These are the easiest, most versatile oven BBQ (or not) ribs I know. Great Grandma Cora made them this way and so does Grandma Penny..and with names like that you know these have to be good. I’ll try to write out as many of the varied options as I can think of, but you can’t really go wrong here.
I mean, really.
Grandma’s Oven Ribs
The Basic Formula:
your favorite kind of ribs + seasonings + a foil-lined roasting or 9x13 pan + a low oven + time + doctored up or homemade BBQ sauce (optional) = delicious ribs.
The Method:
Cut your ribs apart, into single ribs or pieces, and place in your foil-lined pan. We like spareribs for extra flavor, but baby back will do. I haven’t tried this with boneless “ribs” or “country style” ribs, but I’m sure you can just adjust the times downwards by 1/3 to 1/2 and make it work.
Season liberally with the flavors of your choice. Salt, pepper (fresh ground if you can), garlic and onion powders, and paprika (smoked or sweet) are good places to start, but cayenne, chipotle, seasoned salt or pepper, lemon pepper, garlic salt, cumin, etc. will work too! Make sure you stir things around a bit so every rib gets some flavor.
Cover tightly with another sheet of foil and toss in the oven.
For spareribs, shoot for about 4.5 hours of total oven time at 325°, maybe 3.5-4 hours at 350° if you want to hurry a bit. For baby backs I would go for no more than 4 hours at 325°, 3ish at 350°.
I much prefer the slooooow bake to render the fat and let the flavors really meld, but I’ve definitely hurried them along without disaster. The total time is really forgiving, and you can adjust up and down as needed. Your house will smell amazing though, so be prepared.
While the ribs bake, make or doctor up your sauce. Use your favorite homemade sauce (about 2 cups per rack of ribs if you like the saucy like the pic above) or doctor up your favorite store bought sauce.
For 2 racks of ribs, I start with about 2.5 cups of Sweet Baby Ray’s original sauce and then add approximately 3/4 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup each of ketchup and mustard, a few good shakes of garlic and onion powders, some red pepper flakes and smoked paprika. You end up with 3.5ish cups of sauce total. Feel free to make this spicier or sweeter according to your taste! I like to warm this mixture in the microwave or on the stove until the sugar dissolves, but you don’t really have to. Set aside until needed.
When there is just 30-45 minutes left on your bake, take the ribs out of the oven. Uncover and pour off all but 1/3 to 1/2 cup of any fat that has accumulated. You might not have much fat if you used baby backs, and thats okay! Cover the ribs with sauce. I like to reserve a bit of sauce for diners who like a bit extra at the table, but I put most of it on the ribs.
Leave pan uncovered and return to the oven for those final 30-45 minutes. If you want, you can broil them for the very last 5 minutes if you really like to cook the sauce on there and see a little char, but it’s not necessary. The ribs should be falling off the bones by this point.
Remove from the oven and enjoy!!
Experiment a bit to find the flavors you like. Grandma always served these with baked potatoes for some reason, but you don’t have to.
But the best part? The possibilities here are pretty endless, and both the formula and the method are flexible.
Don’t like sauce? Leave it off entirely! Growing up, my mom used to set aside a few ribs at Step 6 and leave them sauceless for my sister. She’d just place them in a separate, small casserole or baking dish for the final bake. Still delicious.
Want to go super traditional? After you drain off the fat in Step 6, leave off the BBQ sauce and stir in a couple cans/jars of your favorite sauerkraut. My aunt from Germany does them this way all the time.
Like them spicy? Add some cayenne or other ground hot pepper to the dry seasonings and some cayenne and red pepper flakes to the sauce.
Need something to do with the leftovers? Remove the meat from the bones. The leftover “shredded” BBQ rib meat makes incredible sandwiches and out of this world nachos. Seriously. Rib meat nachos are indescribably good.
