Don't Skip This Step After Baking Ribs — It Makes All The Difference

Pork ribs are a distinctly messy and thoroughly enjoyable eating experience, but there's a lot of time and effort that goes into making the meat so tender that it falls off the bone while still being flavorful. There are so many variables that go into cooking ribs and a plethora of ways you can do it, from smoking to air frying to even using the sous vide method with a water bath and an immersion circulator. While all those methods will work if you have the equipment and experience, there's a two-step method to getting beautifully tender meat that still has a bit of char from direct heat, giving you the best of both worlds. 

Unless you're a certified pitmaster with a surplus of hours on your hands, baking ribs in the oven is a surefire way to get tender, juicy, succulent ribs that fall off the bone. Slow cooking ribs in the oven and then finishing them on the grill or in a cast-iron pan on the stove allows for the low-and-slow cooking method that ribs need to become tender while still getting a nice kiss of flavor from the heat of the grill or pan. Finishing ribs on the grill or in a hot cast-iron pan allows the exterior of the ribs to get a bit of a char without drying them out. If your cast-iron pan is too small to fit an entire rack of ribs, simply cut the rack in half or into thirds and sear the ribs in batches before serving. 

For people who don't want to deal with a grill or cleaning up a cast-iron pan inside, Emeril Lagasse's pro tip for adding bonus flavor to oven-baked ribs uses the same idea behind finishing ribs on the grill without a need for an actual grill, which is perfect for apartment-dwellers or for those cold winter months where the grill feels out of reach. If you love the smoky flavor that comes from smoked ribs or ribs that have been cooked entirely on the grill, add a dash of liquid smoke into your BBQ sauce (but remember that liquid smoke is usually extremely concentrated, so use it sparingly).

After seasoning the ribs, wrap them up tightly in a few layers of aluminum foil to keep them moist and tender while they bake low and slow in the oven, usually at about 250 degrees Fahrenheit. If you have time, season and wrap the ribs the night before, and let them marinate in the refrigerator wrapped in foil overnight. Before you transfer the ribs to the oven, make sure you know how to position them properly so you don't have to turn them while they bake. If time is an issue, you can also bake the ribs in the oven a day or two before you plan to serve them, keep them in the refrigerator, then reheat them gently in the oven for a little while before finishing the ribs on the grill. Test out this perfect baking and grilling technique with our baby back ribs with honey mustard BBQ sauce recipe.