This is a superb recipe that has won numerous awards. Several of the procedures may be used to pork spareribs, country-style ribs, or pretty much any other variety of pork rib; just lengthen the baking time for meatier cuts. On the grill, use some moistened wood chips. The ribs will taste better the more smoky the grill is!
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 5 hrs |
| Additional Time: | 8 hrs |
| Total Time: | 13 hrs 30 mins |
| Servings: | 12 |
| Yield: | 12 servings |
Ingredients
- 6 pounds pork spareribs
- 1 ½ cups white sugar
- ¼ cup salt
- 2 ½ tablespoons ground black pepper
- 3 tablespoons sweet paprika
- 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste
- 2 tablespoons garlic powder
- 5 tablespoons pan drippings
- ½ cup chopped onion
- 4 cups ketchup
- 3 cups hot water
- 4 tablespoons brown sugar
- cayenne pepper to taste
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 cup wood chips, soaked
Instructions
- Clean the ribs, and trim away any excess fat. In a medium bowl, stir together the sugar, 1/4 cup salt, ground black pepper, paprika, 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, and garlic powder. Coat ribs liberally with spice mix. Place the ribs in two 10×15 inch roasting pans, piling two racks of ribs per pan. Cover, and refrigerate for at least 8 hours.
- Preheat oven to 275 degrees F (135 degrees C). Bake uncovered for 3 to 4 hours, or until the ribs are tender and nearly fall apart.
- Remove 5 tablespoons of drippings from the bottom of the roasting pans, and place in a skillet over medium heat. Cook onion in pan drippings until lightly browned and tender. Stir in ketchup, and heat for 3 to 4 more minutes, stirring constantly. Next, mix in water and brown sugar, and season to taste with cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 1 hour, adding water as necessary to achieve desired thickness.
- Preheat grill for medium-low heat.
- When ready to grill, add soaked wood chips to the coals or to the smoker box of a gas grill. Lightly oil grill grate. Place ribs on the grill two racks at a time so they are not crowded. Cook for 20 minutes, turning occasionally. Baste ribs with sauce during the last 10 minutes of grilling, so the sauce does not burn.
- The nutrition data for this recipe includes the full amount of the rub ingredients. The actual amount of the rub consumed will vary.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 615 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 53 g |
| Cholesterol | 127 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 2 g |
| Protein | 33 g |
| Saturated Fat | 11 g |
| Sodium | 991 mg |
| Sugars | 48 g |
| Fat | 31 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Great Recipe I tried very first time and according to your ingredients. It’s so delicious
My family loved this and said it was the best ribs they ever had Have made these with all kinds of wood and !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have been making this recipe for years after finding it here on Allrecipes. Everyone loves this!!! I use bottled barbecue sauce at the end, but the sugar and spice overnight and the oven baking make this amazing!!!
This is definitely in my top 3 recipes to make and eat. It’s Sooo Good! Sometimes I grill meat and then slow roast in the oven; other times I smoke the meat then finish it in the slow cooker. Its just good!
Based on reviews, which were all wonderful and very positive, I scaled back the amount of rub because I had 4 lbs. of ribs. I still had plenty to use another time. Only thing I didn’t use was cayenne pepper because I didn’t have any. Marinated in fridge overnight; 3 hours in 275 degree oven; 20 minutes on medium high grill. Yummy! Loved how the sugar/salt coated the ribs. Sauce was good, but not sure worth the extra time. I think Sweet Baby Rays or Bone Sucking sauce would have been fine. Loved it!
I did 3 racks in the oven according to the recipe (only added a sprinkle of liquid smoke to eat rack) once cooked I let rest, cut each rack in half, dumped into gallon zip lock bags, and threw into a cooler on ice. Traveled to the beach and flash grilled to warm them up with a couple store bought bottles of bbq sauce on the side. All demolished. Easiest ribs I’ve ever cooked.
I use this sauce for everything.
The ribs were delicious! Followed the recipe just as indicated for the rub and had leftover. No problem, it will be quicker and easier to make a smaller 1 rack recipe next time. For the basting sauce, based on others comments, I just used the drippings from the pan and added some Sweet Baby Ray’s. This made an excellent sauce for the table as well. Everybody loved it.
Really great recipe. I slightly overcooked the thinner slab but still great taste. however, the recipe makes a stupid large amount of sauce. I halved the sauce recipe and as you can see by the picture, I still had 2x as much as I needed. next time I may just use jarred bbq sauce.
Best ribs ever! This has become our go-to recipe when we want to grill ribs in the summer. So delicious, you must try it.
I overlooked the ribs in the oven. I skipped the smoky grill part and simmered in ketchup, onion and some broth. They rehydrated nicely and were very good. I think the original recipe rub or marinade could be cut back a little but I made it as recipe suggested for the first time.. Will do again and use the grill next time!
Very good recipe. You might not even need the BBQ sauce. I love a good dry rub BBQ! I prepared it as written and left the dry rub sit overnight. I did use a store bought BBQ sauce as I didn’t read about the 1 hour cook time for the sauce until it was too late!
I did the rub, but used another bbq sauce. My gas grill burner was too close to the grill and one hour was too long to let it cook unchecked, will try a shorter time the next time.
Delicious! Adjusted garlic to suit the kids, but a VERY flavourful recipe. Thank you for sharing!
I love this rub, it’s all I use for Ribs. I did make a few changes. I also thought the 1/4 cup of salt is a misprint and would be to much salt. so, i just salted the meat a bit before i put on the rub. I use 1 cup of sugar and that is plenty. I skip the cayenne as I don’t care for that kind of heat. I added extra Garlic powder cause we love garlic. I did not make the BBQ sauce as listed. I used Sweet baby Ray’s in sweet vadalia onion to make things easier. I am told I make the best Ribs!!!
Awesome recipe. I can see why it won so many awards. Post more please. 🙂
Amazing! So very good!! Instead of cayenne I used cracked red pepper. Only made half the recipe for just the two of us. Will definitely make it again especially for company. I also shared the recipe with Facebook friends.
I can’t belive how much my guys loved this soooo easy recipe! They actually said “you van make this again anytime!” I did my usual tweaks of substituting for things I actually had on hand but nothing really worth writing about. Follow the recipe in general and it’s all good!
We really loved this recipe! Used the cooking method and the rub but just our bottled sauce from the fridge to cook onto the meat on the grill. 3 hours in the oven (i wrapped in foil) and about a half hour on the grill left the bones clean!
My rating is based on the dry rub alone. It was good, but we didnt think it was fantastic. Though we liked it, I probably wont make it again as I have had better rubs. Thanks.
Fantastic recipe. After reading others’ reviews I did cut the cayenne pepper in half, but otherwise followed the recipe by the letter. I made this for my husband for Father’s day and he was SO impressed. I will definitely be making this again. Thank you for the recipe.