Grilled Spare Ribs

A great alternative too smoking spare ribs is grilling spare ribs. It’s important to follow a few crucial steps, but if you do follow the steps of this recipe tasty tender spare ribs are within reach even without a smoker.

Continue reading if you want to learn about this recipe for spare ribs. They have been coated with a sweet heat pumpkin spice rub and grilled to perfection! You’ll love this fall season spicy sweet rib recipe.

Rack of Sweet Heat Pumpkin Spice Pork Ribs on cutting board by Sear Marks

Is it possible to have tender ribs if they are grilled?

Absolutely, ribs can be tender if they are grilled. You will need time though. Just like smoking or roasting in an oven  a slab of spare ribs needs to slowly be brought up to temperature to break down the connective tissues and melt the pork fat into the meat. Plan on having these ribs on the grill at least 5 hours.

Should Spare Ribs be boiled or simmered in water before they are put on the grill?

You should never ever boil ribs in water! True story. Went to a backyard party once and the host was boiling his ribs. I mean really boiling the ribs in water for a long time. Then put them on the grill for a few minutes and slathered some brand name BBQ sauce all over the ribs. The host very proudly presented his ribs to the party and being a good guest I had a few ribs. Sure, they were fall of the bone, but the boiling took every bit of pork flavor away from ribs. All that was left was a mushy mess slathered with a high sugar BBQ sauce. That’s not what we are going for here! You want the seasoning to compliment the pork flavor not overwhelm it and the ribs to be tender but not “fall off the bone”.

Shouldn’t ribs be fall off the bone?

Many grilling newbies have heard the term “fall off the bone” when talking about characteristics of tasty ribs. That is not what you should be aiming for. If fall off the bone was the goal then you can just boil or steam ribs. The consistency you are looking for is tender but you need to give just a little pull when ripping the meat off the rib bone. Fall off the bone ribs usually means mushy flavorless overcooked ribs.

Temperature to grill Spare ribs

Like smoking or roasting spare ribs, grilling spare ribs should be a slow process. You don’t want the grill to be at a high temperature. Bring your grill up to 250 degrees F. At this low temperature the cooking process will take 5 hours for that fatty cut of spare ribs. The low and slow technique will allow the outside of ribs and seasoning to form a nice bark while the fat and collagen breaks down into a gelatin. This is why the ribs are not only tender but also tasty.

What seasoning do you use on spare ribs?

For this recipe for spare ribs a dry rub that is sweet from brown sugar is smeared over the ribs, but also two different types of chilies to add heat as well. To finish off the seasoning mixture for this spare rib recipe you can use pumpkin spice. This might sound unusual but pumpkin spice is typically a mixture of cinnamon, allspice, and clove all of which give off just a little warmth. The pumpkin spice does very well with the sugar and chilies combined with the pork.

Sweet Heat Seasoning is one of my favorite dry rubs for either pork or chicken. The first bite gives you the sweet flavor from the sugar and in this recipe you get a little bit of depth from the  cinnamon, clove and allspice after the sweet. Those flavors are followed up with a nice bit of heat from the chilies.

Again, these flavors aren’t masking the taste of the pork they are enhancing it.

Sweet Heat Dry Rub

Place the ribs on your grill grate with the bones facing down. Also turn the burner off that is directly below the ribs. You don’t want direct heat on the ribs. Because of the sugar in the dry rub the ribs will burn if they are directly over the flame.

Rack of Pork Ribs on Grill

In the majority of my posts one common theme is paying attention to your grill. I’m always pushing for folks to stay next to the grill. In this case, I’m giving you full permission to put the grill lid down then walk away from the grill and do something else. This is not the type of recipe that you need to be at full grilling attention. Once you put the ribs down, they will stay down. Not a lot of flipping is necessary. Only time you will move the ribs is once in the middle of the grilling process. You will keep the bones facing down, but you will rotate the ribs so that the side that was farthest to flame will now be the closest. This will help the ribs cook evenly.

Rack of Sweet Heat Pork Ribs on Grill

When do you know grilled ribs are finished cooking?

After 5 hours at 250 degrees F it’s time to check the ribs. The first check is visual. Do you see the bones starting to push out the sides of the ribs? That’s a good indictor they are getting close to done.

Now that the ribs visually look done it’s time to check doneness by picking them up with tongs. The ribs should bend into an upside down U shape. What you are looking for is the crust that has formed on the top of the ribs to start to crack as the ribs start to bend in the air while the tongs grab them. Again, we are not looking for fall off the bone so don’t worry about the ribs falling apart on you, but you should be able to see the meat start to peak out from behind the bark.

Spare Ribs

If your ribs pass that test you can also check the thickest part of the slab for an internal temp of 195 degrees. At that temp, the ribs should be fully cooked based on recommended standards and the fat and connective tissue should have broken down at those high temp levels.

Let the ribs sit for a few minutes and then go ahead and take your knife and slide it down the side of each individual rib. You should have a nice tender rib ready to gentle come off the bone. Then sit back an enjoy your grilled spar ribs with sweet heat pumpkin spice rub!

Sliced Pork Ribs

If you like recipe for spare ribs try these other pork rib recipes from Searmarks. Just click the link!

Spicy Apple Cider Pork Riblets

Pork Spareribs with Cranberry Pepper BBQ Sauce

Print Recipe

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Sweet Heat Spare Ribs

By sear marks – Serves: 2

Prep Time: 10 minutes – Cooking Time: 5 hours

Spare Ribs seasoned with a sweet heat pumpkin spice dry rub then grilled to perfection

Ingredients

• 1 slab St Louis Pork Spare Ribs
• Seasonings for rub
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 4 tablespoons lite brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon Aleppo chili pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon chipotle chili pepper
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin spice seasoning

Instructions

1

Combine all dry seasoning

2

Coat the top of the spare ribs with seasoning

3

Place the ribs bone side down off the direct heat.

4

Grill should be 250 F

5

Grill with lid down for 2.5 hours.

6

Rotate the ribs 180 degrees so the other side of the ribs are now closer to the grill flame.

7

Continue to grill 2.5 hours

8

Ribs should reach an internal temp of 190 degree F