When I first took up cooking, lo these *many* decades ago, I “learned” to boil spare ribs before finishing them on the grill.
I “learned” incorrectly.
The best way to prep ribs, or mebbe even chicken, though timing could change, for grilling (or not), is to season and then bake them, tightly covered, in the oven until they are cooked though, tender, and still juicy, even after they have yielded most of the excess fat to the roasting dish.
Ribs also, I can tell you for a fact, smell a lot better roasting than boiling.
INGREDIENTS
•Pork spareribs
•Seasoning
•Barbecue sauce
Note: if I do this for a crowd, I bring out my big boy turkey roasting pan and will do several racks of ribs at a time. Since this was just a weekday dinner for us, I cut one rack of ribs in half to fit in a 13×9 pan.
Heat your oven to 350º.
Place your ribs in your baking pan of choice and season both sides with your fave steak seasoning blend. My current fave is from a steakhouse in Indianapolis that my husband’s family has told me about.
Position the seasoned ribs, meaty side up, in the pan, cover tightly with aluminum foil, and bake for 75 minutes.
All those lovely roasting smells are your bonus for making such a lovely dinner.
After 75 minutes, remove from the oven and take the foil off the pan.
You are more than welcome to toss the ribs on your grill at this point, or, if the weather is not conducive or your husband is not in the mood, you can carry on in the (still hot) 350º oven.
Drain any baking juices from the pan and discard, then flip the ribs, ermmm, rib side up and add barbecue sauce.
Note: yes! Long time readers of this here web blog thing-y will know that I make my own, pretty excellent, if I do say so myself, Barbecue Sauce (one friend has to keep a small decoy jar in her cabinet because, now that her daughter has stopped trying to filch it, her mother has started), but in this case, I was lured by a display of the sauce of choice from my teens. I was not happy about some of the ingredients, but I was pretty pleased with the taste, which brought me right back to the 1970’s (in a good way).
Bake the ribs (uncovered) for 30 minutes, then flip them over, add more sauce to cover, and return to the oven for another 30 minutes.
Bang. You are done.
Tender, tasty, flavorful ribs; all from the oven, or not (your choice).