The following statement is going to be blasphemy to some of you. The best way to cook baby back ribs is on a rotisserie*.
It does wonders for giving you ribs that have a crispy crust on the outside, and tender, juicy meat on the inside. I like to think of it as pork candy. Mmmm.
You can commence stoning me for culinary heresy any time you'd like - as long as I get you to try these ribs first.***
*Yes, I'm doing a lot of rotisserie recipes. I'm finding that those recipes actually get me some readers through Google search**. But that's not the reason for this recipe. It really does give you better baby back ribs than low and slow does.
**OK, you got me. I also get to play with my grill more. "The difference between a man and a boy is the cost of his toys."
***I also love barbecued ribs, cooked low and slow. That is, when they're spare ribs. I think baby backs come out better on the rotisserie - they're a little too lean to cook low and slow; the higher heat on the rotisserie crisps them up before the meat dries out.
📖 Recipe Card
Rotisserie Baby Back Ribs
- Total Time: 2 hours 45 minutes
- Yield: 1 slab of ribs 1x
Description
Baby back ribs seasoned with salt, herbes de Provence and smoked paprika, woven onto the spit and rotisserie-roasted until crispy outside and juicy inside.
Ingredients
- 1 slab baby back ribs
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon herbes de Provence
- 1 teaspoon smoked Spanish paprika (or sweet paprika)
Instructions
- Prep the ribs: Remove the membrane from the bone side of the ribs: loosen it by running a butter knife between the membrane and one of the end bones, then pull it off. Sprinkle each side of the rack with 1 teaspoon kosher salt, ½ teaspoon herbes de Provence, and ½ teaspoon paprika. Let rest for at least 1 hour, or up to 48 hours (refrigerate if resting more than a couple of hours).
- Skewer the ribs: Every three bones, poke a hole through the middle of the meat between the bones with a paring knife. Weave the ribs onto the spit through the holes.
- Prepare the grill: Set up your grill for rotisserie cooking at indirect medium heat, about 325°F to 350°F, with a drip pan in the middle, under where the ribs will turn. (If your rub has sugar in it, use medium-low heat, about 300°F, so the sugar doesn't burn.)
- Cook the ribs: Put the spit on the grill, start it spinning, and cook with the lid closed until the ribs are nicely browned and the meat has pulled back from the end bones by ½ inch, about 1 ¼ to 1 ½ hours.
- Rest and serve: Remove the ribs from the spit, and let rest for 10 to 15 minutes. Cut into portions (I cut between every second bone), and serve.
Notes
Equipment: A grill with a rotisserie attachment (I use a Weber Summit 650 with an infrared rotisserie burner) and an aluminum foil drip pan. On my Weber Summit, I set the two outer burners and the infrared burner to medium. See my rotisserie basic technique for setup details.
Memphis style dry ribs: Use barbecue rub instead of the herbes de Provence and paprika, reduce the heat to medium-low, and cook for 1 to 1 ½ hours.
Wet ribs: Make the Memphis style ribs, then brush the cooked ribs with your favorite barbecue sauce and cook for another 5 minutes, until the sauce browns into a sticky glaze. Watch closely - the sauce can go from glazed to burnt very quickly. Brush with more sauce, then rest before cutting. (Or see my Rotisserie BBQ Baby Back Ribs.)
Provençal ribs: Skip the paprika. After salting, rub the ribs with a very thin coating of Dijon mustard (about 1 teaspoon), then sprinkle on the herbes de Provence.
You can cook 1 or 2 slabs at a time, depending on the size of your spit. Two fit easily on my Weber Summit's spit.
Weaving the ribs onto the spit is the hard part - the thicker the spit, the harder it is. But it's not THAT hard, and the results are worth it.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Rest after seasoning: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Questions? Comments? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.
Related Posts:
Click here for my Rotisserie Spare Ribs with Dry Rub recipe.
Click here for my other rotisserie recipes.
Inspired by:
Steven Raichlen How To Grill
 Check out my cookbook, Rotisserie Grilling.
Everything you could ask about the rotisserie, It's a Kindle e-book, so you can download it and start reading immediately! |
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Sandra Thibault says
If we choose to do two racks one spit will it take double the time?
Mike Vrobel says
No, same cooking time
Bill Shoemaker says
Great site Mike V!
I've noticed that in your book you wet brine baby backs - but that seems to be the only place. All your other recipes seem to use more of a dry brine or sprinkle the rub in advance. Have you changed your thinking on dry vs wet brine with baby backs? One time I used wet brined baby backs, but didn't have a rotisserie - just on the grill - indirect, as low as I could maintain. The ribs were certainly juicy but I never repeated the wet brine experiment.
Judy Rogers wrote the book on salt and I almost always follow her advice. She wet brines pork and dry brines almost everything else. But an overnight with rub seems to flavor the pork and satisfy me. How about you? Most all ribs are wonderful so we are talking degrees of goodness but it's always worth it to take your cooking up a notch. So I would value your opinion.
Best,
Bill
Mike V says
I am still a fan of wet brining baby backs - I just need to be organized ahead of time to do it. If I don't have the time to brine, I go with the spice rub and salt directly on the ribs.
Mike V @ DadCooksDinner says
If you have a built-in drip pan, you're good to go. You do need something to catch all the pork fat that will drip out of the ribs, or you'll have quite a grease fire the next time you light the grill. (He says, having learned from hard experience.)
Christine says
Why do I need a drip pan? My grill is infrared and has a pan under the grill racks?