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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!
Hi, you mention the taste of this recipe is sweet and salty. I did not see salt in the ingredients; and you listed unsalted butter. Do you use salt? How much? Thanks for sharing? Trying this today.
hi! ribs (to me) are somewhat naturally salty because of processing and preservation so that’s why it’s unsalted butter and also why i said “sweet and salty” because in savory dishes, that’s how i feel they taste when you add a hint of sweetness to it!
These are soo good. I have made them countless times now for dinner over the past year when I first read this. I’ve used all different kind of ribs bone and out long and short, always comes out incredible on the 250 for 4 hours with foil. I just adjust the amount of sauce to fit the amount of ribs. So very good though.
I’ve made these 5-6 times and they are amazing! We are meat eaters and this is a go to recipe for our family! I use more butter, honey, brown sugar and cayenne than it calls for and spice mix is perfect.
I made these and they were amazing!! Tender and just the right about of heat. Making them again today for the second time. Usually love the ribs my husband grills, but I think these are my new fav’s !!
Delicious food. I’ve made this recipe 3 times, everytime I like more. Thanks for sharing
We made this exactly as directed. The flavor was ok but it seemed like the spice rub didn’t have enough time to “soak in” to the meat. So it tasted like a topping. The meat itself wasn’t flavorful at all. Also, for some reason ours turned out sooooo dry. There was plenty of juices in the foil packet when opened. But the meat itself was very dry. Not sure if it was the particular meat we got, or maybe the cook time was just too long. Overall, I’d probably give this recipe a try again and make a few adjustments. I wanted to love these a lot.
Can you make the ribs without foil
It’s best to make it with foil so it doesn’t dry out and all the sauce is contained to basically continually baste the ribs throughout the cooking process
I put the ribs in with the bone up??♀️ There’s 2 hours left should I just leave them cook?!
It’ll be fine!
I mixed all the spices in with the honey, butter and brown sugar as well as 1/2 cup Sweet Baby Rays bbq sauce—smeared it on both sides of the ribs, cooked meaty side down for 2 1/2 hours—opened up foil, flipped ribs over and brushed with a touch more bbq sauce. Cooked about 20 min more with. Foil open until cartelized—delicious!
These turned out great !!! Very flavorful. Will totally make them again !
Awesome!! Thanks for sharing.
@Julie Wampler
I cook for one and use boneless country style ribs, 4 max, how long do I cook to have juicy tender ribs?,