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By Courtney ODell
Aug 10, 2019, Updated Dec 28, 2022
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The Best Oven Baked Ribs – fall off the bone tender baked ribs with a smoky-sweet crunchy bark – straight from the oven!
This is the best oven baked ribs recipe – incredibly easy with a crunchy bark like you’d get on the grill but right in the oven.
Use your favorite BBQ sauce – no special equipment needed.
Don’t want all the extras in a recipe post? We provide a skip to recipe button in the top left corner, as well as a clickable table of contents, just below, to help make this page easier to navigate.
Table of contents
- The Best Ribs From the Oven
- How to Bake Ribs
- Recipe FAQs
- The Best Oven Smoked Ribs Recipe
The Best Ribs From the Oven
This deliciously tender fall off the bone juicy ribs recipe tastes rich, smoky, and delicious – with a crunchy crust and sticky BBQ sauce glaze – just like it was smoked on a grill for hours.
It is my hands-down favorite way to make ribs without grilling them – and tastes so great, you’d never know these ribs are baked right in the oven!
If you’re looking for a delicious, no-fail way to make the most amazingly flavorful ribs, look no further than this simple and easy recipe for the best baked ribs ever – with absolutely no special equipment required!
That’s right – no standing over the hot grill, keeping the fire the right temperature, or fussing with ribs all day.
Simply pop these in the oven and baste occasionally with sauce and you’re on your way to lip-smacking delicious ribs baked in the oven!
How to Bake Ribs
To bake ribs, we will need the following ingredients:
- Pork ribs. Whether you pick baby back ribs, or St. Louis style ribs, this recipe is perfect for tender, delicious, juicy fall-of-the-bone pork ribs with a flavor that will melt in your mouth.
- For the rub:
- Garlic powder. Garlic powder brings a pungeant, addictive flavor and is easier to add to meat than fresh garlic without burning or taking on an acrid flavor from overheating.
- Seasoning salt. Seasoned salt is a blend of table salt, herbs, spices, other flavorings, and sometimes MSG. It helps to tenderize meat, draw out water, and enhance flavor.
- Oregano. Oregano bings a citrus, peppery kick to pork that isn’t overpowering, while being lightly vegetal.
- Cumin. Cumin has a smoky, earthy flavor that is well known in BBQ dishes, enhancing the cooked for hours flavor and rich, crispy bark that develops as pork bakes.
- Brown sugar. Brown sugar adds a sweet kick to pork without being overpowering – it is more like a molasses than overly sugary, and helps to make ribs sticky and have a natural glaze.
- For the mop:
- Apple cider vinegar. Apple cider vinegar helps infuse more sweet flavor, and light acid to pork as it cooks, as well as provides additional liquid to keep pork from drying out, acting as a baste.
- Light beer. Beer acts as a base, and also an aromatic flavoring agent, leaving ribs with a lovely flavor as it cooks and infuses pork with beer notes as well as providing a steam-like function in your oven to cook ribs faster without drying them out.
Once you’ve gathered your ingredients, we will use the following method:
- Prep. Preheat oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit. Mix spice rub and rub on ribs.
- Bake. Bake in oven for 2-3 hours until tender, basting with mop every 20-30 minutes.
- Baste. When meat separates from bone, baste with BBQ sauce, turn up oven to 350 degrees. Continue to baste ribs with sauce every 15 minutes until desired finish is reached, approximately 2-3 times.
- Enjoy! Remove from oven and add one more layer of sauce, serve immediately.
Tips and Tricks to Perfect Baked Ribs & FAQs
Trim extra fat from ribs. Ribs are a cut of meat that need to be trimmed well for the best flavor – and so they aren’t chewy and tough.
Know what sauce you want to use. This recipe for the best oven baked ribs is crazy versatile – you can use your favorite sauce! There are a couple of things you will want to consider when looking for the best sauce to use for these ribs:
- Sauces with more sugar (Kansas City style sauce like KC Masterpiece) will have a lot more crunch when baking, since the sugar caramelizes and crisps to help make it crunchy.
- Sauces with a lot of mustard can become overpowering when layered all day – so go light when you baste.
- Sauces that are thinner won’t become as sticky as thick sauce and may have less of a glazed texture. This doesn’t harm your flavor – just something to consider depending on what texture you want your baked ribs to have.
Trim silver skin from ribs. Ribs come with a silver skin often over the ribs – trimming the most of this tough tendon off the rib will greatly improve the flavor of your oven baked ribs – so don’t skip this step.
- Run a knife under the silver skin to separate the membrane from the rib meat.
- If the silver skin resists in one spot, try another.
- Once you have separated enough with a knife, grab silver skin tightly and pull to remove from the ribs.
- If silver skin breaks in one spot, loosen it again with a knife to remove it completely.
Start with a dry rub. After removing silver skin from your ribs, generously cover with dry rub to help create a “smoky” flavor – right in the oven! Smoked paprika helps bring out a grilled meat flavor, without the grill.
Cover with foil for first half of cooking. To help the ribs cook without drying out, it is best to cover them with foil for the first half of cooking ribs in the oven.
Baste with sauce lightly. This recipe really relies on basting multiple times to create a rich, crunchy bark like you would get from grilled or smoked ribs. Add sauce a little bit at a time so it can build in layers – don’t drown your ribs in sauce or it won’t get crunchy and crisp.
Flip and rotate ribs when you baste. For evenly cooked ribs, flip and rotate them when you baste.
Remove foil halfway through to form crust. After the ribs have started to cook and lock in their natural juices, remove the foil so the BBQ sauce “crust” can form.
Add liquid smoke for extra smoky flavor. If you are really craving an extra smoky flavor, you can add a drop or two of liquid smoke to your bbq sauce.
Recipe FAQs
Can I make this in an Instant Pot?
Check our Instant Pot Ribs recipe for instructions on how to make this recipe in an instant pot.
What to Serve With Oven Baked Ribs
This Oven Baked Ribs Recipe is perfect with some of my other favorite easy side dishes!
To see the rest of our side dishes, visit our side dish recipe index here.
The Best Oven Smoked Ribs Recipe
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The Best Oven Baked Ribs Recipe
Yield: 6
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 4 hours
Total Time: 4 hours 5 minutes
The Best Oven Baked Ribs with a Crunchy Smoky Crust - fall off the bone tender ribs with a smoky-sweet crunchy bark - straight from the oven! This is the best oven baked ribs recipe - incredibly easy with a crunchy bark like you'd get on the grill but right in the oven. Use your favorite BBQ sauce - no special equipment needed.
Ingredients
- 1 large rack pork ribs, about 12 ribs
- For the rub:
- Tablespoon of garlic powder
- Tablespoon of season salt
- Tablespoon of oregano
- Tablespoon of cumin
- tablespoon of brown sugar
- 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
- 12 oz light beer
- 1/2 cup your favorite BBQ sauce
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit
- Mix spice rub and rub on ribs
- Mix the apple cider vinegar and beer in a small bowl to make the mop.
- Bake in oven for 2-3 hours until tender, basting with mop every 20-30 minutes.
- When meat separates from bone, baste with BBQ sauce, turn up oven to 350 degrees.
- Continue to baste ribs with sauce every 15 minutes until desired finish is reached, approximately 2-3 times.
- Remove from oven and add one more layer of sauce, serve immediately.
Nutrition Information
Yield 6Serving Size 2 ribs
Amount Per ServingCalories 359Total Fat 24gSaturated Fat 7gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 11gCholesterol 81mgSodium 1376mgCarbohydrates 15gFiber 1gSugar 10gProtein 17g
Nutrition is automatically calculated by Nutritionix - please verify all nutrition information independently and consult with a doctor or nutritionist for any and all medical and diet advice.
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Categorized as:
keto, Keto Pork, Main Dishes, One Pot, Pork, Recipes, Ribs
About Courtney
Courtney loves to share great wine, good food, and loves to explore far flung places- all while masting an everyday elegant and easy style at lifestyle blog Sweet C’s Designs. Sweet C's devoted to finding the best food and drinks you'll want to make or find, around the world!
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