You can get fall off the bone BBQ ribs even if you don’t smoke them by the grill for half a day. Sometimes you want a Sunday meal with your family that doesn’t take all day to cook. I made these Oven Baked BBQ St. Louis Ribs for a late Sunday lunch and served them with Apple Coleslaw and Harissa Potatoes.
My kids love sharing a rack of ribs at a local Florida restaurant called Flanigan’s. So they often ask me to make their ribs which I don’t know how to make as their recipe is not public. BUT I still make this fall off the bone ribs in the oven and my family is very happy:)).
This past Super Bowl (Feb 2025), my grocery store overestimated how many ribs they were going to sell. By Monday they put the excess inventory on sale, BOGO free!! I have never seen the ribs in such big sale so I had to take advantage of it. With how expensive it is to eat out nowadays, buying the ribs on BOGO free plus cooking them at home it’s really economical.
Let’s Talk Ingredients
Most of the ingredients below are pretty common when making BBQ ribs but two of them are not so common and I will tell you why I used them.
- Rack of ribs
- BBQ Sauce – use your favorite kind
- Beer – helps break down the meat and gives the impression they’ve been cooking for a long period of time
- Coarse Sea Salt
- Black Pepper
- Paprika
- Cumin
- Garlic Salt
- Onion Powder
- Harissa Powder – adds a bit of spice
- Oregano
- Parsley as garnish (optional)
Pro-Tip: Add two layers of aluminum foil on the baking dish. First layer helps with cleanup while the second wraps up around the ribs and keeps the steam inside the foil.
How Long Do You Bake The Ribs?
I often get questions like how long do you bake the ribs or when do you know they’re done. And the answer is it depends!!
Rib racks can be different sizes so I would want to make sure that they’re cooked thoroughly and adjust baking time more or less to the specific rack I’m cooking. Sometimes they can weigh from 2-4 lbs.
However, if you’re looking for an estimate, then for one rack it’s about 2.5 -3 hrs hours more or less when baking at 300 degrees F! If baking at 275 degrees F, I would estimate it takes up to 4 hrs.
Sonila’s Process to bake the ribs
Here’s my step by step process!
- Mix all seasonings into a dry rub and season the rack on both sides. If you need to trim the rack beforehand feel free to do so before seasoning.
- Wrap the rack with aluminum foil and add an extra layer of aluminum foil in the bottom and fold on the edges of baking sheet.
- Most large baking sheets would fit a whole rack but sometimes certain St. Louis ribs rack are too long and won’t fit. It’s ok to split in half and bake them side by side in the same baking sheet. Just wrap each individually.
- Baste with beer – beer helps break down connective tissue and helps during the low and slow baking process.
- BBQ sauce – I tend to use Sweet Baby Ray’s because that’s my son’s favorite but other options are Stubb’s, Kinder, Jack Daniels, Blues Hog etc etc. Brush with BBQ sauce the last half an hour then broil so sauce becomes sticky and caramelized.
Oven Baked BBQ St. Louis Ribs
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 rack of St. Louis ribs
- 1 tbsp coarse sea salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tbsp garlic salt
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp harissa powder
- 1 tbsp oregano
- 1 cup beer for basting
- 1 cup BBQ sauce
Instructions
- If the St. Louis ribs rack is longer than the baking sheet, cut it in half. Wrap the baking sheet with aluminum foil and prepare a second aluminum foil to wrap up the ribs after seasoning them.
- Mix coarse sea salt, black pepper, paprika, cumin, onion powder, garlic salt, harissa powder and oregano in a bowl. Use this dry rub to rub the rack on all sides.
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Wrap the seasoned wrack with aluminum foil. Bake covered for 1.5 hours.
- Remove tray from oven, carefully open the packet of aluminum foil, baste the ribs with beer. Close the wrap. Place the baking sheet back in the oven for another half an hour or so.
- When ribs are almost ready (tender meat, pulls away with fork and internal temp is at least 190 F), brush with BBQ sauce on all sides. Bake for another half an hour so sauce can stick to the ribs and caramelize. Then unwrap the foil, brush one more time with BBQ sauce and turn on the broil for 10 -15 minutes.
- Turn oven off and let the ribs rest for about 10 minutes before you cut through them. Usually I turn them back side up to see the bones and makes cutting in between each rib easier. Enjoy:)
Notes
- Rack of ribs needs to be trimmed, usually grocery stores can take care of that in the meat department. Remove the silverskin (membrane) too.
- When applying the rub, make sure to really season every inch of the rack and use your hands to apply the seasoning all over.
- If you don’t want to use beer to baste the ribs, use a mix of apple cider vinegar with honey or maple syrup.
- Some dry rubs call for brown sugar but since I use a generous amount of BBQ sauce later on, I don’t add brown sugar to this specific rub.
- Minimum internal temperature should reach 190-200 degrees F.
Nutrition Label
Nutrition
This recipe is very convenient because you don’t need to smoke the ribs or use the grill outdoors. Beer especially is my secret ingredient to make this ribs extra tender and flavorful.
If you’d like to save this recipe for later, please pin one of the pictures from this post to your boards in Pinterest. It makes it so easy to find the recipe in the future!!
Let me know in comments if you have any questions or feedback on the recipe. I love hearing everyone’s experiences, even substitutions and your own way of making this recipe!
Additional Recipes
If you liked the oven baked ribs, I think you might enjoy these other recipes too:
- Country Style Ribs in the Dutch Oven
- Chicharron (uses beer as well)
- Shredded Pork Tenderloin Cooked in the Pressure Cooker
- Pork Chops with Pomegranate and Cranberries Sauce
- Creamy Pork Medallions in a Mushroom Sauce
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