This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
You’re going to be so addicted to these tender oven-baked honey butter ribs! They have the most incredible flavor and everyone will be asking you to bring them to every party!
My friend shoved a piece of these honey butter ribs in my face when I walked into her house to pick up Winston.
“Taste this.”
Her house already smelled incredible so I knew these ribs would be phenomenal.
I think my eyes bulged out of their sockets when I finally had a taste.
These were the most tender and flavorful ribs I had ever tasted.
I mean, honey, butter, and brown sugar. It can’t taste that bad with that combination.
How do you cook ribs to make them tender and fall off the bone?
Low and slow. That’s the only way!
Cooking it on a low oven temperature ensures all the meaty fibers break down and you’re left with an extremely tender and fall off the bone meat.
You have to have patience when cooking ribs. It can’t be something you whip together in an hour.
So definitely make sure you have time to make this before you start.
Baby back ribs or St. Louis ribs? What’s the difference?
To be honest, I don’t know the difference. I think baby back ribs are leaner and more tender.
They both taste good to me though, haha
I believe I made these with baby back ribs. Whole Foods had a crazy sale for Prime members a while back and I had to take advantage.
Tips for success with making honey butter ribs
Don’t peek!
Be patient!
Let it do its thing.
Seriously.
That’s like when you’re cooking a roast in a dutch oven or slow cooker.
The less you open it up, the more tender it will be.
When you open up something that has been cooking for a while, you let out all the heat and it has to heat up again and it dries it out.
It also just lets out all the liquid to evaporate.
Just let it be and let it cook. It’s super tempting, but you know it’ll all be worth it in the end.
What ingredients you’ll need for these oven-baked honey butter ribs
- A rack of baby back ribs
- Honey
- Butter
- Brown sugar
- Your favorite spice rub
Can I make these in the slow cooker?
Theoretically, they would work because it’s kind of the same thing but I haven’t actually done it myself so I don’t know timing.
I’d assume maybe 6-8 hours on low?
Don’t take my word for it.
I would certainly try it if you want to, though.
What do these taste like?
Well, they’re sweet and salty.
But they’re also nutty from the butter that kind of browns with cooking.
The sugars caramelize and it’s also a bit spicy but not like super spicy.
It’s just a back of the throat heat and warms you up but not like blowing fire out of your mouth spicy.
If you like recipes for ribs, you may like these too:
- Beer-BQ Baby Back Ribs for Two
- Hoisin-Glazed Spare Ribs
- Honey Garlic Baby Back Ribs
- Honey Chipotle Ribs
Make sure to pin this image below to save the recipe to make later!
Tender Oven-Baked Honey Butter Ribs
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 racks (2 rack) baby back ribs, about 5 pounds
For the honey butter sauce
- 4 tablespoons (56 g) unsalted butter, melted
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon honey
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
For the spice rub
- 1 ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- ¼ teaspoon ground mustard
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 250 °F (121 °C) and line a large, rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil, preferably double-lined. Additionally, have two-four large pieces of aluminum foil, the length of the racks of ribs, set aside.
- In a bowl, whisk together the ingredients for the honey butter sauce. Set aside.
- Prepare the ribs by removing the silver skin from the back of the ribs.
- If your rack of ribs are large, you can cut them in half. Place the ribs, skin-side up (meaty side down on the foil), on the prepared pieces of foil.
- Evenly distribute and pour 3/4 of the honey butter sauce between the racks of ribs and rubbing it in with your hands on both sides. It’s okay if it drips down the side onto the aluminum foil. You’re going to fold them up and make them into pouches anyway.
- Once the ribs are rubbed, fold up all sides of the aluminum foil to basically make a package with your ribs then place on the prepared baking sheet.
- Place into the oven for 4 hours. During this time, DO NOT open the pouches to peek. Just let them cook.
- In the meantime, whisk together ingredients for spice rub and set aside.
- Once time is up, remove the baking sheet from the oven then turn the oven to 400 °F (204 °C).
- Carefully open the rib pouches and brush the ribs with the remainder of the honey butter sauce and drippings and sprinkle the spice rub on top.
- Place back into the oven to bake for an additional 7-10 minutes; just until the outside crusts and browns a little.
- Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes before cutting and serving!
I have boneless ribs how can I cook them, same way??
Yep, same way!
I understand why the person was confused by which side to put the dry spices on…the instructions say to lay the ribs “skin side up” & to me, that would be the back side (bone side) where the skin was removed. So, should the ribs be baked w/meaty side up?
Yep!
@Julie Wampler, no the recipe says to put the meaty side down to cook. then when you open foil, turn the ribs over and add the rub – correct????
sorry for the confusion; i should clarify in the recipe so there is no more confusion. you are right, my mistake – meaty side down to cook. i will clarify in the recipe!
Not very flavorful. They definitely fell off the bone. Not sure why all the spices were not put on the meat side. Why is the rub only put on for 10 minutes?
I have no idea what you are talking about? The spices are put on the meat side. “Carefully open the rib pouches and brush the ribs with the remainder of the honey butter sauce and drippings and sprinkle the spice rub on top.” Additionally, the rub is put on for 10 minutes because at the high temperature, it bakes the spice onto the rib exterior.
Would this work with parchment paper instead of aluminum foil? I’m trying to stay away from aluminum. Thanks
It should, yes. But the oils will likely soak your parchment paper through so you might want to stick to foil.
Do you think this recipe would work on country style ribs?
Yep!!
I don’t think that a tablespoon each of brown sugar and honey and 4 tablespoons of butter and then only using 3/4 of that to cover 5 LBS of ribs would be enough, has to be a typo
Hi Dana, it’s not a typo. 5 pounds of ribs sounds like a lot, sure, but bones are factored into the weight so it’s actually not as much meat as you’d expect. If you think that this is a typo and want to up the amount of butter, sugar, and honey, please feel free to adjust to what you think you’ll need!
These look amazing
Thank you!!
I’d be interested in a slow cooker version. I’ve been trying to find as many dinner recipes as possible that do not use the oven, as it is just so hot. Even pressure cooker. I’ve been trying to use my pressure cooker more often, and have found that for the most part it works like the slow cooker on most anything, just very fast.
Hi, I did mention this in my post
I have some spareribs in my freezer right now, I might have to try these! FYI – backribs get pulled off the pork loin (or the back) and spareribs are pulled off the pork belly. I work for a meat company and thought I’d share!
Ahhh gotcha. Thanks for the info!!! I hope you try these!
These look AMAZING. I’ve never made ribs before, and TBH am a bit intimidated by them. But, that combo is too good to resist!
Thank you! And these aren’t intimidating at all! Just wrap them up and you’ll be fine!! :)
I normally don’t leave reviews, but I made these and they were on point, thank you so much. They where very very good.