Oven-and-Grill Baby Back Ribs

Name: Oven-and-Grill Baby Back Ribs
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 3 h
Total time: 3 h 20 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 2 racks baby back ribs (about 2.5 pounds each); 3 tablespoons dark brown sugar (packed); 1 tablespoon kosher salt; 1 tablespoon sweet paprika; 2 teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper; 2 teaspoons garlic powder; 1 teaspoon onion powder; 1 teaspoon dry mustard; 0.5 teaspoon cayenne pepper; 0.5 cup apple cider vinegar (in a spray bottle); 1 cup barbecue sauce (thick, tomato-based)

Dry-rubbed ribs cooked low in the oven, then glazed over live fire until the sauce tightens and chars.

Prep: 20 min
Cook: 3 hr
Total: 3 hr 20 min
Serves: 4
Difficulty: Medium

Ingredients

4 servings

2 racks baby back ribsabout 2.5 pounds each
3 tablespoons dark brown sugarpacked
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon sweet paprika
2 teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon dry mustard
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ cup apple cider vinegarin a spray bottle
1 cup barbecue saucethick, tomato-based

Method

Flip each rack bone side up and slide a butter knife under the thin, shiny membrane at one end. Grip it with a paper towel and pull it off in one sheet. Left on, it turns to leather and blocks the rub from reaching the meat.
Combine the brown sugar, salt, paprika, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, dry mustard and cayenne. Coat both sides of the racks generously, pressing the rub in. Rest uncovered in the refrigerator 2 to 12 hours so the salt draws moisture out and then back in, carrying the seasoning with it.
Heat the oven to 275°F. Set the racks meat side up on a foil-lined sheet pan and cook 2 to 2.5 hours, spraying with cider vinegar every 45 minutes to keep the surface from drying and to build a tacky bark.
Start testing at 2 hours. Pick a rack up at one end with tongs — it should bend to a deep arch and the surface should crack across the top. Bones should wiggle but not slide free. Ribs that fall off the bone are overcooked and mushy, not a victory.
Check the internal temperature between two bones: 198 to 203°F is where the collagen has rendered to gelatin. Below 195°F the meat still fights the bite.
Build a two-zone fire, or heat a gas grill with half the burners on medium and half off. You want direct heat around 400°F on one side and a safe cool side.
Brush the racks with barbecue sauce and grill meat side down over the hot zone for 2 to 3 minutes, watching constantly. Sugar in the sauce goes from caramelized to burnt in under a minute.
Flip, sauce the top, and move to the cool side. Close the lid for 5 minutes to set the glaze into a lacquer rather than a wet coat.
Rest the racks 10 minutes on a board, then slice between the bones with a long knife, cutting from the bone side where you can see the gaps.

Tips

Low and slow is about collagen, not doneness. Pork is safe to eat long before it is good to eat. The 2-plus hours at 275°F are spent melting connective tissue into gelatin.

Bend test beats the clock. Rack thickness varies by a half pound or more. Trust the arch and the surface cracking, not the timer.

Sauce only at the end. An hour of sugar over heat is an hour of burning. The glaze is a five-minute job.

Variations

Memphis dry: Skip the sauce entirely and hit the rested ribs with a second dusting of the rub.
Kansas City sticky: Stir 2 tablespoons of honey and 1 tablespoon of cider vinegar into the sauce and apply in two thin coats.
No grill: Broil the sauced racks 6 inches from the element for 3 to 4 minutes, rotating the pan once.

Oven-and-Grill Baby Back Ribs

Ingredients

Method

Tips

Variations

Cook this next

Baked Macaroni and Cheese

Biscuits and Sausage Gravy

Buttermilk Fried Chicken