blog. I love a good dry rub and this one is perfection. And the slow cooking in the oven is genius. Now my mouth is watering for these!
Michelle, So glad your people love it as much as mine! xo Sheila
I also am questioning the not-melting of the plastic.
If you use a heavy duty plastic wrap it seals around the edges but does not melt into your food, it creates a perfect seal. I was skeptical too, the only time it didn’t work for me was on vacation when I was using cheapy dollar store plastic wrap. If it makes you nervous, just using the foil works too, but it does allow some of the moisture to escape.
I’m totally drooling!! My little krauts would love these!
This is how I do my ribs too all except that plastic wrap under the foil in the oven. It doesn’t melt? Your ribs are beautiful and well rubbed.