Follow our easy, step-by-step, instructions to learn how to cook delicious Baby Back Ribs in the oven. We’ll even share our BBQ Sauce recipe with you.
We’re cooking Baby Back Ribs in the oven. You can finish them off in the oven, or on your grill. It’s up to you. These are really easy to make. Use our BBQ Sauce recipe, or one of your own. Either way, they’ll be delicious.
Summer is right around the corner, and thoughts of summer cookouts with family and friends begin to fill your mind once again. Am I right?
While this is a recipe for fully cooking Baby Back Ribs in the oven, you can finish them off on your grill if you prefer. It will be super easy and everyone will think you’ve been slaving over the grill all day. Smile.
I’ve tried all kinds of ways of preparing ribs in the oven over the years, and they haven’t all turned out to be enjoyable. And, no matter how hard I try, getting them to taste like you DID fuss with them all day on the grill, still evades me when I cook them in the oven. But, sometimes you just want to enjoy some good, delicious, RIBS.
I came across this way to prepare them while watching a TV program produced here in North Carolina called FlavorNC. I’ve always enjoyed watching the program, but really enjoyed it when they visited The Angus Barn Restaurant in Raleigh, our capital city.
The Angus Barn Steakhouse is well known in my neck of the woods, and the chef shared how they make their famous ribs in the oven on a special segment of the FlavorNC program. It looked so easy. And, I think it’s a great way to prepare some barbecue ribs when you don’t have access to cooking them outdoors.
I’m making these with one of my own BBQ Sauce recipes. I refer to this one as the Dark Sauce and created it years ago to use with our beef ribs that we served on the lunch buffet at my brother’s seafood restaurant. We always had a few extra folks that showed up on rib day. Smile.
I do hope you’ll give our recipe a try. And, be sure to share your results with us in the Comments section at the end of this recipe to let me know how they turned out for you. Whether you use my sauce, your sauce, or a store brand, I really think you’ll be pleased with the results.
Ready to give our recipe a try? Alright then, let’s head on out to the kitchen, and… Let’s Get Cooking!
Baby Back Ribs Recipe – You’ll need these ingredients.
I’m using my own homemade Gordon’s Dark BBQ Sauce recipe. You can click HERE for the full step-by-step, photo illustrated recipe on how we make it. Or, you can use your favorite store brand if you prefer to not to make your own.
Rinse your rack of ribs under cold running water and pat them dry with paper towels.
Flip them over to remove the silverskin. This is a thin connective tissue on the back of the ribs that is best removed before cooking. It’s not necessary, but it’s tough, even after cooking, and difficult to chew for some folks.
Use the point of a sharp paring knife and cut the skin on top of one of the bones. Lift up the skin with your knife so you can get enough pulled loose to be able to grab it with your fingers. Paper towels will help you grasp it much easier. Pull the thin silverskin away from the ribs and discard it.
It may be a little difficult to get started, but once you get a good grip on it, you can usually pull it off in one or two sections. You’ll be glad you did later. Smile.
I used my sheet cake pan to cook these in. You’ll need a large pan with some sides to it.
Line your pan with aluminum foil if needed, then place the ribs in the pan with the meat side up.
Place 1/4 cup of salt in the corner of the pan.
Pour enough water over the salt to bring the water up to about one inch deep in the pan. It will cover some of the ribs, but you don’t want to fully submerge the ribs under water.
Stir the salt and water around a bit until most of the salt has dissolved. The meat will draw some of this salt water in as the meat is cooking in the oven.
Cover the pan tightly with more aluminum foil, shiny side up. Seal it good around all the edges.
Preheat your oven to 250F degrees.
Place the pan of ribs in the preheated oven and let them bake for about 2 hours. It’s best if you check the meat with a digital thermometer and let the ribs cook until the internal temp of the meat reaches about 175F degrees.
Ribs are done at 145F degrees, but they may still be tough. If you let them cook to about 175F degrees they should still be juicy, but more tender.
Remove them from the oven when they’re done.
Carefully drain off the remaining water.
When they’re done, they should bend when you pick them up, but not break apart. You’ll also notice the meat has started to pull back on the bones some around the edges.
Brush a liberal coating of your BBQ Sauce on both sides of the ribs while they are still hot.
The tissues in the meat will be open when cooked. Brushing the sauce on now will let it enter into the meat some as it begins to draw back together during the cool down period.
Let the ribs cool on the counter top.
When the ribs have pretty much cooled down, wrap them back up again with the aluminum foil.
Place the covered pan of ribs in your refrigerator and let them stay overnight. You could even let them stay for two to three days if you’d like. This is a great way to get the ribs started ahead of time.
Pull the ribs out of the refrigerator about an hour before you intend to serve them. They can start coming back up to room temperature while you once again preheat the oven to 250F degrees.
Brush on another good coat of your BBQ Sauce. Be sure to coat both sides. Smile.
“Sting” them with a drizzle of honey for another layer of flavor.
It’s not required, but if you have it, drizzle a little bit of honey over the ribs. Good stuff.
Place the ribs, UNCOVERED, on the middle rack of your 250F degree preheated oven.
The ribs are already fully cooked, we’re just going to warm them up so we can enjoy them.
You could also warm them up on your grill if you prefer. Either way, they just need to warm up to about 145F degrees again.
And now you have a full rack of ribs ready to serve. You can leave them as is, or brush on another coat of your BBQ Sauce if you prefer them a little messy. Smile.
Enjoy!
