Easy Baby Back Ribs in the Oven
Our oven baked baby back ribs recipe makes the most tender melt-in-your-mouth ribs. These get slow cooked in the oven with a homemade rib rub and then briefly broiled with a BBQ sauce for that hot off the grill taste and texturer.
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 rack baby back ribs
- 1-2 tablespoon dry rub mix
Dry Rub Mix
- 1 tablespoon cumin
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 tablespoon ground dried garlic
- 1 tablespoon ground onion powder
- 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
- 2 tablespoon sea salt
- 1 tablespoon ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 2 teaspoon brown sugar or golden monk fruit for sugar free
Instructions
Prep the Ribs
- Preheat the oven to 275F and put the oven rack in the middle position.
- Cover the baking sheet with foil to make for easier cleanup.
- Remove the membrane from the backside of the ribs if it's still attached. With a sharp knife, lift the point of the knife under the white membrane. Once it's a little loosened you can take your clean hands and slowly pull the membrane from the back of the ribs. This is optional, but the ribs will turn out more tender without the tough membrane attached.Place the ribs on the baking sheet.
Season
- Combine all of the rub ingredients in a small bowl (or you can skip this and use your favorite store-bought brand).
- Sprinkle 1-2 tablespoon of dry rub mix on each rack of ribs and gently press the mix into the meat to help it stick to the surface. Gently press the rub into the meat with your clean hands.
- If you have extra time, putting the ribs in the fridge for 2 hours (optional) to allow the rub flavors to infuse with the meat is ideal. This is an optional step that we sometimes skip when we don't have extra time.
Cover and Bake
- Tightly wrap the baking sheet with foil to cover the ribs and keep the steam from escaping.
- Cook the baby back ribs until a thermometer inserted into a center portion of the meat reads 185 to 190F. The meat is technically done before that point but wouldn't be cooked to a fall off the bone level, which is definitely what you want for baby back ribs.
- Check the ribs after 3 hours of cooking on 275F, they'll be at the perfect point if you can easily wiggle the bones and the meat is very soft. They'll take about 3-3 ½ hours to cook. Racks of baby back ribs come between 1 ½ lb and 3 lb, the lighter they are the less time they'll take to cook.
Add BBQ Sauce
- If you prefer adding barbecue sauce, which definitely gives a "hot off the grill" appearance, you can broil or grill the ribs for 3-4 minutes until the top of the baked baby ribs are lightly brown on top. Pull them out before the sauce starts to burn.
- Serve and enjoy! Each BBQ ribs rack serves about 2-3 people.
Notes
- The baked ribs should be literally fall off the bone tender, if your ribs aren't doing this, that means they need to cook LONGER. Baby back ribs aren't properly cooked until the tough collagen breaks down.
- Be sure to tightly cover the baking pan with foil, if the foil isn't on there tight enough the ribs won't properly steam. They'll still taste great but they won't be as tender as they should've been.
- Cook the ribs with the meat side up, and flipping during cooking is NOT necessary.
- The baby ribs can be served just with dry rub, many people prefer them this way! Adding barbeque sauce is totally optional.
- Pork spare ribs can be substituted for baby back, they'll take longer to cook since they weigh more.
- Just have a 9x13 pan? Cut the rib rack in half before seasoning and baking the BBQ ribs.
Nutrition
Serving: 4ozCalories: 250kcalCarbohydrates: 1gProtein: 18gFat: 17gSaturated Fat: 6gPolyunsaturated Fat: 10gCholesterol: 66mgSodium: 199mgSugar: 4g
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