Oven Tender Spare Ribs Recipe. We start with a rub of fajita seasoning and brown sugar. Then the ribs are wrapped in foil with a mustard and beer sauce. A slow cook in the oven and you’ve got some mouthwatering fall off the bone tender spare ribs.
I’ve always been intimidated by cooking a rack of ribs. After all, ribs are the product of expert, smoker savvy, trophy winning Southeastern barbecue gurus with secret rubs and trademarked mops.
But Yoder Meats has changed all of that for me. I subscribe to their newsletter and on Friday a recipe came through for sheet pan oven tender spare ribs.
After studying the instructions, I confirmed that I most certainly, in my oven, in my kitchen, could cook that! And as it turned out, I could and I did.
Spare Ribs vs. Baby Back Ribs
Spare ribs and baby back ribs are really just two pieces of the same slab of meat.
Baby back ribs are cut from the top of the rib cage, near the backbone.
Spareribs are cut from the bottom of the rib cage, and sometimes include the brisket, which is a bony piece of meat that hangs from the bottom.
The farther down the rib cage you go, the meatier the ribs get. That is essentially why spareribs take longer to cook.
Recipe Results
These oven tender spare ribs were everything I expected out of a rib. Fall off the bone tender, a crispy crunchy edge here and there, and a flavor that I’d be proud to serve to my expert rib grilling friends. I now know how to make ribs in the oven.
And aside from wrestling sheets of foil the size of bed sheets, the ruckus was minimal.
In a rib tickling mood? Take a look at this easy recipe where ribs are boiled then grilled Campfire Ribs, Country Style Ribs
Let’s take a look.
Cooking Pork Spare Ribs In The Oven
I hope you give this recipe for oven spare ribs a try. And if you do, please come back and give the recipe a star rating. And if you have a favorite spare rib recipe or rub, please let me know, I’d love to give it a try.
More Rib Recipes
- Campfire Ribs, Country Style Pork Ribs
- Country Style Pork Ribs, Cooked in the Crockpot
- Bucatini Pasta with Short Ribs and Capers
- Oven Tender Braised Mexican Short Ribs
And if you’re looking for more pork entree recipes, don’t miss my Main Dishes Pork category. You’ll find lots of delicious ideas. Including one of the most popular pork recipes on my site, Best Grilled Pork Tenderloin. Give it a try.
Pork tenderloin is one of America’s favorite choice for an easy and delicious pork dinner. Take a look at my recipe for Spice Rubbed Pork Tenderloin. It’s a “how to” and a tasty recipe all in one post.
Oven Tender Spare Ribs Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 racks spare ribs
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup fajita seasoning
- 2 Tablespoons Hungarian sweet paprika
- 1 cup beer
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 Tablespoon honey
- 3 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1 Tablespoon Brown mustard
Instructions
- Mix the brown sugar, fajita seasoning, and paprika in a bowl.
- Rub both sides of the spare ribs with the brown sugar mixture.
- Place the spareribs in a 9×13-inch baking pan; cover and refrigerate overnight.
- Preheat an oven to 250 degrees F (120 degrees C).
- Whisk together the beer, garlic, honey, Worcestershire sauce, and mustard in a bowl.
- Set aside.
- Tear off 2 large sheets of heavy duty aluminum foil and lay them shiny-side down.
- Place a rack of spare ribs on each sheet, meaty-side up.
- Tear off 2 more sheets of foil and place them on top of the ribs, shiny-side up.
- Begin tightly folding the edges of the foil together to create a sealed packet.
- Just before sealing completely, divide the beer mixture evenly into each packet.
- Complete the seal.
- Place the packets side-by-side on an 11×14-inch baking sheet.
- Bake in the preheated oven until the ribs are very tender, 3 hours and 30 minutes to 4 hours.
- Carefully open each packet, and drain the drippings into a saucepan.
- You may only need the drippings from one packet.
- Set ribs aside.
- Simmer the drippings over medium-high heat until the sauce begins to thicken, about 5 minutes.
- Brush the thickened sauce over the ribs.
- Preheat the oven’s broiler and set the oven rack about 6 inches from the heat source.
- Place the ribs back into the oven and broil until the sauce is lightly caramelized, 5 to 7 minutes.
Notes
Sheet Pan Oven Tender Spare Ribs … It’s What’s For Dinner
Why Trust These Recipes? Lea Ann Brown has lived, worked and played in Colorado for 45 years. She has immersed herself in the Colorado Culinary space, is a Culinary School Graduate and publishes her Colorado food Blog, Cooking On The Ranch.
I love all ribs 😋 I watch a video for beef ribs, Church meats. He gets his beef ribs at Costco. Now I just need to get some beef ribs. Here in Hutchinson we are having Colorado weather ,lights winds and a little rain. Hutchinson send you love ❤
Hi Pauline, always good to hear from you.
I generally purchase ribs from Costco. I’m not sure if they’re better, but they seem to be and come with a good price.
I’m glad to hear about the rain in Hutch, always good for the wheat.
Have you ever been to Yoder Meats in Yoder?
Whoa baby! These look amazing! And I love the sauce! Count me in!
These look incredible! I know what we are having this weekend.
Love that this recipe loads up on paprika! Perfect! Thanks, luv!
Love the rub/sauce recipe! They look and sound so delicious, and low and slow is the way to go!
I love classic grill/BBQ recipes that you can turn into an oven version. Living in an apartment I can’t have a BBQ, so discovering recipes like this makes me happy 🙂 . Bookmarked it and will hopefully soon have guests to try this out on.
Those ribs look delicious!!!
Can’t wait for my next BBQ. They look tremendous ♥
I love the use of fajita seasoning!
There is nothing like a slow-roasted rack of ribs! One of my all-time favorites. Would you believe I’ve never tried spare ribs? I always make baby back ribs but I’m sure ruckus free would work for those as well. They look delish! Congratulations on your retirement!!!
My husband thinks he is the Grillmeister when it comes to barbecuing ribs. I love ribs and your recipe looks great. I have to try it.
Low and slow is always the ticket. As much as I pride myself on being an outdoor cooking guy with a custom pit, truth is, the oven works fine and dandy. Excellent stuff!
Seemed to work fine and dandy for this recipe. Still wishing for grilling season however. 🙂
The Hubs is the rib cooker here and he will only do it in our ceramic smoker. I think I could fool him with these.
I’d love to have one of those ceramic smokers.
These ribs sound fab! Just the thing for when it’s cold outside and you can’t grill. And yes, I would love to have lunch. Tell me when. And last but not least…can’t wait to hear about your next adventure. Congrats on retirement!
I’ll email you about a date – maybe next week.
The ribs certainly do look good. Even though I grill often, there are times I would much rather use an oven for ribs. I can’t wait to give these a try.
Thanks Karen. We really liked this oven version.
Yah baby, bring these on! Yum!
🙂
I’m going to save this as Lea Ann’s Ruckus Free Ribs. ?
ruckus free is a good thing some times. 🙂
I love oven ribs! Not quite as good as slow-cooked over live fire, but really close. Lately I’ve been rubbing my oven BBQ with some liquid smoke (a teaspoon or two) before applying a rub — gives it just a bit of extra flavor. Anyway, really nice — thanks.
I love liquid smoke and use it often. I should have added a drop to this sauce.
Hard to beat a good rack of ribs, wherever they are cooked.
You got that right.