How to Make Baby Back Ribs on a Pit Boss Pellet Grill

Learn step by step how to prepare perfectly smoked baby back ribs on a Pit Boss pellet grill!

We cover how to prep, season, cook, and sauce your baby backs using the 3 2 1 Method and why the Pit Boss pellet grill makes it so easy to cook these ribs.

Let’s go!

 

Baby Back Ribs vs. Pork Spare Ribs

Why do we LOVE baby back ribs so much?

Well it may have to do with them being leaner and sometimes meatier than there sparerib counterparts, also known as St. Louis Style or St. Louis Cut Ribs.

Now, they both come from the same rib, hogs don’t have one set of baby back ribs and another set of spare ribs.

But, the baby backs are cut from the 1/3 of that rib that is closer to the spine, or back of the pig, in the same area as the spinalis muscle, or loin, where the pork chops are taken from.

In fact, a full size, untrimmed, bone-in pork chop would have a baby back rib attached to it.

Baby back ribs share a lot of the same leaner whiter meat which is why they are so delicious, but also easier than spare ribs to over cook and dry out if not cooked properly.

We will go over:

1. How to keep these lean baby back ribs moist while smoking them on your Pit Boss.
2. How to wrap them so that they become fall off the bone tender.
3. How to season and sauce them with some of the best products on the market.

 

How Many Racks of Baby Back Ribs Should I Buy to Cook on my Pit Boss?

If you are feeding a crowd, you may be trying to decide how many slabs of baby back ribs you need to cook on your Pit Boss to feed everyone.

Most hungry adults can easily eat a half a slab which is about 6 ribs.

Take into consideration if you are also serving other proteins or a lot of heavy sides in which case folks may only take 3-4 ribs.

One great way to fit a lot of ribs at once on your Pit Boss is to use a Rib Rack.

You can stand 5 racks upright and fit around 10 slabs on a typical PIt Boss pellet grill so you can feed a large crowd!

 

How to Prepare Baby Back Ribs for the Pit Boss Pellet Grill

 

Remove the Membrane

Once you have removed your slabs of baby back ribs from the packaging, you will need to remove the membrane on the back of each rack.

This membrane not only keeps the seasonings from penetrating the meat, but makes the ribs harder to carve and bite into or fall off the bone, and is well…just generally unappetizing to your guests.

Luckily it’s not hard to remove with a couple tricks used by BBQ professionals all over the world every day.

First, slide a good sharp knife, preferably a good boning knife like our favorite one from Imarku to get the membrane separated from one of the corners.

Next, once you can grab a little bit of the membrane, use a paper towel to grip it tight and pull down to the other corner.

Sometimes it comes off in one big piece, other times you will need to go back and remove some pieces that didn’t come off, but using a paper towel is the best way to get a hold of this slippery membrane.

Once this membrane is removed, you are ready to season your baby back ribs.

 

Apply the Rub

Mustard? But of Course!

Believe it or not, one of the best ways to bind your rub to your meat is with plain old yellow mustard.

Trust us.

And trust the thousands of BBQ competitors who have used it over the years.  You won’t taste any mustard flavor once the cook is over and it holds the rub in place like a champ.

Simply spread a thin layer of yellow mustard all over the front and back of your baby backs and then sprinkle your rub on after that.

If you are separating out your salt from your rub, add the salt first, then the rub on top of that so that the salt is closer to the surface of the meat.

If you truly have an aversion to using any kind of mustard, you can also substitute a thin layer of any kind of cooking oil you wish.

But make sure to use something as this will help the rub adhere to the meat and not fall off as you are handling it.

 

Let the Rub Rest

Once you’ve applied your rub to the baby backs, don’t throw them right on the PIt Boss just yet.

Give the rub about 20-30 minutes to draw some moisture out of the meat and create a nice paste on the outside of the meat.

This pulled out moisture will absorb a lot of your smoke flavor, and eventually that moisture will make its way BACK into the meat as it rises in temperature pulling your delicious rub and absorbed smokiness with it into the meat and also helping to create that coveted pink smoke ring.

 

The Best Rubs and Sauces for Cooking Baby Back Ribs on a Pit Boss

 

Our Favorite Baby Back Rib Rub Brands and Homemade Rub Recipe

Asking “What’s the best rub for ribs?” is kind of like asking “What is the best car on the market?”, or “Who was the best baseball player?”

You are bound to start some opinionated discussions.

But like all things BBQ, it comes down to your personal preferences, dietary restrictions, the crowd you are cooking for, and really, just what you happen to be in the mood for that day.

If you don’t want a lot of salt, make your own rub and cut back on the salt.  If you don’t want a lot of sugar, we’ve got a great suggestion below for that too.

What we CAN say is we’ve tried A LOT of rubs and sauces over the years, and these are our favorites below.

 

Blues Hog

Blues Hog products are widely used on the competition circuit, and for good reason.

Their original rub is very sugar and paprika forward, without a lot of spice, so if you are going for a sweeter flavor for your baby backs, this is the way to go.

 

Three Little Pigs

Three Little Pigs is one of our personal favorites, and their Kansas City Championship Rub will give you a bit more garlic, onion, and spice than Blues Hog will.

You can always mix it in with a more balanced rub like Blues Hog if you just want to add a little of those flavors.

 

Bad Byron’s Butt Rub

If you want to use a quality rub without ANY sugar, we are big fans of Bad Byron’s Butt Rub Seasoning.

Although we typically use it on cuts of beef and steaks where we are going for a more savory flavor, there is no reason you can’t apply it to your Pit Boss smoked baby back ribs because it is heavy on flavor, and has no sugar.

 

Homemade Rubs

Meathead’s Memphis Dust

We are big fans of Meathead Goldwyn over at Amazingribs.com, and are also in love with his Memphis Dust Rub recipe.

It’s so good, you don’t even need sauce.

Now, Meathead doesn’t put salt in any of his rub recipes but rather salts his meat separately first.

So make sure to take that into consideration if you choose to prepare this classic rub for your baby back ribs.

 

Homemade “In a Pinch” Rub

Sometimes, you forgot you ran out of your favorite rub, or don’t have all the ingredients on hand to make a complex one from scratch.

 

If you just want to get a good classic rub on your baby back ribs before throwing them on the Pit Boss, then we’ve got you covered with this simple rib rub recipe with seasonings most people have on hand in the pantry:

• 1/2 Cup Dark Brown Sugar
• 1/4 Cup Paprika
• 1 Tbsp Coarse Ground Black Pepper
• 1 Tbsp Kosher Salt (Or 1/2 Tbsp table salt, go easy, you can always add more salt later)
• 1 Tbsp Chili Powder
• 1/2 Tbsp Granulated Garlic or Garlic Powder (adjust to taste)
• 1/2 Tbsp Onion Powder (adjust to taste)
• 1/4 Tsp Cayenne Pepper (optional)

Mix thoroughly, (using a re-usable plastic shaker works best), and then sprinkle directly on your ribs after applying some jstard to bind as described above.

 

Our Favorite Baby Back Rib Sauces

Blues Hog again wins the day here with their amazing lineup of sauces.  While their rubs are great, their sauces are WORLD CLASS.

Their Original BBQ Sauce is VERY thick, VERY sweet, and incredibly heavy on flavor, so a little goes a LONG way.

In fact, we actually like to cut it with their Tennessee Red Sauce, which is a thinner, more vinegar based sauce, that is our hands down favorite sauce to use on our Pit Boss pulled pork as described here.

You can pick up both and mix them like we do, or mix Blues Hog Original in with one of your other favorite (we’d suggest more savory sauces to balance the sugar, like this one from Aaron Franklin.)

Kosmos also makes a great lineup of BBQ sauces that work great on baby back ribs, especially if you want to try some more adventurous flavors such as their Peach Habanero or Honey Jalapeno.

 

The Best Wood Pellets for Smoking Baby Back Ribs on a PIt Boss Pellet Grill

You have a lot of options when it comes to choosing the right wood pellets to smoke your baby back ribs on a Pit Boss pellet grill.

Mesquite and hickory will give a very aggressive smoke flavor to the lean baby back ribs, usually a little too much, if used solely on their own rather than mixed with a milder fruitwood or blend.

Pecan, apple, beech, alder, and cherry pellets all give great results on baby backs when cooked on a Pit Boss.

For a very straightforward flavor on baby backs, we are big fans of Bear Mountain Red and White Smoky Oak Pellets

For the best results, store your unused pellets in a sealed room temperature container like this 20 lb pellet container rather than in the Pit Boss hopper outside.

Pellets do not last forever, but will definitely last a LOT longer if stored indoors in a quality airtight container.

 

How a Pit Boss Pellet Grill Works

We have previously covered how to season a Pit Boss, how to start a Pit Boss, as well as how to troubleshoot the smoke level of your Pit Boss.

So if you need a more in-depth review on how to use your Pit Boss for the first time, check those articles out first!

But below is a brief overview of how a Pit Boss pellet grill works and how to start it up properly to prepare to smoke your food.

In order to cook ANYTHING well on a Pit Boss pellet grill, you need to first have a basic understanding of how a pellet grill works.

***Completely New to Using a Pellet Grill?  No Worries!****

Hop over and check out this Complete Guide to Understanding How a Pellet Grill Works  if you are interested in learning more in depth.  We’ll be here when you get back!***

 

Add the Hardwood Pellets

First, you add hardwood pellets into the side hopper.

The Pit Boss pellet grill automatically feeds these small wood pellets via an auger mechanism to a fire pot where they are burned up, providing both heat and smokey flavor.

The pellet grill automatically controls the flow of pellets depending on your temperature setting so that you maintain an even temperature throughout the entire cook.

 

How to Start up the Pit Boss Pellet Grill

1. Fill your hopper with pellets as described above.
2. Make sure the fire pot is cleaned out from the last cook and not full of ashes. You can remove it from the bottom and dump or vacuum it out and then put back and clip into place.
3. Plug in and start up the pellet grill, keeping the lid open.  Set the temperature dial to “Smoke” and press the “Power” button.
4. If there are no pellets in the auger or firepot yet, only in the hopper, you need to now hold the “Prime” button until you hear pellets begin to drop into the firepot.
5. The “Prime” feature on a Pit Boss pellet grill speeds up the auger so that pellets fill it quickly and get to your fire pot before the pellet grill “times out” from a lack of pellets coming into the fire pot.
6. Once pellets are in the firepot, stop holding the “Prime” button and wait about 5-7 minutes with the lid open for a torchy burner lighting sound. This means the fire rod has come up to temperature and has ignited the pellets.  At this point, a more significant amount of smoke will begin coming out of the pellet grill.  This means the pellets are ignited and the pellet grill is working.  Now you can close the lid.
7. Close the lid and change the temperature setting to 350°F.  Pit Boss recommends always preheating to this temperature FIRST, even if you are eventually going to cook low and slow in the 200°-300° range.
8. This will take about 10-15 minutes to preheat the grill.
9. Using a good bristle free grill brush, clean off the grill grates.
10. Now adjust the temperature to where you need it to cook your food.  In our case, drop the temperature to 250°F for the baby back ribs.

 

Why Bristle Free Grill Brushes? 

Check out our Ultimate Guide to How to Keep your Family Safe by using ONLY Bristle Free Grill Brushes, along with a selection of some of our favorites!

 

How to Cook Baby Back Ribs on a Pit Boss Pellet Grill

Now that the baby back ribs have been seasoned and the rub has rested and permeated the meat a bit, all that’s left to do is cook them!

With a Pit Boss, this is the easy part!

Pro Tip: Line your slabs up with the thicker ends to the right, which is normally the hotter side of the Pit Boss.

 

What Temperature do you Cook Baby Back Ribs on a Pit Boss Pellet Grill?

We recommend initially setting up the smoker to cook at 250°F.

This seems to be the sweet spot where its low enough that the outside doesn’t overcook but also high enough that the baby backs don’t cook for so long that they dry out.

If you choose to cook at a higher or lower temperature, make sure to adjust your times during each stage of The 3 2 1 Method outlined below.

 

Using The 3 2 1 Method to Cook Baby Back Ribs on a Pit Boss Pellet Grill

A popular technique for smoking all types of ribs, including spare ribs and beef ribs, is what’s known as The 3 2 1 Method.

This refers to the following blocks of time:

• The First 3 Hours: Smoking the ribs
• The Next 2 Hours: Wrapping the ribs in foil so that they steam and get tender and more “Fall off the Bone” style.
• The Last 1 Hour: Taking them out of the foil and putting them back on the grill to firm up and finally saucing them during the last 30 minutes.

Now, this is just a framework, and a way of simplifying the process.  Understand that in BBQ there are no absolutes.

You can keep your Pit Boss pegged at 250°F throughout this whole process.

 

The First 3 Hours – Smoke

3 hours is a suggestion. You may only need to smoke the baby back ribs for 2 hours before wrapping.

The idea is to get a nice smoke flavor on them and get them to turn a nice dark red and amber color without completely drying them out.

One way to keep them from drying out is to spritz them with some sort or flavorful juice, cola, or beer during this part of the cook.

Many BBQ pros like to use a mixture of 75% apple juice and 25% apple cider vinegar.

Some use cola and swear by the sugar caramelizing on the surface.

Once you have a nice color on the ribs after about 1.5 to 2 hours, keep a close eye on them if you cook any longer.

You want to avoid burnt edges and big splits across the top of the meat.

You can rotate them a bit during this time if one side of your Pit Boss is a lot hotter than the other.

If you are using rib racks, turn them over about half way through the cook to make sure they cook evenly and to keep all the internal moisture from draining down to one end of the ribs.

 

The Next 2 Hours – Wrap

Have fun with your ingredients inside the foil.

Many BBQ competitors use a combination Parkay squeeze butter, brown sugar, and honey to make a sweet glazy bath for their ribs in the foil.

Pro Tip: For more moist, fall off the bone meat, place the ribs upside down into your foil wrap of ingredients, wrap, and then place the whole packet on the grill upside down this way.  Then turn them back over right side up to firm up later when you remove form the foil in step 3.

Again, 2 hours is a suggestion, and with baby backs, unlike their fattier sparerib and beef back rib counterparts, you probably won’t need to wrap a full 2 hours.

The longer you wrap, the more the ribs will steam and become fall off the bone tender.

Some people like their ribs completely fall off the bone, ala your well known national chain “Tex/Mex/BBQ” restaurants that make their ribs in pressure cookers or others that hold them in steam drawers for hours until somebody actually orders “The Ribs.”

Others just want to loosen their ribs up a little so they pull off the bone more cleanly, more akin to how they are prepared on the BBQ Competition Circuit.

Wherever you land on this spectrum, just know that if you over do it and you’ll end up with a foil bag of bare bones and loose shredded pork.

So wrap tightly for only 45 minutes to an hour at most and then check every 15 minutes until you see the meat pulling away from the ends of the bones.

This is usually a good indicator they are ready to come out of the foil.

 

The Final Hour – Firm and Sauce

It may take a few cooks for you to learn exactly how long to wrap your ribs based on how you like them.

Once you are ready to remove them from the foil be careful, the steam and liquid will be EXTREMELY HOT!

We recommend a good pair of insulated meat handling gloves to easily pick up the hot rack of baby backs rather than trying to awkwardly use forks and tongs.

For one, you don’t want to burn yourself, but you also don’t want to end up with a hot slippery slab of ribs on the ground.

Place the baby back ribs back on the Pit Boss unwrapped and right side up (or back in the rib rack) and give them about 30 minutes to firm up a little before you start putting on any sauce.

Then baste your favorite sauce (or combo of sauces like Blues Hog Original and Tennessee Red mentioned above) on for the last 30 minutes.

This will give the sauce some time to caramelize on the ribs a bit and stick to the meat.

 

You are welcome to crank the heat on your Pit Boss here for the last 30 minutes up to 275-300°F but just make sure not to burn the sugars in you sauce!

 

How to Carve and Serve Pit Boss Smoked Baby Back Ribs

When it comes to slicing up and serving your Pit Boss baby back ribs, you can stand them upright to see the lines of the bones easier and cut top to bottom.

A good meat slicing knife makes all the difference and will keep the baby backs from falling apart as you slice.

We particularly like this meat slicing knife from Mairico.

We don’t recommended cutting every rib up individually before serving or they are more likely to dry out.

Remember, this is still relatively lean white pork loin meat compared to something like darker, and fattier, pulled pork or spare ribs.

 

Depending how many guest you are serving, you can either give each person their own 1/3 to 1/2 slab, or put them on a platter cut up in 2-3 rib sections for people to take with tongs.

Want to review our 5 FAVORITE Meat Cutting knives of the past year? Check out this Complete List HERE!

Serve some extra sauce on the side for those who want it, and enjoy!

 

What Other Food Can I Smoke on my Pit Boss Pellet Grill?

Looking for some more smoky inspiration for that new Pit Boss pellet grill?

So glad you asked.

More Pork

• Traeger Baby Back Ribs
• Pellet Grill Smoked Pork Chops
• Smoked Fresh Holiday Ham
• Spiral Sliced Smoked Hot Dogs
• Smoked Bratwurst with Beer Braised Onions
• Gas Grilled Bratwurst
• Pellet Grilled Bratwurst
• Roasted Pig in Your Backyard
• Traeger Smoked Pulled Pork
• Traeger 3-2-1 Pork Ribs
• Masterbuilt Electric Smoker Boston Butt
• Pit Boss Pulled Pork
• Masterbuilt Baby Back Ribs

 

Beef

• Traeger Prime Rib
• Pit Boss Beef Brisket
• Perfect Smoked London Broil
• Smoked Ribeye Roast
• Hot and Fast Pellet Grill Beef Brisket
• Smoked Corned Beef
• Smoked Ribeye Steaks
• Smoked Filet Mignon
• Pellet Grilled Steak
• Perfect Grilled Hamburgers
• Smoked Eye of Round Roast Beef
• Easy Smoked Flank Steak
• Traeger Beef Tenderloin with Horseradish Cream
• Pit Boss Smoked Beef Tenderloin
• Smoked Chuck Roast for Pulled Beef
• Pit Boss Smoked Prime Rib

 

Seafood

• Honey Smoked Salmon
• Smoked Oysters in a Garlic White Wine Sauce
• Smoked Scallops with Lemon Butter Sauce
• Smoked Lobster Tails
• Honey Smoked Tilapia
• Perfect Smoked Halibut
• Smoked Mahi Mahi Fillets
• Smoked Swordfish Steaks
• Smoked Crab Legs with Cajun Clarified Butter
• Smoked Mackerel with Maple Balsamic Glaze
• Smoked Catfish with Cajun BBQ Rub

 

Poultry

• Spatchcocked Chicken on a Pellet Grill
• Pellet Grill Smoked Turkey Breast
• Pellet Grill Turkey
• Spatchcock Smoked Turkey on a Pellet Grill
• Easy Smoked Turkey Legs
• Smoked Chicken Leg Quarters
• Beer Can Chicken on a Pellet Grill
• Trash Can Turkey – OK, technically not made on a grill or smoker but one of the most fun ways there is to cook a Turkey…at over 700 degrees in only 2 hours! 

 

Lamb

• Smoked Leg of Lamb with Guinness Marinade
• Smoked Lamb Chops with a Balsamic Butter Sauce
• Smoked Rack of Lamb with Garlic and Rosemary or Smoker
• Smoked and Pulled Lamb Shoulder with a Turkish Spice Rub
• Smoked Lamb Shanks

 

Other Odds and Ends

• Smoked Gouda Cheese
• Smoked Asparagus
• Smoked Cauliflower
• Sticky Smoked Sweet Potatoes
• How to Steam Tamales
• Maple Bourbon Smoked Pineapple