The Best Baby Back Ribs on a Grill

Full of flavor and grilled to perfection, these baby back ribs are tender and juicy! They are made using a simple homemade dry rub and are done in about an hour and a half total on a gas grill. BBQ sauce is added at the end of cooking for the best flavor and texture!

We love ribs here! Of course they are messy, but messy food can be fun once and a while (and delicious.)

We use BBQ sauce on these but you can leave it off. We don’t put sauce on our quick and easy St Louis ribs and they are amazing too, but they use a different dry rub.

This recipe for cooking baby back ribs on the grill is for a gas grill and has not been tested on other grills. Cooking times will vary if you use a smoker or charcoal grill.

Ingredients

Baby back rack of ribs – We usually make a rack that is about 4 pounds but use the size you need.

BBQ sauce – Use your favorite here, we love Sweet Baby Ray’s or sometimes homemade sauce.

For the dry rub

Brown sugar – We prefer dark brown sugar for the ribs, but you can use light brown.

Paprika – Smoked or regular is good. Smoked adds a nice flavor, but they are both good.

Garlic – Garlic powder is recommended.

Salt – Table salt or finely ground sea salt.

Black pepper – Fresh ground peppercorns are always best, but you can use regular ground pepper.

Cayenne pepper – Optional and you can add more if you prefer spicy! The amount in this dry rub as written does not make the ribs spicy.

Which is better baby back or St Louis ribs?

They both have their similarities but in the end, they do differ greatly.

Baby back ribs are smaller and tender. They have less meat on them and tend to cost more per pound at the store. Usually the St Louis ribs are sold as a bigger rack.

They are very tender but given the size and price of them, we find them best if you have them when it is a small gathering or just the family dinner. Depending on the size, 1 rack will feed 2 adults and 1-2 children if they children do not eat much.

They have more meat on top of the rack and not a lot in between the bones. When you cut them you will see how close the bones are.

St Louis style ribs are a larger rack of ribs. They have more meat between the bones, more bone and generally tend to have more flavor on their own. There is not as much meat on top of the bones here as it is mostly between the bones.

The meat in between the bones makes it a nice and flavorful rack. Depending on the size of the rack, you will likely be able to feed 3 adults or 2 adults and 2 children. Since they are cheaper, we prefer these for bigger gatherings.

Both racks of ribs can usually be used interchangeably in recipes, but if slow cooking you will cook the St Louis ribs a little longer. Here we use a similar cook style for both on a gas grill so cook time is similar.

For which one is better? This is definitely a personal choice, but we recommend you trying both! St Louis ribs are cheaper with more flavorful meat while baby back are more tender and also delicious.

Do I have to remove the membrane

This is the most intense debate between people in the grilling world. It is honestly more involved then the “which came first – the chicken or the egg” debate. Not even kidding here. People take their answer here very seriously!

You do not have to remove the membrane, it can be cooked on the ribs.

I am not controversial on the topic so I say it is up to you and we do on baby back but do not on St Louis style ribs. Here is why for us:

St Louis are not as tender as baby back so we keep the membrane on as we cook them with the bones down for most of the cook time. It helps to keep juices in to help keep them tender – remember the meat is in between the bones.

Baby back are more tender and the meat is more on top of the bones then between the bones. We remove the membrane on them so the dry rub can get through the whole rack of ribs.

Being most of the meat is on top of the bones, you do not need to help hold the juices in. The bones will do this.

Why do people insist on removing it? Mainly to get the flavor of the dry rub through the whole rack of ribs. It also is a chewy and tough thing to have on your ribs, but you eat around it like you do the bones. It doesn’t hurt anything.

Can I add smoke flavor to my ribs?

Yes you can make them smoked baby back ribs by using something called a smoke box and some decent wood chips. We like to use apple wood here but you can try a variety of different wood chips to see which ones you like.

A smoke box is easy to use on a gas grill. We soak the wood for about 20 minutes before adding it to the box. Place the box in a spot on the grill where it will have low or indirect heat once the meat is added.

You want to heat the box up to get it to start smoking, but then you want the burner low or off so it doesn’t burn out too quickly. Weber has a great post about how to use the smoke box.

It is easier then it sounds to use one of the boxes, but another alternative you can do is use liquid smoke. As a note, we don’t use it but know of many people who do like it.

Adding the BBQ sauce

This is important because we don’t believe you should be cooking it the whole time with the sauce on it. Vinegar can dry meat out and BBQ sauce has vinegar in it. For the best grilled ribs you ever had, you don’t want to cook it the whole time with sauce on it.

I never cook any meat with the BBQ on it the whole time. Sometimes we bring different sauces to the table for people to dip the meat in, but with these baby back ribs we cook the sauce on it for a few minutes at the end.

First you want to cook the ribs for 40 minutes on indirect heat (can use direct for crispy outside.) Then flip and cook for 10 minutes before adding BBQ sauce to your baby back ribs. When you add the sauce, you should have the sauce poured out into a small prep bowl to make it easier.

Also note in the picture that we are using a silicone basting brush. It is the only kind of brush I recommend. The bristles do not fall out like the old school hair bristle brushes do. They also can handle the heat of basting hot things so no worries.

Once you add the BBQ sauce to the bones side you will continue to cook for another 10 minutes before flipping. Add the BBQ sauce to the meat side and cook for another 10 minutes. You can flip again to get a crispier top with the sauce, but we do not do this. We remove it after the last 10 minutes.

Frequently asked questions

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