How To Cook Perfect Spare Ribs

One of the big pleasures of the summer is all of the BBQ cooking that is done. It is the idea way to socialize with friends when the temps are high and the feeling is casual. And nothing is better on the grill than perfect spare ribs.

Foodies know that great spare ribs normally take hours and hours to cook.

Great spare ribs are deliciously crusty on the outside but have extremely tender pieces of meat that literally hang off the bone.

Summer BBQ time – how to cook perfect spare ribs

Spare ribs have a high percentage of both fat and collagen, and these cannot be broken down with a quick sear on the grill. But you can still end up with perfect spare ribs without being a slave to a smoker all day long.

To make perfect spare ribs without the all day cooking, one needs a fantastic dry rub and and a few hours in the kitchen oven at a low heat before finishing the ribs off on the grill.

My favorite rub for barbecue ribs uses these ingredients:

• 1/4 cup of Spanish Paprika
• 2 tbsp Kosher Salt
• ¼ cup of garlic powder
• 1½ tbsp cracked black pepper
• 1¼ tbsp red pepper flakes
• 2 tbsp onion flakes
• 2 tbsp dried oregano
• 2 tbsp dried thyme leaves
• 2 tbsp of ground cumin seed

This makes quite a large amount of the rub. I store it in a grinder. See my tutorial for combining these spices as well as a free printable spice jar label on The Gardening Cook.

In addition to the dry rub, you will also later need a generous helping of your favorite barbecue sauce when you sear the ribs over the coals or on a grill.

My perfect spare ribs recipe uses two steps, baking the ribs (in the oven) and barbecuing the ribs (on the grill).

Season the ribs well

To start, preheat your oven to 325ºF (160ºC). You want an oven temperature so low that the meat will cook very, very slowly, and tenderize as it cooks.

Take two large racks of spare ribs and coat them liberally with the dry rub on both sides.

Pre-bake in a low oven

Place the racks of ribs on two baking sheets, being sure that there is a lip on the pan to collect the juices as the meat cooks. Cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake for at least 3 hours.

Check for tenderness

The meat will be very tender when you have cooked enough and the meat will easily pull from the bone.

Set aside and get the grill ready

Remove the ribs from the oven and set aside while you prepare the grill.

Add a BBQ sauce

Ribs cook best over charcoal. You can use a gas grill, but the charcoal gives a better crusty coating to the outside of the ribs and that is what you are aiming for.

At this stage you will want a good quality BBQ sauce. The sugar in most barbecue sauces helps to add more flavor and caramelizes the outside of the ribs.

Baste the ribs and finish cooking

Once the grill is ready, use a basting brush and your favorite barbecue sauce to coat the meaty side of the ribs. Cook ribs on this side for a few minutes.

Baste the bone side with sauce and flip the ribs. Continue doing this until the ribs are crusty but not burned, approximately 15 minutes.

We kept basting and turning about every 2 or 3 minutes and they turned out perfectly!

If you are short on time the day that you want to cook the ribs, they can be cooked the day before in the oven and then kept overnight in the fridge.

Take them out and bring them to room temperature before you put them on the grill.

Be prepared to amaze your friends when you tell them that you didn’t have to cook these all day long! These are, without a doubt, the best spareribs I have ever eaten.

The rub adds a wonderful touch of spice and the barbecue sauce adds a delicious richness to them. The meat literally falls off the bone. I promise, you will love them!

BBQ spare rib recipes

Here are some other ideas for cooking perfect spare ribs. All make use of the oven in one way or another. Most use rubs, and some also smoke as part of the process.

1.  Sugar-Free, Clean-Eating Barbecue Sauce

2. Tender Pork Spare Ribs (Cooked in the Oven)

3. Fall off the Bone Spare Ribs (with Homemade Barbecue Sauce)

4. Oven Slow-Cooked Spare Ribs

5. Best Ever Barbecue Spare Ribs

6. Perfect Spare Ribs  (no grill required)

And here are a couple more great rubs:

1. Caribbean Dry Rub

2. Bobby Flay’s Dry Rub

Share this post showing how to make the perfect spare ribs on X

Have you enjoyed learning how to cook spare ribs? Let your friends and family know about it by sharing this post:

Learn how to make the perfect spare ribs on Recipes Just 4U! They're flavorful, tender, and fall off the bone. 😋🍽️🔥 #SpareRibs #HowToCookSpareRibs #SpareRibRecipe Share on X

Pin these spare rib tips for later

To remind yourself of this recipe, just pin this image to one of your BBQ boards on Pinterest.