St. Louis Style Pork Spare Ribs Recipe In Oven
St. Louis Style Spare Ribs are covered in a simple, dry rub and cooked slowly in the oven for delicious, fall off the bone, ribs!
Servings: 1 rack of ribs
Cost: $20
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 rack spare ribs (or St. Louis style ribs)
- ⅓ cup brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder (not garlic salt)
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1½ cup water (approximate)
- ½ cup barbecue sauce
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 250°F.
- Make the rub by mixing the brown sugar, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, black pepper and smoked paprika in a bowl.
- Rinse and dry the ribs with paper towels. Remove the membrane from the underside of the ribs if it hasn't already been removed by the butcher.
- Season the top and bottom of the ribs with the rub mixture.
- Add the ribs to a roasting pan, meat side up. If it doesn't fit you can use a sharp knife or kitchen shears to trim off the last few ribs. Then fit them into the pan where there is room.
- Add the water until there is about a ¼ of water coating the bottom of the pan. This will help the ribs to stay moist while they cook.
- Tightly cover the pan with foil and roast for 4 hours.
- Carefully remove the ribs and open a corner of the foil (watch out for the steam). Use a fork to check if the ribs are tender. You should be able to insert the fork and twist and the meat will easily break away from the ribs. If it doesn't pull apart easily, carefully put the foil back on the pan and return it to the oven. Check every 30-45 minutes until they are fork-tender.
- Brush on the BBQ sauce and caramelize the sauce under the broiler in the oven or on the grill (see further instructions).Under Broiler: Move one of the oven racks about 6 inches below the heating element in your oven. Turn the broiler on your oven on low (if you have the option). Put the ribs on tin foil on an aluminum pan. Brush them with BBQ sauce. Put them in the oven and watch very carefully. The sauce will heat very quickly. It may only take 1-2 minutes. Sometimes even faster.On Grill: Heat the grill on high. As soon as the grill has gotten hot carefully use tongs to set the ribs on the hot grill. Watch them carefully. It should only take 1-2 minutes to heat the sauce.
- You can add more than one layer of bbq sauce if desired. Remove from the broiler/grill and use a large knife to cut the ribs into sections.
Notes
Tips:
- Removing the membrane (silver skin) can be difficult. Try using a dull knife to lift up an edge and use a paper towel to grab hold of the membrane so it doesn't slip from your fingers.
- Storage: Refrigerate ribs in an airtight container for up to 4 days.
- Reheating: Reheat ribs in the microwave or covered them in the oven to prevent them from drying out.
- Freezing: Wrap the cooked and cooled ribs tightly in plastic wrap and then add them to a freezer bag.
- Thawing: Thaw frozen ribs in the refrigerator or the microwave.