If you love fall-off-the-bone delicious gluten free ribs, this recipe is a family-pleasing dinner recipe to try! I am talking flavor-popping ribs with a finger-licking homemade sweet and spicy barbecue sauce your family is going to LOVE!
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Raise your hands if you love barbecue ribs!!
Our family loves to make ribs. BBQ pork ribs are the perfect meal to make on the grill. I feel like my teens are always hungry and I often have to buy more than one rack of ribs to satisfy their appetite!
I am so excited to share my newest recipe with you because most importantly, ribs have a stigma of being difficult to make. I am ready to shatter that by showing you how easy and foolproof cooking ribs can be.
Grab a few simple ingredients and fire up your grill! You are sure to love this recipe for BBQ spare ribs on the grill. If you love to grill, try this Grilled Pork Chops recipe too!
Ways To Cook Ribs:
- Start the ribs in the oven and finish on the grill. This is the quickest cooking method.
- Cook them the whole time on the grill the whole time. You will love the flavor you get cooking these ribs on the grill, but it will take longer.
- Cook them in a smoker. We love our barrel smoker, but it takes many hours.
- Bake the gluten free barbecue ribs in the oven.
Ingredient Notes For Gluten Free Pork Ribs:
- Ribs - I used bone-in pork ribs for this recipe.
- Strawberry Jam - Any brand is fine.
- Ketchup - You can use any brand of ketchup, just check to ensure your ketchup is gluten free.
- Green Chiles - Use mild or medium spice.
- Maple Syrup - This adds a bit of sweetness that really works well in this recipe.
- Molasses - I used blackstrap molasses.
- Garlic - Use minced garlic.
- Spice Rub - The spice rub is below. I like to use either McCormick or Penzeys as these are gluten free.
Are you ready to grill some barbecue gluten free ribs?
If you love to grill, this tool kit has everything you need! I love the tongs, marinade brushes, and easy grips for vegetables! It also cleans really well.
Step-By-Step-Directions:
Step 1: Let's make the barbecue spice rub! The rub is not only to add a little flavor into the ribs while they cook, but it primes the meat for the barbecue sauce. The most important flavors in this rub are salt and paprika.
These spices blend in with the strawberry and green chile flavors in the barbecue sauce, which you will read about shortly! In a small bowl, combine:
- 2 teaspoons salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon of cumin
Step 2: Dash outside and preheat the grill to 200º F (or preheat your oven to 300º F if you plan to precook the pork ribs a bit in your oven first.)
Step 3: Spread the rub onto the uncooked ribs. Make sure to coat both sides! Allow the meat to sit for 15 minutes.
Step 4: Wrap the pork ribs in tin foil and allow them to cook for 1 hour on the grill. I will turn the ribs over every 20-25 minutes so they cook evenly. Keep the heat low at 200º F.
Step 5: Unwrap the pork ribs and brush both sides with the homemade barbecue sauce. (See the recipe below!)
Step 6: Cook without the foil, basting with barbecue sauce every 20 minutes. Turn the ribs each time you add sauce. Continue to slow grill the ribs.
Step 7: These BBQ gluten free ribs are done when they have an internal temperature of 160-170º F. Use a knife to slice between each rib to cut up the rack of ribs.
Substitutions:
There are a few easy substitutions you can use in this sweet and spicy ribs recipe:
- You can use honey in place of maple syrup.
- If you don't have ketchup, you can use pizza sauce. Pizza sauce is sweet similar to ketchup.
- If you do not want these spicy, omit the green chiles.
Recipe FAQ:
You can get pork ribs from three areas of a pig. There are country-style, back ribs, and spare ribs.
I personally love back ribs because they tend to be leaner and more tender when cooked.
Store these ribs in an airtight container for up to 3 days in the refrigerator. You can also freeze them in a zip-style freezer bag.
More Gluten Free Pork Recipes:
- Gluten Free Pork Fried Rice
- Easy Gluten Free Ground Pork Pasta Sauce
- Grilled Pork Chops
- Ground Pork Chili
- Boneless Spare Ribs
📖 Recipe
Sweet and Spicy Barbecue Grilled Pork Ribs
Ingredients
- 2 pounds ribs bone in pork ribs
- ⅓ cup strawberry jam
- ⅓ cup ketchup
- 1 tablespoon green chiles finely chopped
- 3 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon molasses regular or blackstrap
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 2 cloves garlic minced
Instructions
- Preheat the grill to 200 degrees F.
- Place the pork ribs on foil and cover with the spice rub. Allow to sit 5 minutes.
- Wrap the pork ribs in foil and slow cook on the grill for 20 minutes.
- Combine all of the ingredients in a saucepan, cover, and simmer on low for 15 minutes. Coat the pork ribs with the sauce when they are almost done cooking!
- Remove the pork ribs from the foil and coat the pork ribs in the homemade barbecue sauce.
- Cook for an additional 15 minutes, turning the ribs over so both sides are cooked with the sauce. Check for an internal temperature of 160-170F degrees.
SPECIAL NOTE
Please know that every gluten free flour blend has a different starch to grain ratio. If you use a blend I didn't test, you may need to adjust your moisture levels in your baked goods.
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer
Nutritional information is an estimate provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the actual nutritional information with the products and brands you are using with your preferred nutritional calculator.
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amine@ instant pot sizes
Yum! These ribs look amazing! I love starting mine in the oven and finishing them up on the grill.
Sandi Gaertner
Thank you so much Amine 🙂
Andrea @ Cooking with Mamma C
I love that you have strawberry jam and maple syrup in your recipe! These ribs look fabulous. I usually cook mine in the Crock Pot for a lazy method, but would love to try them on the grill.
Sandi Gaertner
Thank you so much Andrea...I love the lazy crock pot method too 🙂