Spare Ribs Recipe

Learn how to cut and how to cook spare ribs so that they’re extra tender and juicy. This is the only way that I make ribs anymore. You’re going to love it!

Do you have a beautiful rack of spare ribs, but aren’t sure how best to cook them? First, you’ll divide them into ribs and rib tips. Then, for the most tender and delicious fall-off-the-bone pork rib meat, you want to cook them low-and-slow, first wrapped in foil and then exposed to the heat. It takes a few hours, but the results are mouthwatering.

Scroll down to read more about how to do all the steps, or click here to jump straight down to the recipe.

Video: Cooking Spare Ribs

What Are Spare Ribs?

In the store, you will see pork ribs that are labeled as Baby Back Ribs, St. Louis Ribs, and Spare Ribs. Baby back ribs are the most different from spare ribs. They have more meat on them, and tend to be leaner, similar to pork loin meat. This is how I cook Baby Back Ribs in the oven, and here are the air fryer ribs.

On the other hand we have St. Louis ribs and spare ribs, which are almost the same thing as each other. These cuts come from the belly. They’re that darker pork meat, like we get with pork butt roasts and pork shoulder. These ribs are fattier and are full of great flavor.

The difference between spare ribs and St. Louis-style ribs is just that the St. Louis ribs are trimmed. Essentially, a rack of spare ribs is made up of a rack of St. Louis ribs plus a strip of rib tips on top. In the picture below, you see a rack of spare ribs above a rack of St. Louis Ribs. See how the St. Louis ribs are like a trimmed version of the spare ribs?

You can cut the spare rib rack into these two parts and cook them separately (like, save one in the freezer for another day), but today I’m showing you how to cook them all at once in this pork spare ribs recipe.

Spare ribs are usually less expensive than St. Louis ribs and Baby back ribs (per pound) and it’s because they haven’t been trimmed yet, and you have to do it yourself.

Note, if your packages says St. Louis Ribs, you’ll cook them like this over here, no trimming needed. And if your package says rib tips, then this is the recipe you need.

How To Trim Spare Ribs

To trim a rack of spare ribs, you’ll cut off the top section as shown below. What you have there is now essentially a rack of St. Louis Ribs (the thicker piece on the bottom) and a strip of rib tips (the thinner piece on the top).

As for the thinner piece that you trimmed off, that you cut into rib tips, like this. Sometimes there are big bones like the one on the top there. That I just save to use for soup.

If you get that whole spare rib rack to trim it, it will be about 5-6 pounds in size to start. You can plan to make both the St. Louis rack and the rib tips at the same time, or just cook one and save the other in the freezer for another day.

Tips For The Best Spare Ribs

1. Seasoning: Season the meat with a delicious spice rub for ribs. Mine in the recipe below has has brown sugar, smoked paprika, garlic and onion powders, and more for great flavor. Another great all-purpose pork seasoning recipe is over here, if you want to try that instead.
2. Cutting: You can cut the St. Louis rack into ribs before cooking, if you’d like. I find it easier to do it afterwards. Why do the rack after and the rib tips before? That’s a good question! So, with the rib tips, there are little bits of bone and cartilage in there. I like to use my fingers to try to find those bits and cut around them so that each bite-sized little rib tip has a bone in it, if possible. That’s hard to do if the meat is hot, so I do it before cooking them. With the full rack on the other hand, it’s easy to tell where the bones are. I just get them cooking, and then easily slice between the bones, cutting through that fall-off-the-bone meat after they’re done.
3. Cooking Low-and-Slow, Covered and Then Not: Wrap the rib rack and also the rib tips in foil and bake slowly. That catches all the steam and does a nice, slow moist cooking. Then you’ll open up the foil to allow a bit of caramelization to start for the second half of the cooking. You can do these steps in the oven (300F) or on the grill (indirect heat).
4. Sauce and Char: After you’ve gotten them all nice and tender, add some sauce and then expose them to really high heat. Either the broiler, grill, or air fryer will work. You want to toast the sauce and the meat a bit to get that nice charred flavor.

How To Cook Spare Ribs

First, get your oven pre-heated to 300°F. We want to cook these ribs slowly so that they end up nice and tender.

Mix up your rib rub seasonings and use on all sides of the ribs. Next, we’re going to use two layers of aluminum foil so that the seal is good and tight. Wrap up the ribs and set them on a baking sheet. You’ll want to start with the meatier side of the ribs down. In other words, if the ribs each form a C shape, you want the open part to be up and the rounded part down. That rounded part has more meat on it and you want that meat to be in any juices that comes out of the meat.

Take the rib tips and wrap them up in their own foil packet. You can bake both foil packets on one pan if there’s room, but separate pans in the oven is fine too.

Bake for an hour and a half wrapped in the foil. Then, you’ll open up both foil packets and let the ribs and rib tips get more direct heat and continue baking for another hour and a half.

After that, brush everything with your favorite barbecue sauce. 

Arrange the cooked and sauced ribs and rib tips on a broiler pan. Set the pan so that the ribs are about 6 inches from the broiler elements at the top of the oven. Broil until dark spots appear on top, 5-6 minutes. Flip ribs over and continue to cook until dark spots appear on the tops and ribs are heated through, another 4-5 minutes.

While I give the option of broiler, grill, or air fryer in my St. Louis ribs recipe, when cooking them alongside the rib tips, I find broiling to be the best option. The rib tips would fall through the grate of a BBQ and a full batch of the rack of ribs and rib tips wouldn’t fit in the air fryer.

Try serving the delicious BBQ ribs with classic cookout side dishes like my Creamy Potato Salad, coleslaw for pork, and corn on the cob.

What Kind Of BBQ Sauce?

You’ll need about 1 and 1/2 cups of BBQ sauce to finish the ribs and rib tips, depending on how saucy you like your ribs. Cut the cooked ribs, brush on all sides with about 2/3 of the sauce, then use the rest on the rib tips.

You can use your favorite store-bought sauce or try one of my homemade sauces. I especially love this sweet and smoky BBQ sauce for ribs. I also have a Mango Chipotle BBQ Sauce and my Basic BBQ Sauce recipe which is super-easy and allows for a lot of customization.

For Make-Ahead Spare Ribs

For make-ahead ribs, after the slow cooking in foil and out of foil, you can let the ribs cool a bit and then refrigerate them in a sealed container for up to 3 days. Then, take the ribs out of the fridge and let them be for 20 minutes. Then cut the rack into ribs, brush the ribs and the rib tips with the BBQ sauce, and then broil as instructed in the recipe. The ribs and rib tips will heat through in the time it takes for them to darken in spots.