Classic Baby Back Ribs
The Ingredients
- 2 racks baby back ribs
- 2 tablespoons yellow mustard
- ¼-½ cup your favorite BBQ rub
- ½ cup apple juice, divided
- ½ cup your favorite BBQ sauce, plus more for serving
- 2 handfuls apple wood chips (gas grills)
- 4 apple wood chunks (charcoal grills)
Special Equipment
- large disposable foil pan
- silicone basting brush
- heavy-duty aluminum foil
Instructions
- Our recipe for classic baby back ribs sits right between the tenderness of “fall-off-the-bone" ribs and the bite of “competition” ribs, while still providing the smoky aroma and savory-sweet flavor everyone loves.
- Prepare the grill for indirect, low & slow cooking, 225°–275°F. Remove the grates from the indirect side of the grill and place a foil drip pan on the flavorizer bars, then fill with 4 cups of water. Replace the cooking grates over the drip pan.
- Place the wood chips in a smoker box over the lit burners. Preheat the grill until smoke appears and brush the grates clean.
- Remove the tough membrane from the bone-side of the ribs and remove any excess fat.
- Spread 1 tbsp of mustard all over each of the racks of ribs to act as a binder for the rub.
- Starting with the bone-side, and finishing with the meat-side, generously coat the ribs all over with the rub, patting the rub into the meat. Allow the rub to sit on the ribs for 30 minutes before placing them on the grill.
- Place the ribs, bone-side down, on the grill grates above the foil pan.
- Cook the ribs for 3 hours. Meanwhile, tear off four sheets of aluminum foil, each about 2 feet long.
- After 2 hours, check to see if the bark has set by rubbing a finger over the ribs. If the rub comes off on your fingers like a paste, continue cooking.
- If the bark has set, place the ribs, bone-side up, on a double layer of aluminum foil. Pour ¼ cup of apple juice over each of the ribs and fold the foil over the ribs, being sure not to crimp the foil too tightly.
- Place the ribs, bone-side up, back on the grill and cook for another 1 ½ hours.
- After that time, check to see that the ribs are tender by piercing with a wooden skewer or thermometer probe. If the ribs have very little resistance, the ribs are tender.
- Remove the ribs from the foil and place them back on the grill, bone-side down, and cook until the ribs have dried off, about 15 minutes.
- Brush the meat-side of each of the ribs with the BBQ sauce and cook until the sauce is glossy and has adhered to the ribs, 15–20 minutes.
- Let the ribs rest for 10–15 minutes, cut into portions and serve with extra BBQ sauce.
