Dad Ribs
These St. Louis style bbq ribs are roasted til tender, then charred on the grill with a homemade onion BBQ sauce. These are backyard cookout ribs at their best. They’re nostalgic, deeply satisfying, and easy to get right.
Ingredients
For the Ribs and Rub
- 2 full slabs St. Louis style ribs
- 30 g salt, coarse kosher
- 15 g black pepper
- 15 g garlic powder
- neutral oil, for grilling
For Uncle B-Man's Signature Onion BBQ Sauce
- neutral oil, for sauteeing
- 100 g onion, grated (100g = ½ an onion)
- 15 g garlic, (15g = 4 cloves)
- 250 g ketchup
- 100 g molasses
- 30 g Worcestershire sauce
- 20 g hot sauce, I prefer Frank's
- 20 g apple cider vinegar
- 20 g yellow mustard
- 5 g chili powder
- 1 g cayenne
Instructions
Prep and Season the Ribs
- Remove the membrane by sliding a butter knife between the membrane and back of a rib bone at one end of the slab. Twist the knife to create space then slide a finger underneath to loosen. Grab the flap with a dry paper towel and rip it off.
- Approximate the halfway point and cut both slabs in half between the bones.
- Stir together salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Divide into fourths and pat a portion into each half slab to thoroughly cover.
- Refrigerate on a wire rack, uncovered for 12-18 hours to dry brine.
Roast the Ribs
- Preheat the oven to 275°F/135°C. Wrap the ribs in two layers of foil, set the packet on a sheet pan, and roast for 3 hours.
- After 3 hours of roasting, pull at the meat with 2 forks to check for doneness. At this point it should be shreddable, but only if you give it a little effort.
- Open the foil and let the ribs sit for 20 minutes so the juices can resettle into the meat before we hit them on the grill.
After the slow roast, the meat should NOT be falling off the bone. These will carryover cook and we'll be adding more cook time on the grill later.
Make the Onion BBQ Sauce
- Grate onion on a box grater until pulpy, then run knife thru to fully break down. Then press the garlic.
- Heat a drizzle of oil in a small saucepan over medium and cook the onion and garlic for 5 minutes until softened and translucent.
- Once aromatics are softened. Add ketchup, molasses, Worcestershire, hot sauce, apple cider vinegar, mustard, chili powder, and cayenne. Bring to a simmer, drop heat to low, and cook with a lid half covering pan for 10 minutes or until it's reduced by about 25%. Taste and set it aside.
Grill and Glaze
- Preheat grill to high and spray liberally with pan spray or wipe with oil. Spray ribs with pan spray and drop them, meat-side down, onto grate and grill 1-2 minutes. Flip and sauce liberally with BBQ sauce on the meaty side. Close lid and cook for 1-2 minutes.
- If your grill gets super hot, deduce heat to medium-high at this point. Then carefully flip a second time and sauce the bone side. Grill meat side down again for 1-2 minutes, lid closed, or until there is some nice char.
- Flip ribs a final time and sauce meat side again. Close lid and grill for 1-3 more minutes or until the sauce on top has thickened into a sticky lacquer.
- Remove ribs from grill, slice between, the bones and serve immediately.
If your meat is sticking to the grates, don't be afraid to oil between flips.
Stay close to the grill throughout this process. If you smell burnt sugar, check your meat - it's probably time to flip.
Your total grill time should be around 7-8 minutes total.
Notes
Serve with any of your favorite BBQ sides. My go-tos are potato salad, baked beans, and coleslaw.
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