BBQ Ribs

This is a cookout favorite at our house! The two step cooking process permits massive quantities of ribs to be pre-cooked ahead of time, and then grilled just prior to serving!

Course: Main Course

Servings: 5

Ingredients

3 to 4 slabs baby back ribs
1 medium onion coarsely chopped
1 cup bottled BBQ sauce (I use Sweet Baby Ray's)
12 ounces beer (I use Yuengling Lager or Miller Genuine Draft)
2 teaspoons liquid smoke (I prefer Colgin Natural Hickory)
additional BBQ sauce for grilling

Instructions

Peel any membrane from the bone-side of the slabs of ribs. (Depending on where you purchase the ribs, this may have already been done for you.) For convenience in cooking, grilling, serving, and eating, cut the slabs into sections of 3 or 4 bones each.
Arrange ribs in roaster oven or slow cooker. Sprinkle with the chopped onion. Combine the BBQ sauce, beer, and liquid smoke. Pour the sauce mixture over the ribs. Cover.
Set roaster to between 325 and 350 ℉, or set slow cooker to high. Rearrange ribs in the pan a few times during cooking to promote even cooking and to give everything a chance to simmer in the sauce. If necessary, add some water during cooking to make sure things stay nice and moist. Continue cooking until the meat is tender and falling off of the bones, which usually takes about 3 to 4 hours. The rib sections do not get done at the same time, so after the first 2 hours, check them every 15 minutes and remove them as they become ready. Let cool for a few minutes, then promptly refrigerate in a sealed container. The pre-cooked ribs can be stored in the refrigerator for at least two days (or frozen for longer term storage).
When ready to serve, preheat the grill to a medium-low heat level. Place the refrigerated ribs on the grill, meaty side up, for a few minutes until they are almost warm. Flip ribs over (now meaty side down) for a few more minutes until they are just heated through. Flip again (meaty side up) and apply a light coating of BBQ sauce. Leave them for a minute or two. Flip them again and apply a light coating of sauce to the bone side. Leave them for a minute or so until the sauce on the meat side caramelizes just a little—but don't let it burn! Flip them again one last time and apply a generous coating of sauce to the meat side. Leave them for just another minute or two until the sauce on the bone side starts to caramelize, and promptly remove them from the grill and serve!

Notes

The above grilling procedure may seem overly involved and complicated. Perhaps it is. But it's the technique that I've developed after years of research on dozens upon dozens of slabs of ribs, and it works consistently and flawlessly for me! Of course, your mileage may vary.