Oven BBQ Ribs

Name: Oven BBQ Ribs
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 3 h 10 min
Total time: 3 h 15 min
Yield: 4 to 6 servings
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon garlic powder; 1 tablespoon onion powder; 2 teaspoons smoked paprika; 1 tablespoon fine sea salt, plus more to taste; 2 teaspoons black pepper, plus more to taste; 4 pounds beef back ribs or 4 pounds beef short rib rack; 1 teaspoon olive oil or avocado oil; 1/2 cup barbecue sauce (homemade or store-bought)

By Millie Peartree

Updated Oct. 11, 2023

Oven BBQ Ribs — David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.

Total Time: 3¼ hours
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 3 hours 10 minutes
Rating: 4(684)
Comments: Read comments

Oven-baked ribs are a great way to enjoy barbecue flavor without stepping outside. This is a foolproof, supersimple recipe, using seasonings you probably already have in your pantry, plus store-bought barbecue sauce that caramelizes into a sticky-sweet, smoky finish. Instead of using traditional pork ribs, this recipe uses beef back ribs, which are juicier. If you can only find them in chunks, rather than a whole rack, that’s more than OK: Wrap the pieces in aluminum foil, which creates a moist environment that yields fall-off-the-bone meat, and start checking them early. When they start to shrink down and the meat pulls away from the bone with the gentlest tug of a fork, they’re ready.

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Ingredients

Yield:4 to 6 servings

1tablespoon garlic powder
1tablespoon onion powder
2teaspoons smoked paprika
1tablespoon fine sea salt, plus more to taste
2teaspoons black pepper, plus more to taste
4pounds beef back ribs or 4 pounds beef short rib rack
1teaspoon olive oil or avocado oil
½cup barbecue sauce (homemade or store-bought)

Ingredient Substitution Guide

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Preparation

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Step 1
Heat oven to 300 degrees. Line a large rimmed sheet pan with aluminum foil.
Step 2
In a bowl, mix together garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, salt and pepper until spice rub is well combined.
Step 3
Place the ribs on the pan in a single layer. Add oil to the ribs and coat with spice rub. Arrange the ribs meaty side up. Wrap the foil around the ribs and seal.
Step 4
Bake until the meat starts to pull away from the bone, about 3 hours (or see Tip for grilling instructions). (Beef short rib racks may take an additional 30 minutes to 1 hour to cook. Start checking at 3 hours, and continue cooking until meat starts to pull away.)
Step 5
Take the ribs out of the oven and remove the top layer of foil. Increase oven temperature to 350 degrees. Brush on the barbecue sauce. Return the ribs to the oven and bake for another 20 minutes.

Tip

To cook these on the grill, prepare the grill for indirect cooking (preferably at 275 degrees). Place the ribs, meaty side up, directly on the grill grate. Cook for 2½ hours, maintaining a steady temperature. Flip the ribs and cook for 30 minutes. Next to the grill, place 2 long sheets of heavy-duty aluminum foil. Transfer the ribs to the foil, meaty side up. Wrap the ribs, sealing the package tightly. Place the foil-wrapped ribs on the grill for 1 hour. (Wrapping the ribs in foil is essential to get them tender, so don't omit this step.) Move the foil-wrapped ribs to a platter once their internal temperature reaches 200 degrees. Carefully remove the ribs from the foil, place them on the grill grate, and brush with the barbecue sauce. Grill for another 5 to 15 minutes, depending on how charred you like your ribs. Flip the ribs, brush with the sauce again, and cook for 5 to 15 minutes more. Place the ribs on a platter and serve with additional barbecue sauce, preferably warm, on the side.

FAQS

Oven-baked rib recipes often rely on seasonings like smoked paprika or a sauce spiked with liquid smoke to add smoky flavor to the meat. To infuse ribs with true wood smoke, use a grill or smoker. First, remove any membrane from the ribs and season them with a rub. Aiming for an ambient temperature of about 250 degrees, heat a smoker or prepare a grill for indirect cooking. If using a charcoal grill, build a charcoal fire under one side of the grill. Add the ribs to the side of the grill without heat, and add a handful of soaked BBQ wood chips to the side with the lit charcoal. If using a smoker, place the ribs on the rack and the wood chips over the coals or in the smoker box. Cover the grill or smoker and smoke the ribs, adding more wood chips every half hour and more ashed-over coals as needed to maintain the temperature. Cook until the meat is well browned, soft and pulls away from the bone, basting with a mop or sauce. This can take 4 to 5 hours for pork ribs and 8 to 10 hours for beef ribs. Remove the ribs from the grill and wrap in foil; let rest for 15 minutes before serving.
Since eating BBQ ribs generally means eating with your hands, pair ribs with other side dishes that allow you to skip the utensils. Buttery corn on the cob is an ideal accompaniment, whether simply roasted in the oven or enriched with parsley and garlic, spiked with miso and shichimi togarashi or sweetened with honey. Cornbread baked in a cast-iron skillet provides balance to all that saucy smoke, as do wedges of watermelon.

Ratings

4 out of 5

684 user ratings

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Comments

Bill2 years ago

Unless you have access to a first class butcher, skip using beef back ribs and go for the short ribs. I have yet to see a rack of beef back ribs in a "supermarket" that wasn't absent virtually all meat--aka "shiners" cuz nothing bone shows. Better yet, go for pork ribs--spares or baby backs. Beef back ribs do work well for making beef stock, assuming they are priced at less than $2/pound.

Johnny Ventura2 years ago

I have tried every known method to cook ribs, the rub here looks great, but the easy way is to get an aluminum pan ($ tree 1.25) lay the ribs meat side down, pour BBQ sauce over the top, cover the pan tightly with foil, cook at 350 for 1 hour, the meat will fall off the bone!

CherylM2 years ago

I always make pork ribs using this method. 300 degrees for about 2 hours, maybe 2.5 if you have St Louis cut spare ribs. The trick is to dry rub and wrap them tightly in foil. When you remove them from the oven, leave them wrapped and rest for at least an hour before unwrapping. They will hold their juices this way. You can even refrigerate them for the next day. Unwrap, brush with BBQ sauce and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

khnyc3 days ago

Have made this recipe several times - thank you Millie!!!! Two details that have really made a difference: fresh rather than previously frozen ribs (may seem like a gimme, but often only the latter is available at my local grocery store), and *roasted* garlic powder (e.g., Penzey's) for at least half of the garlic powder. Flavor up!

John Mazur9 months ago

This recipe is easy and works great every time.

John Mazur10 months ago

This is the perfect method of cooking ribs in the oven. Comes out great every single time

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