How to Cook Baby Back Ribs on a Gas Grill
No smoker? No problem: Your grill can deliver delicious, falling-off-the-bone pork ribs with ease.
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By Alice K. Thompson for Food Network Kitchen
Alice is a contributing writer and editor at Food Network.
Ribs are a barbecue favorite, and you don’t have to be a pitmaster to get juicy, finger-licking results. The secret is first cooking them very slowly over indirect heat until they’re so tender they’re almost falling off the bone, then giving them a final glaze of barbecue sauce or vinegar mop over direct heat. You’ll get a beautifully burnished look and classic barbecued flavor. This step-by-step guide delivers great results for your next cookout, sticky fingers and all!
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How to Cook Baby Back Ribs on a Gas Grill
Use indirect heat to grill pork ribs until very tender, about 2 hours, then brush them with barbecue sauce or a vinegar-based mop and grill over medium direct heat until glazed, about 10 minutes.
Coating the ribs with a dry rub and letting them sit for a few hours gives the ribs extra flavor, while grilling them low and slow over indirect heat keeps them moist and juicy. Once they’re tender, brush them with barbecue sauce or a vinegar-based mop and flip them over direct heat for a few minutes to create an irresistibly delicious crust as the sugar caramelizes.
Here’s how to do it; you can also follow our Grilled Baby Back Ribs recipe for exact quantities.
Step one: Trim and season the ribs. Turn the ribs bone-side up. Slip a slim knife between the bones and thin membrane that encases them to loosen it, then pull off the membrane. Sprinkle the ribs generously with a dry rub or simple mixture of salt, pepper and brown sugar. Cover the ribs and refrigerate several hours or overnight.
Step two: Prepare for indirect heat. First check your grill’s propane tank; you’ll need to grill for several hours so make sure your tank is at least a third full. Preheat the grill to medium high. Once it’s hot, brush the grill grates clean, then turn off the middle one or two burners and reduce the heat on the other burners to medium-low.
Step three: Grill the ribs. Place the ribs bone-side down on the cooler part of the grill (the area with indirect heat). Close the cover and cook, rotating and flipping the ribs once or twice, until they are very tender, about 2 to 2 1/4 hours; you should see the meat begin to pull away from the bone at the rib tips and be able to wiggle the bones very gently if you grasp them with a paper towel to protect your fingers.
Step four: Glaze the ribs. Turn all the burners to medium heat. Brush the ribs on both sides with barbecue sauce or a mixture of vinegar and honey. Grill the ribs, turning them and basting them again frequently, until they’re glazed and browned. Lower the heat if you get flare-ups.
Step five: Carve and serve. Let the ribs rest for 5 to 10 minutes. Turn them bone-side up and cut between each bone to separate them. Serve with extra sauce on the side, although the ribs will probably be perfectly juicy and flavorful just as they are.
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What Are Baby Back Ribs?
Baby back ribs are pork ribs cut from the top of the animal’s rib cage, near the backbone. They’re typically more compact than spareribs, a cut that comes from the bottom of the rib cage. A rack of baby back ribs contains around 12 ribs and weighs about 2 pounds. Baby backs are small and meaty and relatively uniform in size, making them a good bet for grilling.
Can You Cook Spareribs on a Gas Grill?
Yes, you can cook spareribs on a gas grill. These ribs come from the bottom of the rib cage and are larger and heavier than baby back ribs. This means they will take slightly longer that baby backs to cook, up to 3 hours over indirect heat. Longer cooking increases the chance that they could dry out; if you’re worried about this you can precook the ribs in serveral ways. Or you can wrap the ribs in foil at the two-hour mark to ensure they stay juicy, then unwrap them to glaze them and give them a final browning over direct heat.
Grilled Rib Recipes
These ribs have a classic sweet-smoky flavor and get a picture-perfect glaze from just honey and vinegar. If you can, refrigerate them overnight with a dry rub before grilling so that the seasonings penetrate the meat; otherwise, even an hour or two will give them terrific flavor.
Con Poulos
Smoky ancho chile powder headlines the spices on these grilled spareribs. An easy homemade sauce of cider vinegar and ketchup provides tang, a nice glazed look and helps the chile flavor shine.
This recipe harnesses the complex, sweet-caramel flavor of cola to make very tasty baby back ribs. The ribs are grilled in foil so that they can cook right in the sauce for extra flavor, then brushed with more sauce and glazed on the grill grates. This recipe is for a generous batch of 5 racks, enough for a crowd.
Armando Rafael
Not all rib recipes call for a dry rub. A wet marinade of ponzu, ginger and rice vinegar gives these baby backs distinctive flavor and is an excellent match for the two-ingredient sriracha and hoisin glaze.
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