How Long to Grill Pork Ribs?

Everything You Need To Know To Get A Perfect Bite

Grilling the perfect pork ribs is not always the easiest task, especially when it comes to using a gas grill. However, when using a gas grill, you can expect your pork ribs to cook quicker and to be hotter when you get ready to serve them. While barbequing some ribs can be difficult, there are some tricks that will better help you with getting the tender juicy ribs that you desire.

So in this case, you would be starting off with a full rack of spare ribs that are trimmed. Baby back ribs would also be okay to use with this method. If you will be using baby back ribs, you will want to be sure that the cooking time is reduced by 5 minutes for each stage. So your cooking time should be anywhere between 1 and ½ to 2 hours.

Things you will Need

In the case of using a gas grill, you will need to make sure that you have a gas grill that has two burners because you will be indirectly cooking your ribs. The heat with gas grills is off to the side and not below the cooked goods. Some of the other ingredients that you will need for grilling your pork ribs include the following:

• A rack of ribs
• Rib rub of your choice
• ½ cup of apple juice
• Aluminum foil
• Lighter fuel for your grill
• Wood chips
• Sharp knife

Note: If you will not be using a gas grill then you will need to look for instructions online for grilling your pork ribs with a charcoal grill.

Preparing the ribs

Generally, you will find that most supermarkets do not supply ribs that are already properly prepared to be grilled right out of the pack once they’ve been seasoned. First, you’ll have to do some trimming to your ribs to get them ready for the grill. So, firstly, when you are in the supermarket, you will want to make sure that you find ribs that are square in shape with an even amount of thickness, which will make them easier to trim. Check the ribs out before you buy them to ensure that the rack is free of loose meat. Sometimes it’s hard to tell if any pieces of meat are loose until they are cut from the pack. In this case, if you find loose pieces, you can trim them right off. You don’t want to cut all of the fat off of the ribs because you will be taking away from the flavor by doing so. You just want to trim away at the thicker parts for a more even portion of meat.

Gas grilled ribs are cooked faster than what they would cook on the smoker which is another reason why it is important to keep some fat on the meat so that your meat will not only absorb the flavors better, but your meat will also turn out more moist when it is done cooking. After you are done trimming your ribs, you will now rinse them with cool water and pat them dry.

Rubbing your ribs

After the trim process and pat drying your ribs, it is now time to rub your rubs with your seasoning. Adding a good quality rub to your ribs will add just enough flavor to your meat without an overwhelming amount of flavor. You can use a barbeque brush to evenly add the rub to your rack of meat. Make sure you distribute an even amount of the rub on the top and bottom, as well as on the sides of the rack of meat. The moisture of the ribs will allow the rub to stick to the meat without too much of it falling off.

Apply rub only as early as an hour before your cooking time; any earlier will give your meat an undesirable texture. If you’d like to allow your rub to sit for at least an hour on the ribs, you can add the rub, and then wrap the ribs tightly with plastic wrap and place the meat into the refrigerator. It is highly suggested otherwise that you get your ribs to the rack for cooking within 10 to 20 minutes.

Smoke Bombs

Something else that you will have to face with your gas grill as you cook at a low temperature, is being able to maintain the right amount of smoke for cooking. With a gas grill, it is not usual to have a strong smoke flavor; generally, a small amount of smoke flavor can be obtained with the use of a gas grill. So getting your smoked flavor can be rather tricky. This is something that you will just have to deal with for the most part while using your gas grill. However, one alternative for getting more of the desired smoke flavor that you want is by creating smoke bombs to put onto the gas grill for creating smoke.

To start this method, you will want to place about ½ a cup of damp wood chips onto a piece of aluminum foil. You will wrap the wood chips into the foil and poke several holes into the foil to allow the smoke to come out. The smoke bombs need to be placed underneath the cooking grate of your grill, as close to the burners as possible so that they can properly heat up. Make sure your heat is turned up high enough to get the smoke from the smoke bombs going. Once you see that smoke is coming through, you can turn the heat down a bit. Place your ribs on the grill and then close the lid.

Put your Ribs on the Grill

Placing your rib meat on the grill is even very important. It’s important because how and where you place them on the grill will determine how well they cook. So when it comes to placing your ribs on the grill, you need to make sure your ribs are getting indirect heat so as to not dry the meat out. So your goal when grilling your rack of ribs is to get up to the temperature 375 Fahrenheit and 190 degrees Celsius.

ill is even very important. It’s important because how and where you place them on the grill will determine how well they cook. So when it comes to placing your ribs on the grill, you need to make sure your ribs are getting indirect heat so as to not dry the meat out. So your goal when grilling your rack of ribs is to get up to the temperature 375 Fahrenheit and 190 degrees Celsius.

So when placing your ribs on the rack, you need to place them with the bone side of the rack facing down, and then close the lid. You will let your ribs cook on the grill until the temperature reaches 300 degrees Fahrenheit/150 degrees Celsius. The ribs will need to cook for about 30 minutes. While they are cooking within that time frame, make sure you don’t open the lid. Leaving the lid shut will ensure that as much smoke is held in as possible to get that desired smoked flavor. Now, you shouldn’t expect a huge billow of smoke to come from the grill once you finally do open the lid; there won’t be a huge production of it.

Wrap Your Ribs

Now for the second stage after cooking the ribs on the grill for 30 minutes. So now what you will be doing is checking to make sure that your ribs have browned on all of the sides. If they seem like they are still raw on any parts of the meat after visually checking them as well as checking the temperature, then you should continue grilling the meat for about 10-15 more minutes. If they are cooked then you can move on to the second stage which would require wrapping the ribs tightly in foil. When you wrap the ribs in the foil you are ensuring that all of the meat juice stays inside the foil. The ribs will then need to steam in the foil for 30 minutes more.

Barbeque Sauce

After your ribs have steamed for 30 minutes in the foil you can start to rub a barbeque sauce of your choice on them. After you do this, they are ready to eat!