re: Are baby back ribs best cooked on the grill or in the oven?

I've settled on the following method-

-Wait for the coals to be 80% "whited over" so you don't get that nasty thick blue smoke in your meat. Indirect, keep ribs off to the side from charcoal.

Season lightly with salt, pepper, and just a touch of garlic powder. I don't even bother with the brown sugar or paprika or any of that anymore, the sauce provides those flavors later.

-Smoke with cherry or apple wood chips for 20 minutes max. (Ribs have alot of surface area, and absorbs alot of smoke very quickly. It's easy to oversmoke them, all you will taste is smoke. )


-Allow to cook in grill until the coals start dying and grill temp gets down into the mid 200's. Usually 1.5 hrs.

-Wrap in two layers of foil, with my favorite sauce (Sticky Fingers Carolina Sweet or their Sweet Heat), on a deep baking sheet. They will leak, somehow someway, I always get juice in my pan. If you use a cookie sheet, you're going to regret it. Use something with higher sides.

-Put in 300* oven for 1.5 hours.

-Remove and let rest for 15-20 minutes.


Let the downvotes begin, and may my GSB stalker RhodeTerrier use this against me for gotcha-points on the Georgia Board later.

Disclaimer- this is for baby backs. For spare ribs or country ribs, I have different more traditional methods that you'd all probably approve of.