This is the Ultimate BBQ Baby Back Rib Recipe! Cooked slow in the oven with a homemade spice rub, then finished on the grill with your favorite BBQ sauce. There’s nothing like fall-off-the-bone Baby Back Ribs and this easy recipe is a show stopper!
The BEST BBQ Baby Back Ribs
Welcome to GRILL WEEK here at Joyful Healthy Eats! I wanted to start the week off with a bang, so prepare yourselves!
As you all know by now I am pretty much a Grill Girl at heart. If it wasn’t so stinking hot all the time here in Texas I would grill every day. One of my favorite things to grill, besides pizza, is Baby Back Ribs. There is just nothing like fall off the bone Grilled BBQ Baby Back Ribs, and believe me these ribs will fall off the bone before they even get to the grill. They are amazing, hence the name –> “The Ultimate BBQ Baby Back Ribs.”
I actually even make these for our Christmas dinner too, because I can. And my family requests them every year!
How to Prepare Baby Back Ribs
The trick to making your Ribs fall off the bone in my opinion has two parts: remove the silver skin and bake them long and slow. (meaning at a low temperature for a long time) My mouth is literally watering as I’m talking about these. Once you taste them you’ll understand the extent of there deliciousness and why my mouth waters just talking about them.
So … ready… go get you some Ribs and I’ll walk you through the process!
How to Remove the Silverskin or Membrane from Ribs
Removing the silverskin is easier than you think. Pork ribs have a membrane that’s located on the back of the ribs. It does not have to be removed, but if you do it will make your ribs more flavorful and tender aka fall of the bone! To remove flip the ribs over and slide a knife under the silverskin anywhere along the rack. If it resists in one spot, just find another spot. Lift the silverskin up and loosen it with the knife until you can get a good grip on it. Then pull the silverskin off the ribs; it should just peel away in a large sheet. If the silverskin breaks, use your knife to restart at another section and repeat the process.
How Many Baby Back Ribs Per Person?
If this is your main entree I typically plan on each person eating 1/2 rack of ribs, so a full rack would feed 2-3 people.
How to Cook Baby Back Ribs
- To get started, preheat oven to 325ºF.
- Remove the membrane or silverskin.
- Season both sides of ribs with homemade spice rub and place in a roasting pan or 13″x9″ baking dish.
- Add cubed onion and 3 garlic cloves to the pan as well as 1 cup of water. Cover pan with tin foil and bake for 3 hours.
- Remove from oven and place ribs on medium heat grill.
- Slather with your favorite BBQ Sauce and grill each side 5-7 minutes. Remove from grill and serve.
So as you can see, I cook mine in both the oven and the grill. I find that cooking them in the oven before hand really breaks down the meat and leaves you with a “fall of the bone” tender meat. But slathering them with BBQ sauce and searing them on the grill to lock in all the flavors, well, that just screams summer to me.
This Recipe is tried and true. I’ve been making it for probably 10 years now and my mom has used the oven grill method since I can remember. My favorite part about this entire recipe is the homemade rub I use, the spices totally enhance the flavor of the ribs and take them to the next level.
In my opinion, I can never make ribs again without this rub! P.S. there’s subtle hints of cinnamon in it! Sooo good!
I know without a shadow of a doubt you are going to be blown away by this recipe. So make sure its’ on your MUST MAKE list.
Bon Appetit friends and Happy Monday!
Side Dish Ideas for Ribs:
- Asian Cucumber Salad
- Grilled Sweet Potato Salad
- Lightened Up Broccoli Salad
- Tomato Avocado Cucumber Salad
- Grilled Corn Salad with Jalapeno Dressing
- Easy Garlic Ranch Potatoes
- Strawberry Summer Sangria
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BBQ baby back ribs cooked slow on the grill with a homemade spice rub + your favorite BBQ sauce. This is the Ultimate BBQ Baby Back Ribs Recipe, with ribs that are tender & flavorful meat that falls right off the bone!
Ingredients
- 3 Full Racks of Pork Loin Ribs {Baby Back}
- 1 large bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce
Spice Rub Blend:
- 1 T. garlic powder
- 1 T. paprika
- 1 tsp. chili powder
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. ground pepper
- 1 large sweet onion, peeled & cut into wedges
- 6 garlic cloves, peeled and left whole
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325ºF.
- Remove the membrane or silverskin from the bottom side of the ribs. (see photo above) Flip over the rib rack so you are looking at the bottom side (the side without the meat.) Go to one end of the rib rack, using a knife slide it under the silverskin and pull. It should peel right off in one swipe. Once you have removed this part from all 3 full racks, set them aside and prepare the spice rub.
- In a small bowl, mix garlic powder, paprika, chili powder, cinnamon, salt, and pepper.
- Next, rub this spice blend on the top side of each rack and place racks in two 13×9 baking dishes or in a roasting pan.
- Next, evenly spread the onion quarters and garlic cloves between the two baking dishes, placing the onions and garlic cloves on top of or underneath the racks of ribs.
- Lastly, add a 1/2″ of water to the bottom of each baking to dish. Completely cover each dish with aluminum foil. Place in oven and bake for 3 hours. {thats right.. you heard me… long and slow}
- Remove from the oven, discard the onions and garlic cloves. Place rack of ribs on medium heat grill with bottom side facing down.
- Slather each side of the ribs with your favorite BBQ sauce and grill each side for 5-7 minutes.
- Remove the ribs from the grill and let them rest for 5-10 minutes.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/2 rack
- Calories: 357
- Sugar: 16 g
- Sodium: 1100 mg
- Fat: 18 g
- Saturated Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 25 g
- Fiber: 4 g
- Protein: 22 g
- Cholesterol: 75 mg
Keywords: how to make baby back ribs, homemade baby back ribs, how to grill baby back ribs, homemade spice blend, ribs in oven, ribs on the grill
30 Min
Paleo
Low Carb
Vegetarian
Vegan
I made this recipe tonight exactly as it was written and it was fantastic! I really liked the flavor of the rub and the technique produced fall off the bone tender ribs. Thank you so much for sharing!
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Hurray! So glad you love it just as much as we do! It’s one of our favorites!
This is by far the best ribs I have ever made, used to slow cook in oven at 200 for 7 hours, not only is this quicker, but i believe tastes much better
★★★★★
Quicker and better sounds like a winner to me. So happy you loved them!
I made this rib receipt tonight and they were the best ribs I’ve ever had! The spice rub made the house smell so good while they were in the oven. It is challenging to flip them on the grill because the meat is so tender it falls off the bone but I think that’s a great problem. I will definitely be using this recipe from now on! I’m looking forward to trying your other recipes.
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So glad you loved the recipe! Fall off the bone ribs is never a bad thing!
This was the best rib recipe, that I have ever made. Fall off the bone tender. And so tender! Exceptional flavor throughout the meat. Thank you for sharing!
YES!!! It’s my one and ONLY recipe for ribs. You only need one if it’s a good one 🙂
Your BBQ Baby Back Ribs look so great. You make me go to the kitchen and cook ! Hope i can cook well as yours. Thank you very much for your sharing.
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Hi, this recipe looks great, definitely going to try it. One question though. At the top of the article it says to put ribs on grill and put sauce on and grill, in the recipe itself it says to grill on each side and then put sauce on and remove from grill. Just wanted to make sure 😊, Thankyou
Hey Marilyn, I put the sauce on when the ribs are on the grill and then grill each side for 5-7 minutes to sear in all the flavor. I saw how it could be confusing in the directions so I edited it to be more clear. Thanks!
These ribs were a bit hard to flip on the grill because they were so very tender….next time I will oil the grill grates a bit. Recipe was easy to follow but I made and used extra spice rub because it was so good. I coated the ribs sparingly with sauce because I wanted to taste the meat. I made your grilled sweet potato salad and that was amazing, as well!!! Flavorful and fall off the bone tender-it’s what ribs are all about!
★★★★★
Awww… yeah that’s so exciting to hear Cynthia. So pumped you loved both of those recipes! They are my favorites!
Great recipe. The meat fell off the bone. I made my own BBQ as well. This is definitely a keeper.
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These Baby Back Ribs look so inviting! I have to make them!
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Looks absolutely fantastic! I’d love to try this, craving for this right now!
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