Discover how easy it is to bake ribs in the oven. These oven-baked pork ribs are tender and fall off the bone. This foolproof method is perfect for baby back ribs, but other pork ribs, such as pork spare ribs or St. Louis ribs, also work. Serve BBQ ribs for your next party or dinner tonight.
🐖Ingredients
Pork ribs—baby back ribs Or pork spare ribs, or St. Louis ribs
BBQ dry rub
BBQ sauce
Liquid smoke—optional, good quality
Homemade BBQ dry rub—brown sugar, salt, pepper, plus chili, garlic, and onion powder
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Featured Comment by Jamie:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐"The rub was great and they cooked perfectly. Best ribs I’ve ever cooked myself. Thank you!"
Welcome to the easy path to rib heaven. Ribs are a religion to some, requiring hours of fussing to create the perfect ones. They must be parboiled (please don't), smoked, or whatever else they think is critical. I'm not saying great smoked ribs aren't worth the work, but sometimes, you need easy and really good will do.
The oven is perfect for low and slow cooking that works great for meats like ribs, pork butt, and brisket. Since ribs are thin, I prefer using foil in the oven to prevent dryness. Or try my Grilled Baby Back Ribs or Crock Pot Baby Back Ribs.
👨🍳How to Bake Ribs in the Oven—Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
1. Trim the ribs of loose bone chips or trimmable fat. Remove the membrane.
2. Mix a dry rub or use a commercial rub.
3. Pat dry; give them a light coat of good quality liquid smoke and a moderate coat with BBQ dry rub.
4. Wrap tightly in foil.
5. Bake in an oven 250°to 300° until 190°+ ( 200° to 205° preferred) and the ends of the ribs are showing—about 2 ½ hours.
6. Drain any fluid.
7. Brush the ribs with the barbecue sauce of your choice.
8. Brown the ribs under the oven broiler or on a hot grill. Let them rest for 5-10 minutes, then cut them into serving pieces.
For more details, keep reading. See the Recipe Card below for complete instructions and to print.
⏰How long to cook ribs in the oven
It takes about 2 ½ hours to a 3-pound rack of ribs, but the size of baby back rib racks varies, as do ovens, so only estimated times can be given. If starting with frozen ribs, add about 30 minutes. A 4-pound rack of ribs will take about 30 minutes longer.
- At 250° conventional oven, bake for about 2 ¾ to 3 hours.
- At 275° conventional oven or 250° convection, bake for about 2 ½ hours—recommended.
- At 300° conventional oven or 275° convection, bake for about 2 to 2 ¼ hours.
- At 325° conventional oven or 300° convection, bake for about 1 ½ to 2 hours, but not recommended.
Times are approximate and given to help with planning. Cook until the ribs are done. Low and slow cooking is suggested for better results, so over 300° is not recommended, but it will still work.
🤔When are ribs done?
The internal temperature of the rib meat, measured with an instant-read thermometer, should be over 190° (200° to 205° is preferred), and the ends should be visible.
Determining that the ribs are fully cooked is more important when cooking frozen ribs.
🐖Ingredient options and variations
Pork Ribs—Baby back ribs are preferred, but St. Louis or spare ribs will also work. This is not a recipe for beef ribs.
Dry Rub—BBQ dry rub of your choice, a commercial rub, my simple suggested rub, BBQ Dry Rub for Ribs, Memphis Dry Rub, or Chipotle BBQ Dry Rub.
If you don't have one, a simple suggested rub is in the recipe card using brown sugar, kosher salt, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, and black pepper.
Liquid smoke—optional but highly suggested. Liquid smoke has a bad reputation due to some very poor versions on the market. Look at the ingredients—there should only be water and smoke. If there are other things, buy something else. I trust and use only Wrights®️brand.
BBQ sauce—sauce of your choice, or try my Memphis BBQ Sauce.
📅Making ahead
There are two points in this recipe where you can pause the recipe and save it for later.
First, after tightly wrapping the meat in foil, you can refrigerate it until the next day. This is good because it gives the rub time to penetrate the meat and the salt to tenderize.
You can also freeze them for 3-4 months. Once frozen, you can thaw them before cooking or cook them frozen—add about minutes to the cooking time.
The second point is after cooking. Drain the fluid and seal tightly for 4 days refrigerated or 4 months frozen. Thaw to reheat if frozen, coat with BBQ sauce, and bake at 350° for about 15 minutes. This is what restaurants do; they do not cook your ribs fresh when you order.
📖Other Pork Rib Recipes
Other cooking options for your pork ribs include Baby Back Ribs on the Gas Grill or Crock Pot Baby Back Ribs. For country ribs, see Grilled Country Style Ribs, 30 Minute Boneless Pork Ribs, or Bone-In Country Style Pork Ribs.
Grilled Baby Back Ribs
BBQ ribs on the gas grill are simple with this never-fail recipe. Seasoned with dry rub and cooked low and slow, these juicy BBQ pork ribs are fall-off-the-bone tender. Served with BBQ sauce, they are a classic grilling favorite.
For some other classic BBQ recipes, see Oven Baked BBQ Beef Brisket, Smoked Brisket, Pork Butt in the Oven, or Smoked Grilled Pulled Pork Butt.
🍽️Serving BBQ ribs
I serve it with extra sauce for dipping and provide a bowl for the bones. I prefer my Gate's BBQ sauce from Kansas City or my homemade Memphis Barbecue Sauce. Cooks Illustrated like Bull's-eye Original or Sweet Baby Ray's Barbecue Sauce, but use the sauce you love.
For side dishes, mac and cheese or a potato side dish, like French fries or potato chips, are always present. A side salad, baked beans, or corn on the cob are favorites. Try some Old Fashioned Cornbread or Cornmeal Biscuits.
❄️Storage and reheating leftovers
Stored leftovers in an airtight container. Refrigerate for 4 days or freeze for 4 months.
To reheat them, thaw overnight in the fridge if frozen. Reheat the oven, a microwave, or an air fryer.
❓FAQs
No, you can cook with the membrane on and eat around it. I have seen a few experts suggest it will become tender with cooking—it doesn't seem to work for me.
Yes. I commonly cook prepared ribs still frozen using this method. When I buy a package of three racks of ribs, I will cook one fresh and trim, season, and foil-wrap the others before cooking. They are good in the freezer for 3-4 months.
If cooking frozen prepared ribs, it will add about 30 minutes to the cooking time. Determine when the ribs are fully cooked by the internal temperature of greater than 190° and the ends of the ribs showing.
Yes, but they are bigger and will usually take about 30 minutes longer than the smaller baby back ribs.
Yes, but due to the thinness of the ribs, they will tend to dry in a dry environment with low and slow cooking. This is a noticeable dryness to me and I do not recommend baking ribs without sealing in foil.
🐖What are baby back ribs?
Back ribs come from the upper part of a pig's rib, where the rib meets the spine and is next to and inside the loin. So, sometimes, they will be called loin ribs.
They are shorter than the bigger spare ribs, so they are called baby back ribs. St. Louis ribs are spare ribs trimmed of some bone and cartilage waste.
The inside of the ribs contains a membrane that lines the chest cavity. This membrane should be removed before cooking.
📖 Recipe
Oven Baked Baby Back Ribs
Video Slideshow
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Ingredients
- 1 slab baby back ribs - OR pork spare ribs or St. Louis Ribs
- ½ cup BBQ dry rub
- 2 tablespoons BBQ sauce
- good quality liquid smoke - optional
Suggested rub or use ½ cup of another rub
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 4 ½ teaspoons Diamond Crystal kosher salt - see salt note below
- 1 ½ teaspoons chili powder
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Clean the ribs by stripping the membrane off the inside. Trim any fatty areas as much as possible, and look for bone chips from the processing.
- You may use the rub of your choice or make the suggested rub. ¼ cup brown sugar, 4 ½ teaspoons diamond crystal kosher salt, 1 ½ teaspoon chili powder, ½ teaspoon garlic powder, ½teaspoon onion powder, and ½ teaspoon black pepper. Stir together in a small bowl.
- Pat dry with a paper towel and optionally apply a light coat of good-quality liquid smoke. Sprinkle heavily with the rub and rub it in on all sides.
- Seal tight in aluminum foil (heavy-duty is better). If you have time, refrigerate at this point for 2 hours or even overnight. Even 30 minutes will get some extra flavor. Also, you can freeze at this point if you want. If you freeze, add 30 minutes to the cooking time, and you can go to the oven from the freezer.
- Cook at 275° for approximately 2 ½ hours. Place the ½ sheet pan the next level down to catch any dripping if the foil leaks. Or leave it on the pan.
- Remove from the oven, open one end of the foil packet, and drain the fluid and fat. If you are precooking for later, re-wrap and refrigerate or freeze. To eat now, place on the sheet pan and open.
- Lightly brush a sauce of your choice on top (bottom is optional).
- Finish under a broiler or on a grill for about 4-5 minutes (per side if you did both sides) until crusted with good color. Let sit for 5-10 minutes, then cut into individual ribs for serving.
Recipe Notes
Pro Tips:
- You may cook as many at a time as will fit your oven, but do not stack.
- You can use the sauce and rub of your choice.
- You can cook St. Louis or spare ribs the same way, but they will take about 30 minutes longer to cook because they are bigger.
- After the rub, you can freeze it tightly wrapped in foil. You can freeze it for 4 months and cook it still frozen by adding about 30 minutes to the cooking time.
- To strip the membrane, it is easiest to start at the thin end and loosen it with a butter knife. Then, pull steadily at about a 45-degree angle to the ribs.
- Estimated cooking times for other oven temperatures are listed in the post.
- Ribs are done at 190°+, and rib ends are showing.
- Brown up with a little sauce on a grill or under a broiler.
- All salt is not equal due to the shape of the crystals. If making your rub, 1 teaspoon table salt = 1 ¼ teaspoon Morton kosher salt = 2 teaspoons Diamond Crystal kosher salt
Your Own Private Notes
To adjust the recipe size:
You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.
Nutrition Estimate
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Editor's Note: This recipe was originally published on January 10, 2010, which was the second week of the blog. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.
Norine. Einck says
Have a convention oven with a dial for slii or w cook
One cooking short rib grease
Need instructions with recipes this is for two people
Three can I cook short rib with fresh vegetables and what kind
Four don’t want to use a crock pot
So can it be done on low setting for slow cooking am I wrong a video would help I am 85 years and need advise can you help
Norine einck
Live in dayton Nevada
Thank you.
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan says
Hi Norine,
Welcome to the blog.
First, the oven. If it works, it should be usable. But I can not guess accurately what that dial setting means. My aunt had a similar oven in the '60s. There was very slow, slow, moderately slow, and a few others. I would guess very slow would be in the 250° range (mainly since you would never cook lower than that) and slow probably about 300°, but I don't know that for sure. Many old ovens are inaccurate anyway, so a $10 investment in an oven thermometer would be a good idea for any recipe, especially for any baking you do.
Next, about short ribs. I assume you mean beef short ribs—the most common use of the term. This recipe is for pork baby-back ribs, although St. Louis and pork spare (short) ribs may be used. The terms pork short rib and pork spare ribs are used interchangeably. I'm going to proceed, assuming you want to do pork ribs of some type. This is not a beef recipe.
About making it for two. The serving size for ribs is highly variable. I would eat a full rack of ribs and want more when I was young. But now want 3-4 ribs and some sides. For this recipe, portion the ribs into meal size for your household. Apply the rib. Seal in foil. Cook what you want to eat today and freeze the rest. Meal-size pacs can come out of the freezer directly into the oven for future meals.
Cooking vegetables with the ribs in the same oven is almost certainly not a good idea. A baking potato may work, but not other vegetables, which will probably be way overcooked.
About a video. My videos are only a video slideshow. You can get a similar effect in the recipe card by turning on the photos in the recipe card. The switch is right under the word Instrutions.
Hope that helps.
Dan
Terry Getchell says
I have cooked ribs in the oven before, almost the same way as your recipe. The other time the ribs were tough. I cooked yours tonight and WOW! So moist and tender! I don't know what was different but I think it was adding the smoke flavoring before the rub. Plus I refrigerated the rack, wrapped, for 6 hrs..
Next time I'll add more smoke flavor. The Wrights is milder (and better flavored) than the old one.
Thank you for a great recipe.
Gerry S says
Thank you for posting the recipe and steps for smoking the ribs. Worked out for the most part, had to cut it half and do both parts oven and grill.. The winner was the grill. Thanks again.
Deborah L says
5 stars for flavor and tenderness! A lower 5 for 'easy'. Even using the paper towels to hold on, My arthritic fingers don't have the grip strength they used to. Next time I'll ask the butcher to remove the membrane before I leave the counter. Half the rub recipe was perfect for one slab and I let it sit one hour. Baked 4 pounds for about 3 hours. Perfect. Also, I would not drain the juices into the sink drain like your picture. Use a glass measuring cup; something like that. You'll be happy to not need to call the plumber to clear a fat clog out of your plumbing. Definitely will try again.
Brian says
When I’m not feeling lazy, I mix those juices with my bbq sauce at about a 1:1 ratio (just enough to cover the slab and have some extra for dipping) then let it reduce in a pan on medium-low to medium heat until it’s down to a thicker consistency. It may not be the healthiest choice, but wow the flavor is worth it!
Brad says
Dan, if cooking spare ribs, does the cooking time or oven temperature change?
Thanks
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan says
Hi Brad,
Baby back, St. Louis, and spare ribs all cook about the same. Spare ribs do tend to be thicker with more bone and those can down slow cooking some, so potentially it could take a bit longer. But I doubt it will be an issue with this recipe. Be sure to check for the end points discussed in the post when you open the foil.
Dan
Emma @ Savor the Flavour says
These ribs look amazing, Dr. Dan! I wish I could reach in for a taste. 😋
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan says
Thanks Emma. I love a good rib but I'm lazy.
Note to readers: Emma blogs with her mother at https://savortheflavour.com/ They put a lot of hard work in their site. Check it out. Highly recommended.
jenny melindy says
I had no idea ribs could be this good! I used a packaged non sugar rub, wrapped in double foil and fridged for 4 hours. Cooked on 300 for 2 1/2h, then followed your directions for "dryer" ribs. The resulting crackling like texture was amazing! Can't wait to make again, thanks.My new rib recipe :)
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan says
Hi Jenny,
Welcome to the blog and sorry for the delayed reply.
This is a very old recipe to me the I have used for many years. Usually use it when I have ribs and I just don't want to work. The crock pot recipe works well also but this seems to be my "indoor" default recipe.
Thanks for the note and rating. And again, sorry for the delayed response.
Dan
Jaime says
The rub was great and they cooked perfectly. Best ribs I’ve ever cooked myself. Thank you!
Julie says
I followed your recipe completely. Our ribs turned out so very salty from your rub we weren't able to eat them. I'm wondering was I to remove the rub before eating them? If so, how? Also, I left the ribs with the rub in the refrigerator for 2 hours, then cooked them for 2 hours as told. Our ribs were still chewy not, "fall off the bone". What could I do to fix it? Thank you for your help.
DrDan says
Hi Julie,
Welcome to the blog.
Sorry, you had a problem. A couple of comments and options.
-The amount in my suggested rub is for two slabs not one.
-The salt is kosher salt. Generally, Morton which is half the amount of salt per volume as table salt. Diamond Crystal is halfway between the two. Other salts could be almost anything. So that could be a contributing factor.
-I use the same rub on many cuts of meat with good results although as I get older and now have BP issues, I cut down the salt sometimes.
Suggestions
-no, don’t rinse off the rub
-use a different rub but most will have about the same amount of salt. This is a very standard ratio.
-use less rub
-make up the rub with less salt.
Not "fall off the bone." Mine are good at 2 hours but there can be some variability of ovens. So at the end of cooking, when you open them up, check to make sure they are what you want. If not, reseal and cook another 20-30 minutes.
Hope that helps.
Dan
Tara says
I used this technique for a rainy 4th of July and it was wonderful. I have to say the rub included with this recipe is fantastic. We used it on ribs and chicken leg quarters and the results were fantastic. Our family loves your recipes.
Pattie Williams says
All looks so good. Yummy