I know smoked baby back ribs get all the love, but these oven roasted baby back ribs are a real winner too. Hear me out: not everyone has a smoker, and even if you do, it’s a lot of time and monitoring to smoke baby back ribs. However, lots of people have an oven, and if you have an oven, you can have delicious baby back ribs by following our oven roasted baby back ribs recipe.
I love cooking ribs, and I am lucky enough to own a smoker, so I do smoke baby back ribs often. However, I don’t always have the time or energy to smoke ribs, and oven roasting them can make for great results with a lot less energy. This recipe is easy, super easy in fact, and lends itself to make ribs that are fall off the bone tender every time. Oh, and maybe the best part of this recipe is that this is probably the fastest way to make baby back ribs!
Our oven roasted baby back ribs recipe is simple and easy, but you may have some questions. We want to do our best to answer them below, but if you just want to get cooking, go ahead and scroll down to the recipe. Otherwise, read our questions and answers, and if that still doesn’t answer your question, leave us a comment with your question, and we’ll answer you!
Your recipe doesn’t tell me to peel a membrane, why is that?
That’s because at Lake Geneva Country Meats, our ribs come peeled. It’s an advantage of shopping at a butcher shop. If you’re not shopping with us, you may need to peel your ribs before cooking them. Sorry?
Why do you use mustard in this recipe?
We like to rub our baby back ribs with mustard before we put our seasoning on them to help the rub stick to the ribs. This is especially important when you smoke ribs, because it helps smoke adhere to the meat. We aren’t smoking these oven roasted baby back ribs, but we still think the mustard adds moisture and helps the seasoning stick to the meat.
You won’t taste the mustard at all when they’re done cooking, but if you REALLY don’t like mustard, you can skip the mustard rub and it won’t take away too much from the recipe.
What type of rub do you like to use?
We have a number of different rubs we like to use. For these ribs that you see, we used the Custom Culinary Pork Barbecue Spice rub. You can use your favorite rub, or check out these favorites of ours:
If I want to add some smokey flavor to the ribs what should I use?
It’s tempting to use liquid smoke to add a smokey flavor to these ribs, but please, don’t. Just…don’t. We are very anti-liquid smoke. It tastes fake and there are other ways you can bring smokey flavor to meat without smoking the meat.
We think oven roasted baby back ribs taste delicious without adding smoke flavor, but if you want to add a smokey flavor, here are four ways you can bring that smoke to the ribs without using a smoker:
- Use a spice rub that has smoked ingredients like smoked paprika or smoked peppers in the rub to lend a smokiness to the meat.
- Or add a touch of smoked peppers (like this Dark & Smoky Blend from Flat Iron Pepper Co.) to a BBQ rub for extra heat and smokiness.
- Try a BBQ sauce made with whiskey for an authentic smoke flavor from the barrel aged character of the whiskey.
- Or spritz the ribs with cheap whiskey after dry rubbing them. The whiskey will cook off leaving a bit of smoky flavor.
Are there other rub and sauce combos I can use?
There are so many combinations of rub and sauce for Baby Back Ribs. We went with traditional Kansas City style American BBQ for this recipe, but you can bring whatever type of flavor you like to these ribs. We have more recipes below that outline some of our favorite flavor combinations, and you can use them with this cooking method.
How do I know when my oven roasted baby back ribs are done?
We are generally proponents of cooking to temperature, not time, but with ribs, it’s hard to get an accurate temperature due to the bones giving off so much heat. Instead, we like the toothpick test.
You know your ribs are done when the meat is pulling back from the tips of the rib bones and a toothpick goes clean through the meat without resistance. That’s how you know your oven roasted baby back ribs are done and ready to eat!
Do you have other recipes for baby back ribs?
Yep! Here are a few of the favorites:
We hope that answers all of your questions about this oven roasted baby back ribs recipe, but if you have more, or if you have any tips or suggestions, leave us a comment below. We appreciate your feedback and hope to see you soon at Lake Geneva Country Meats!
