When you don't want to fool with the grill or smoker, these fall off the bone spareribs will satisfy that rib craving. Slow baked in the oven, they'll hit the spot!
Oven Baked Pork Ribs
Fall off the bone ribs, now that's what I'm talkin' about y'all!
This beautiful weather the past few weeks has had me in the mood to get a garden going for sure, but it's also had me in the mood for barbecue! I have literally been craving it for weeks now.
Now, first things first...
{Southern-style hissy fit warning} inevitably somebody is gonna pop by here from a random hit on the interwebs or Facebook and lecture me that ribs are not supposed to be "fall off the bone" and that if they are it's just wrong. They will say "fall off the bone ribs are overcooked ribs."
Well, I say, bless your heart, if that's wrong or "overcooked" then I don't wanna be right! You see, there are tens of thousands of us who actually really do like them that way.
Besides that, I never have quite understood why folks think it's appropriate anyway to pop into somebody else's kitchen and tell them how they think they're cooking something "wrong."
Just sayin'...
Just a quick reminder.... this is a blog, not just a "recipe site," and yes, there is a difference! I want to first thank all of you who have supported my work over the years, but if you aren't interested in the chit chat, info, photos, tips and such in a post, as always, you'll find the complete recipe text with measurements and instructions, as well as a printable document, a little bit further down the page. Just swipe or scroll down to the bottom of the post!While I also enjoy a smoked rib that has a little tooth to it on occasion, I actually prefer them much more when they are ultra tender, and well... fall off the bone, and based on comments over the years, a lot of you also do.
While I do admire folks who have the tenacity and dedication to wood smoke meat, and I'll sure enough eat and enjoy them - it's not for me. Bottom line?
You do you.Although I have one of those smokers that runs on electricity and wood chips - I rarely use it. Heck I barely grill as it is, it's just too hot here 99.9% of the time, and I used to struggle with trying to get the perfect rib on the grill until a friend suggested to forget about all that and just do them in the oven!
Her version is delicious and you can find it right here. It's completely different than this one and can be finished on the grill. But the revelation that you just do not have to do ribs on the grill to get good ribs just totally liberated me! Though I do them on the grill on occasion, this method here gives a great rib using the oven.
And by the way, when it's just too miserably hot to turn on the oven if you can avoid it, you can certainly "oven bake" these on the grill too y'all.
For these oven ribs I also like doing a rub and then also applying barbecue sauce.
There are some BBQ purists who will be driven over the edge about that too and will tell me use one or the other but not both.
Well, that's just the way we happen to like them - sauced! Again...
You do you.If you'd rather skip the sauce, by all means, make it your own, but if you like sauce, don't skip the rub and give them both a try.
If you want to add a bit of smoky flavor to these oven ribs, just before you put on the rub, take a teaspoon of liquid smoke and mix it with a tablespoon of water. Brush that on both sides of the ribs, then apply the dry rub.
Now first - I get questions about the differences between baby back ribs and spareribs - not that I'm any kind of a rib expert or anything... but here's what I know.
Spareribs are from the belly area of the hog. They are generally large and fairly meaty, but they do contain more fat, and consequently, more flavor than baby back ribs do. These are often referred to as St. Louis style ribs.And that's pretty much all I have to say about that (because, that's all I know about it!).
Baby back ribs or pork loin back ribs are from the loin area of the hog. They are much leaner and the most tender of the ribs. They are also the most expensive.
These ribs go low and slow in the oven, so once you get them going, you can pretty much go about your business around the house (or the yard) and just come back in 2 hours to put some sauce on them, wrap 'em up and let 'em go for another 2 hours. Sure beats worrying over the grill if you ask me. And you don't have to keep stoking the coals or worry over whether you have enough propane.
Here's how to make these Fall off the Bone Oven-Baked Ribs!
Preheat oven to 250 degrees F. Ribs will cook for a total time of 4 hours. Mise en place y'all, meaning gather all of your ingredients together before you start!
Combine all of the dry rub ingredients in a small bowl.
Mix together.
As I mentioned on previous rib posts, I always remove the membrane on spareribs pictured below. I don't find it necessary to do this on baby back ribs, and in fact it can be pretty difficult, but you can if you prefer!
Line a baking pan with aluminum foil. On the bottom side of the ribs, sprinkle on a generous amount of the dry rub and rub it in.
Set the ribs on the baking pan with the seasoned side down, and apply the remaining dry rub on the top side.
Let them rest while the oven heats up.
Cook uncovered at 250 degrees F for 2 hours. By the way, I'm doing a half rack here because I wanted to use the other half for another method.
After the ribs have cooked for 2 hours, remove them and pour some of the sauce over the top of the ribs. Using a brush, gently spread the sauce all over the ribs.
Cover the entire pan tightly with aluminum foil.
Return to the oven, baking for an additional 2 hours, or until the meat begins to pull away from the bone.
If you like, unwrap, brush with a bit of sauce and finish under the broiler for a minute or so. This is a picture of a rack of spareribs I did that with.
Now, I'll be honest. These ribs are sometimes difficult to just pick up and eat off the bone, because well, the outcome is so tender, the bone often just falls away, but nobody says that you still can't go on ahead and use your fingers to eat them anyway!
I say dig in, get messy, and lick those fingers because I'm tellin' ya, the rub is delicious, but if you like sauce too, especially a sweet and spicy sauce like we do in South Mississippi, you're definitely gonna love these with my homemade sauce too. Just tap/click the link in the recipe text below for that recipe.
For more of my favorite rib recipes, check out this collection on my Pinterest page!
Unable to view the printable below on your device? Tap/click here.
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