How to BBQ Ribs on Gas Grills
Ribs are one of the most well-known barbecued dishes throughout North America and the rest of the world. Though they’re usually a simple cut of meat, how you season the ribs and what sauces you use on them after cooking can add a lot of variety.
One of the best parts about serving and eating them is that they can pair perfectly with just about any kind of side dish as well. Because of how they’ve become a staple in barbecue, many people want to make ribs for barbecue parties and dinners. The only issue is that it can be difficult to know how.
If you’ve researched how to BBQ ribs on a gas grill before, you might have found many different ways to do so, but instead of using a gas grill, people say to use a charcoal grill. In fact, many people believe that there’s no good way to grill ribs with a gas grill. It won’t be as good as it could be if made on charcoal. But with the right technique and know-how, you can make a delicious rack of ribs on your propane barbecue.
To show you how to BBQ ribs on a gas grill, we’ve collected a few tips and tricks to teach you how to make them great. If you want to get a new propane barbeque to replace an old one or even some sauces and rubs to restock your pantry for your next outdoor party, visit Dickson Barbecue Centre for all that and more.
What’s the ideal temperature to cook ribs for?
When it comes to barbecuing ribs, there are two different temperatures for which you need to set your grill. The first is to start at 255 degrees Fahrenheit - roughly 124 degrees celsius -, at which you want to start the cooking.99
This will get the outer parts of the ribs properly cooked before you increase the temperature to thoroughly cook them. At this point, your ribs would be somewhat browned, though the internal temperature of the meat should be 165 Fahrenheit.
For the second half of the grilling time, you want to increase the grill’s internal temperature to 285 degrees Fahrenheit or 140.5 degrees celsius. Many barbecue masters prefer to wrap the ribs in aluminium foil or butcher paper before setting them back on the grill.
This allows the ribs to cook faster internally without darkening the outsides too much. Wrapping the ribs isn’t a necessary part of the grilling process, especially if you prefer to focus more on flavour than visual appeal.
How long to barbecue ribs for
For maximum flavour and assuming that you’re putting the ribs on the barbecue raw, a rough estimate as to how long it would take is three and a half hours. This, of course, isn’t a time limit that’s set in stone. The time needed how to BBQ short ribs on a gas grill isn’t the same amount that’s needed for much larger beef ribs.
The three-and-a-half-hour time can lengthen or shorten depending on how hot the grill can become, whether or not it can hold the temperature well and how many and how meaty your rack of ribs is. In the end though, if you want to barbecue a rack of ribs, you’ll need to cook them at lower heat for longer times, regardless of your grill’s type.
How to BBQ ribs in foil on a gas grill
Depending on whether you’re cooking the ribs long and slow or at a higher heat for a faster cook, wrapping them in foil is a lot more beneficial than it can seem at first. The heat that gets trapped inside the aluminium foil increases the speed that the meat cooks, loosening the connective fibres and making them tender. The foil also ensures that the juices and sauces that you have on the ribs stay there and enhance the flavour more.
While it’s recommended to wrap them after the ribs have reached 165 degrees Fahrenheit, you can barbecue the ribs in the foil, to begin with. Since the foil traps the heat better, you can increase the grill’s temperature to 375 Fahrenheit or 190 celsius. At this temperature, you get cooked ribs in about 45 minutes to an hour.
How to BBQ beef ribs on a gas grill
When it comes to barbecuing beef ribs, the overall method is mostly the same. You can wrap the rack of ribs in foil and cook them at a higher heat from the start or cook them a little from the start before wrapping them and increasing the heat.
However, there are a few things that may affect how long it may take. Beef ribs are naturally bigger than an average rack of pork ribs, which leads to a longer cooking time. They also tend to be fattier and meatier than pork ribs and thus need a bit more heat or time.
How to barbecue short & baby back ribs
If you haven’t had short ribs before, the cut is usually meatier than baby back ribs or the traditional rack. The short ribs, as the name suggests, are shorter and smaller than normal ribs, with one serving easily being four to five bones. Because of their size, they don’t require as much time to cook, only needing eight to ten minutes on medium-high heat. Much like other types of ribs, you can also grill these at lower temperatures.
Knowing how to BBQ baby back ribs on gas grills is similar to the other cuts of ribs. Consider how larger the individual racks are and how meaty they are before barbecuing them. The smaller cuts of ribs - like short ribs - can be cooked for as long as 10 hours at low temperatures, so baby back ribs are likely to take a little longer.
Takeaway
The question of how to BBQ ribs on a gas grill can be answered differently depending on what type of methods you prefer to use when barbecuing. If you want to cook them within the hour, you can grill them at higher temps to get the meat properly cooked. With a longer cooking temperature, you use lower heat. In the end, wrapping the ribs in foil can be effective in both faster and slower barbecuing methods and can be done either way.