How To Cook Baby Back Ribs On The Grill

Learn How Simple It Is To Make Smoked Baby Back Ribs On A Pellet Grill

How to Make Baby Back Ribs | Grilling Recipes | Allrecipes.com

I am becoming a pro at using our pellet grill. My husband has ALWAYS been the one that grills and smokes different meats but lately after we purchased the pellet grillits made it so easy, I am using it regularly too.

It really is a cheating way to smoke and grill things, but it works and its so simple.

Smoked Baby Back Ribs are a wonderful choice to make on a pellet grill. If you prefer to make them indoors, try these Ninja Foodi Baby Back Ribs.

Dry Rub Grilled Baby Back Ribs : Step By Step Process

Have you ever wished you could make Grilled Baby Back Ribs? Keep reading and learn the secrets to making tender, juicy and perfectly seasoned ribs every time.

When I started dating my wife I was on a non-red meat diet. She loved baby back ribs and it was one of those foods I had never gotten into.

I had never worked at a restaurant that served ribs, so I never needed to learn how to cook them. That meant unless we went out to dinner, Lisa was stuck eating precooked packaged varieties of ribs that were sold at the grocery store.

Im almost ashamed to admit thatsigh.

But I have learned the secret of Grilled Baby Back Ribs and how amazingly easy they are to prepare especially using Reynolds Wrap® Heavy Duty Aluminum Foil!And Im going to share what Ive learned with you.

Grilling Ribs Soon Learn How To Grill Ribs As We Share Our Step

Although we love great burger recipes, a seared steak or even a weeknight chicken cookout, ribs are the ultimate grilled meal. They’re messy, indulgent, delicious and turn an ordinary summer afternoon into a festive occasion.

When learning how to grill ribs, it may seem intimidating because they require more time over the coals than many other types of meat. Here’s the truth: Because they cook low and slow, they actually have a wider window of perfection than something like, say, a T-bone steak that relies on a savvy sense of timing and temperature. If you take some time to prep ribs correctly and learn where to cook on the grill, they’re easy enough even for beginners.

Let’s start by covering the basics of how to cook ribs on the grill.

You May Like: What Temperature To Grill Pork Chops

Continuing To Cook The Ribs Using The Smoker And The Oven

Smoke flavor is something many people want to have present in their barbeque, and if you are one of them, you can take the pre-cooked meat and place them inside a smoker. What you can do at this point is to put the ribs in a smoker and then finish them off in the oven. Smoke the ribs for 3 hours, but because you have already pre-cooked them, you can cut down on that time.
When you are finishing the ribs in the oven, dont let them stay in there for too long as well. At this point, you only want to create that crust on your meat because the ribs are probably cooked. Just make sure to keep a close eye on your ribs here because the risk of overcooking them is quite high.

How To Pick The Best Baby Back Ribs For The Pellet Grill

Cooked baby back ribs on the grill yesterday [Homemade] # ...

Although having the right wood pellet smoker grill and a great traditional baby back ribs recipe on hand matter, so does the cut of ribs you choose.

Our pitmaster recipe recommends that you opt for St. Louis-style spareribs if possible. They tend to have a consistency that works quite well on the smoker. Plus, they cook fairly evenly, which you and your hungry guests will appreciate.

When choosing baby back ribs for your pellet grill, select ones with a balanced level of marbling. Marbling simply means fat interlaced with meat. When you cook your traditional baby back ribs low n slow, the fat will help break down and naturally tenderize the meat. Of course, you want to avoid a totally fatty set of ribs with far too little meat.

If you can find whole slabs of St. Louis-style baby back ribs, go for them. Whole slabs have not been cut in half by your butcher. They allow you to complete an entire rack of ribs at once. Besides, showing off a huge, long slab of baby back ribs makes you look like jungle royalty.

Finally, take a no bones about it approach. That is, pick ribs with lots of meat and fat covering the bone. Exposed bones will start to fall out and cause your cooking to happen non-uniformly. That can mess up your cooking times and cost you some of your savory ribs.

Read Also: Should The Grill Be Open Or Closed

The Equipment/ingredients Youll Need For Pre

We are going to try out three different methods of preparing the ribs, but all of them will involve pre-cooking at some point.

To complete these cooking methods, the pieces of equipment you will need include:

Oven Obviously, youll need this, and also make sure that no one else is thinking about using it for the rest of the day because you may end up needing it for a while.

Oven pan Nothing fancy is needed here, but you will want a larger one to hold the ribs and the other ingredients you will be using.
Aluminum foil This will be utilized in a few ways over the course of the pre-cooking process, so make sure to have plenty on hand.

You may also need:

Smoker One of the cooking methods that will be included in this article will involve smoking the ribs.
Grill You can make use of this in one of the cooking methods that are listed below if you are so inclined.

Youll also need the following ingredients:

Its optional, but you can also put together your own barbeque sauce, and for that, you will want to have:

Ketchup This will give the sauce that bit of tartness and appealing color.
Brown sugar Most bbq sauces feature sweet notes of some kind.

Some kind of vinegar This is necessary for balancing out the sweetness.
Chili powder Again, just use this if you want some heat.

What Are Baby Back Ribs Exactly

The baby back ribs form the rib bones of the pig closest to the loin, which boasts ultra-tender cuts like the tenderloin. Because of their proximity to the loin, baby back ribs are fall-off-the-bone tender when cooked properly. In fact, if youve enjoyed bone-in pork chopsthe rib chop specificallythey actually share a portion of the same meat youll find on baby back ribs.

One rack of baby back ribs weighs about 3 to 4 pounds and should include 10 to 13 ribs. Depending on how hungry your crowd is, one rack should feed two to three people. Baby back ribs are less expensive than pork chopsand for the amount of meat they provide, the price per pound is a great value.

Don’t Miss: Grill Time For Bone In Pork Chops

Optional: Make Smoke Bombs For Added Flavor

Because gas grills burn fuel relatively quickly, they dont release as much smoke as charcoal or pellet grills.

Meat cooked on a gas grill wont have that same smoky flavor.

Thats where the smoke bombs come in. Wrap the half-cup of damp wood chips in a single layer of aluminum foil. Poke several holes in the foil.

Place the smoke bombs under the cooking grate as close as possible to the lit burners.

When you see smoke coming out, place the ribs in the grillbone side downand close the lid.

Liquid Smoke Is Real Smoke

Fall-Off-The-Bone Ribs – Oven or Grill – Baby Back Bbq Ribs

Now we get to the real question: How do you get smoky flavor into ribs without actual smoke? Some sous vide recipes use a hybrid method, either starting or finishing the ribs in the smoker to add real smoke flavor to them. To me, this seems to miss the point. If I’m willing to fire up the smoker, then there are any number of traditional recipes out there that don’t necessarily require sous vide for great results. I want a method that allows me to cook the ribs indoors from start to finish, no actual fire necessary.

J. Kenji López-Alt

Liquid smoke gets a bum rap, but it shouldn’t. The good brands, such as Wright’s or Colgin, are quite literally nothing more than smoke and water in a bottle. To make it, manufacturers burn hardwoodjust like you would in your smokerthen run the moist smoke through a condenser, where water vapor condenses and traps the smoky constituentsjust like how water vapor condenses and deposits smoke flavor on the surface of meat. This water drips down and is collected and packed into bottles.

According to flavor and fragrance experts Leffingwell & Associates, the vast majority of compounds that lend smoke its unique aromasmoky phenols derived from burnt wood lignin, and burnt caramelscented cyclopentenones from cellulosemake their way into those liquid smoke bottles as well. In taste tests I’ve held, most folks cannot tell the difference between truly smoked meats and those treated with judiciously applied liquid smoke.

Don’t Miss: How To Cook Steak On Indoor Grill

Grilled Baby Back Ribs Recipes

NO FAIL BBQ BABY BACK RIBS

Pushing 52 years old, I have tried every BBQ rib recipe out there. Slow smoked, different rubs, etc.. Sure, lot of them good, some of them just OK. Problem is, never could seem to repeat a good recipe, so came up with this. Super easy, super simple, and one that has been requested at least 20 times by friends and family. If you like Sweet Baby Ray’s Original BBQ sauce, you’ll probably like this.

Recipe From food.com

Number Of Ingredients 6

PRIZE WINNING BABY BACK RIBS

A foolproof, simple recipe for the most tender, delectable ribs you’ve ever had. Follow the directions exactly, and success is guaranteed!

Recipe From allrecipes.com

Number Of Ingredients 6

GRILLED BABY BACK RIBS

We think of ribs as an all-day affair, the meat cooked in smoke and low heat until it begins to pull from the bone. But baby backs are quicker and can be grilled as well, and the result is delicious. This recipe benefits from a basting technique used by the chef and barbecue madman Adam Perry Lang, who thins out his barbecue sauce with water, then paints it onto the meat he’s cooking in coat after coat, allowing it to reduce and intensify rather than seize up and burn.

Recipe From cooking.nytimes.com

Number Of Ingredients 3

SAUCY GRILLED BABY BACK RIBS

Don’t worry about the beer in the sauce-it’s just root beer, which is a subtle undertone to the yummy sauce. -Terri Kandell, Addison, Michigan

Recipe From tasteofhome.com

Yield 6 to 8 servings

Number Of Ingredients 10

Grilled Baby Back Ribs With Sweet And Spicy Rub

In Sponsorship with Smithfield®.

Our Grilled Baby Back Ribs with Sweet and Spicy Rub will change your grilling game forever! This is the juiciest, most delicious pork rib recipe, thats fall-off-the-bone tender with barbecue sauce and a homemade dry rub.

Reviews

I believe grilling with family and friends is one of lifes simple pleasures I love easy recipes on the grill when entertaining! BBQ baby back ribs is one of my absolute favorite grilling recipes.

My family makes this recipe at least once a month and I am talking year-round. After all, thats one of the perks of living in Florida: Its always grilling season!

And let me tell you, thats my favorite part about living in Florida. Its easy to feel like a superstar behind the grill. There is nothing like the feeling of grilling up a dish that has everyone saying WOW!

My secret to getting everyone excited about what Im cooking starts with the ingredients which means picking the perfect fresh pork ribs! Smithfield® Fresh Pork Ribs are my choice.

Pork ribs on the grill smell so incredible your neighbors will come knocking at your door hoping for a dinner invitation. Pick them up at your local Walmart and GRILL ON!

Also Check: What Is The Best Gas Grill Brand

How To Cook Ribs On The Grill

So youre ready to take the dive into the world of cooking ribs on the grill? I promise its easy and youll be obsessed with the finished product. Youll need about 15 minutes of prep time and an hour of cooking time. So, make sure you account for that when planning out your meal!

Youll want your grill preheating to low heat for about 15 minutes before youre ready to throw the ribs on. I use a propane grill, so 15 minutes is all I need. If youre using a charcoal grill, youll need more time for it to preheat, so plan accordingly.

You also dont want to put ribs on the grill that just came out of the fridge, or else the meat might get shocked. So, while your grill is heating up, let the ribs rest on the counter for about 15 minutes.

Youre going to start by mixing up your dry rub. Combine all the dry rub ingredients in a bowl and give them a good stir.

When your ribs have warmed up a bit on the counter, remove the ribs from the package. To remove the membrane, turn the ribs bone-side up and pull up a little section of the membrane at one end of the rack. Then continue to pull up until the whole thing comes off. Then discard the membrane before moving on to the second rack of ribs.

Once the ribs are all coated and the grill is heated up, place the ribs on the grill with the meat side down.

Leave the ribs to cook bone-side down for 10 to 15 minutes.

Once cooked, take the ribs off the grill and cover them loosely with aluminum foil. Let them rest for 10 to 15 minutes.

Optional: Add Barbecue Sauce

How to Grill Baby Back Ribs on a Gas Grill

Lower heat to between 250 265°F.

Brush one side of the ribs with sauce. Close the lid and cook for 5 minutes.

Flip the ribs, apply sauce on the other side, and cook for another 5 minutes. Repeat for 30 minutes until done.

Finally, remove the ribs from the grill and let them rest for 10 minutes. Cut into portions and serve.

You May Like: How To Clean Stainless Steel Bbq Grill

Can You Make Ribs In A Smoker

Now if the grill isnt an option, you can use a smoker, too.

Set up and light the smoker according to the manufacturers instructions and preheat it to low . Place the ribs in the smoker bone side down and smoke until cooked through, 4 to 5 hours.

Brush the ribs with the mop sauce after an hour, then mop the ribs again once every hour until cooked tender. Cooking time vary depending on thickness of ribs.

Brush with your favorite BBQ sauce, or not, and smoke the ribs until the BBQ sauce is browned and bubbling, a couple minutes per side.

Remove from the smoker and let the ribs rest for a few minutes, then cut the ribs.

If you dont have a smoker you can improvise using your grill and using or improvising a smoker box. You can read aboutSmoker Boxes and Wood Chips for Smokingin a post I wrote to make your own!

My favorite woods for smoking are Alder, Cherry, Walnut and Hickory. The container that holds the soaked wood chips or pellets needs to restrict the airflow. This ensures that the chips dont catch fire and burn up.

Also, the container box holds the burned ashes and allow you to move the chips so that they dont burn too quickly if need be. Hopefully this will help in making some choices.

Adams Tip: Remove The Membrane

For the most tender ribs, we remove the thin membrane covering the rack. It can be a bit tough when cooked, and since we love ribs that fall of the bone, the membrane has to go. You might find that the butcher has already removed this, but just in case, heres how to do it yourself.

To remove it, gently slide a knife under the membrane, and then use your fingers to pull the membrane away from the bones. If it is slippery or difficult to remove, use a kitchen towel to take hold of it and pull.

As I mentioned above, you may find that the butcher or shop you bought your ribs from has already removed the membrane. Less work for you!

Also, keep in mind that removing the membrane is optional, some people prefer ribs with the membrane left intact. For ribs with some bite or chewiness, leave the membrane alone. Its all up to you!

You May Like: How To Grill Boneless Chicken Breast