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Smoky Indoor Ribs Recipe


indoor-ribs
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4.02 from 364 votes
If you can't get outside to smoke your ribs on a grill or smoker, here's a way to get smoky tasting ribs indoors using your oven. The recipe is super simple and you can use any cut of ribs you want.

Course:
Dinner
,
Lunch
,
Main Course
Cuisine:
American
difficulty scale
Author: Meathead

Makes:

1 slab baby back ribs
Servings: 3

Takes:

Prep Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 4 hours
Total Time: 5 hours

Ingredients

Notes:
About the smoked Meathead's Memphis Dust. To amp this up to 11, we make Meathead's Memphis Dust with smoked smoked garlic, smoked onion, smoked salt, and paprika. They are available in some stores or online.
About the sauce. You can use a store-bought sauce or one of the recipes on this site such as "Kansas City Classic Sauce". If you go for a store bought, get one that calls itself "smoky." That means it has liquid smoke added. KC Masterpiece original is a good example. If you wish, you can add about 1/4 teaspoon of liquid smoke to the barbecue sauce after you taste it.
About the salt. Remember, kosher salt is half the concentration of table salt so if you use table salt, use half as much. Click here to read more about salt and how it works.
Optional. Add 1/4 teaspoon of Prague Powder #1 to get a faux smoke ring. The smoke ring is not really made by smoke! Click the link to read more. And PP#1 really doesn't impact flavor, so you can skip it, but if you add it, you might be able to pass these ribs off as cooked outdoors.
Note. If you use thicker, heavier cuts such as spareribs or St. Louis Cut ribs, add 1 hour to the cooking time outside the foil.
Metric conversion:

These recipes were created in US Customary measurements and the conversion to metric is being done by calculations. They should be accurate, but it is possible there could be an error. If you find one, please let us know in the comments at the bottom of the page

Method

  • Prep. Remove the membrane from the back of the ribs and trim excess fat. Mix ½ cup (118.3 ml) water with the liquid smoke, and marinate the meat in this for an hour. I usually cut the slab in half, put each half in a 1 gallon (1.9 L) zipper bag, and divide the marinade between the two.
  • Cook. Season both sides with salt and then Meathead's Memphis Dust. Wrap the meat in foil. Put it in a pan (to catch leaks) and cook in 225°F (107.2°C) oven for 2 hours. This makes the meat very tender, but not mushy.
  • Roast. Now take the meat out of the foil, then put it back in the oven, meaty side up, without the foil to dry roast for another 2 hours at 225°F (107.2°C). This will firm the bark.
  • Broil. Read this article to see how to tell when the meat is ready. I use the bend test to make sure it is done. When it is, turn the slab meaty side down. Slather the bone side with the sauce, turn the oven to broil and put the meat under the broiler so it is aligned with the heat source. Broil for 5 minutes with the oven door partially open or until the sauce bubbles, watching closely to make sure it doesn't burn. Leave the door open so the oven cools a bit and to make sure the thermostat doesn't turn off the broiler. Repeat for the meaty side. This direct concentrated heat caramelizes the sugar and creates more deeper flavor. Serve.

Nutrition per Serving

Calories: 623kcal | Carbohydrates: 51g | Protein: 49g | Fat: 43g | Saturated Fat: 23g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 130mg | Sodium: 2793mg | Potassium: 748mg | Fiber: 13g | Sugar: 44g | Vitamin A: 927IU | Vitamin C: 13mg | Calcium: 103mg | Iron: 14mg