With this step-by-step recipe, you can make mouthwatering Baby Back Ribs in a Traeger smoker, too! Rub the pork ribs with a simple dry seasoning, smoke and bake until fall-apart tender, and baste with your favorite BBQ sauce. So good, you can’t stop eating them!
With a wife who is a talented cook and a master in Japanese food, I sometimes forget that I should help out more in the kitchen. So one of the goals I have set out to achieve is to lend Nami a hand whenever I can. It’s also a reminder to the kids that ‘Hey, Daddy can cook too!”.
Since my cooking expertise leans toward barbequing, I’ve been studying some recipes that would earn approval from my family. They can be a tough crowd, but they have always loved our friend John’s smoked baby back ribs recipe which I cook regularly. It was time for a new surprise.
Today I’m excited to share our family’s new favorite – Traeger Baby Back Ribs inspired by Franklin Barbecue in Austin.
Visiting Franklin Barbecue in Austin
Over the past few years, I’ve attended conferences in Austin, Texas and I always make it a point to hit up a few renowned Texas barbecues spots when I’m there. I’ve tried the smoked meats at the popular Salt Lick and Cooper’s Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que. The meats were juicy and tasty, and they did live up to their reputations.
Until last year, when we started to receive a flood of recommendations from readers on the famed Franklin Barbecue, I knew I had to make a visit there. In the city where you can find plenty of great smoked meat, why are people willing to wait three hours starting at 8 am (the restaurant opens at 11 am) just for some meat? What is the hype all about? I was too eager to find out.
It was a Thursday and I arrived at 12:30 pm, the line was out the door and down the side of the building but it doesn’t seem too long. Is it my lucky day? The lunch hour rush should be over soon and I can enjoy my food promptly. As I waited patiently, an hour went by and it felt like the line had come to a halt. Luckily, the restaurant has folding chairs for customers to sit on while waiting so I didn’t have to stand the entire time.
Another hour went by, the staff came out and greeted the train of people. They were letting us know they can’t guarantee what meat will be available by the time it’s our turn, but we should be able to get some food. WHAT??? Out of food? My hunger was attacking me by the minute and it was getting harder and harder to wait.
Finally, at 2 pm, I got through the restaurant’s door. Oh no, the line continued inside with 30 people ahead of me and at the same moment, it’s officially announced. Turkey has sold out.
The Brisket at Franklin Barbecue
At 2:19 pm, it was finally my turn at the counter and I got a brisket sandwich and sausages along with the potato salad. By this time I was famished. I took my food tray to a table and poured the BBQ sauce on the brisket.
I took a giant bite of the brisket sandwich, OMG, is this what heaven tastes like? The brisket more or less melted in my mouth, it had a perfect amount of smoky flavor and the seasoning was just perfect. The house BBQ sauce had the perfect amount of sweetness, saltiness, and tanginess that mixed in with the fatty brisket. The two-hour wait, it was well worth it. Unfortunately, it was all over in 5 minutes. I should have gotten two brisket sandwiches and take one with me for later.
I have to say Franklin Barbecue exceeded my expectations!
Back Home Testing and Tasting
Inspired by the life-changing experience at Franklin’s Barbeque, after returning from Austin, we purchased a Traeger smoker from Costco (much cheaper than most retailers) and Aaron Franklin’s two cookbooks, Franklin Barbecue: A Meat-Smoking Manifesto and Franklin Steak: Dry-Aged. Live-Fired. Pure Beef.
His cookbooks are really well written. They’re not stuffed with 100 recipes that most readers would never make. Instead, most of the contents educate the readers on meat, wood, fire, and the science behind seasoning, barbeque, grilling, and all aspects of cooking meat. They’re my new bibles for grilling and I highly recommend both books for anyone who loves barbeque.
Traeger Baby Back Ribs with Franklin BBQ Sauce
The first recipes we tried from the cookbook were Franklin’s spare ribs and barbeque sauce. Both were really good. The BBQ sauce alone is worth purchasing the book for. Our family absolutely loved the spare ribs but the proportion of meat to bone is much less than baby back ribs. We ended the meal hungrily and wanting more meat to eat.
In case you weren’t aware, spare ribs and baby back ribs are connected to each other on a pig. They are like the human rib cage, with large bones on the chest side (spare ribs) and smaller bones on the back (baby back ribs).
We then had the idea of cooking with a similar method on baby back ribs! That would be the best of both worlds. Time to test recipe!
After many tests and trials, we are really happy with the recipe below. If you never smoked meat before and have always wanted to try, this is a foolproof method with an incredible result! Best of all: the ingredients are simple and what you probably already have in the kitchen. The basic steps are:
- Make dry rub (mostly salt and pepper).
- Season meat and set aside for 1 hour.
- Smoke for 2 hours.
- Brush the sauce and smoke for 30 minutes.
- Wrap in foil and bake for 1-2 hours.
- Rest for 30 minutes and eat!
Easy right? Now let’s make it!
What is a Traeger smoker?
We shared smoked turkey breast (also inspired by Franklin’s recipe) over the holidays and talked about why we like the Traeger smoker. The short answer is the Traeger works pretty much like an electric oven, set the temperature and cook the food.
It is so easy to use and on average, we cook with it once every two weeks to test different meats. Unlike a barbeque grill, Traeger doesn’t burn food easily as it cooks with indirect heat. We would not recommend it for searing a thick steak since it doesn’t get as hot as a gas or charcoal grill, but it’s perfect for cooking chicken, pork shoulder, and other thick cuts of meats that require some time to cook.
We have the junior size smoker which can fit up to 3 racks of ribs (feeds 6-8 people).
Recommended Wood Pellets
For wood pellets, we find the Traeger branded ones have less flavor than Lumber Jack brand (same price on Amazon). Our go-to Lumber Jack pellet is an oak-hickory-cherry blend that goes well with almost all types of meat.
Tips for Traeger Baby Back Rib
Love baby back ribs? You have to give this recipe a try! It’s our family’s favorite and our daughter requests it at least once a month. There are no fancy ingredients required and the prep time is very short. Here are some tips based on our meat-smoking journey:
- Use 16-mesh black pepper for seasoning, the flavor is much more consistent and powerful than regular black pepper.
- If you don’t have apple cider vinegar, substitute with apple juice or white vinegar.
- Franklin’s BBQ sauce is not a “sweet” profile; it’s more tangy and acidic. It’s up to each person’s preference on what their favorite BBQ sauce flavor is. We’ve used Sweet Baby Ray BBQ Sauce for the ribs and it turned out really tasty as well.
- Take extra care not to puncture the foil while wrapping. We’ve had that happen before and the ribs didn’t turn out as tender.
- Based on Franklin’s recommendation, the meat side of the rib should be on the hotter side of the grill. For our Traeger, the bottom side of the grill is hotter. However, when we smoked with the meat side down, the bark got stuck on the grate and we lost some precious meat. So we smoke with the meat side up.
These smoked baby back ribs are perfect for entertaining, and win the best cook award in the family! They are seriously finger-licking good, so get the napkins ready.
Looking for other Traeger recipes? How about mouthwatering reverse sear steaks or smoked turkey breast for the next gathering?
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Traeger Baby Back Ribs
Ingredients
- 2 racks pork baby back ribs
- ½ cup apple cider vinegar (divided; 1–2 Tbsp for the mister, 6 Tbsp for the smoker)
- 2 cups your favorite BBQ sauce (we used Franklin’s BBQ recipe from his cookbook); we also like Sweet Baby Ray‘s brand)
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter (divided)
- 4 Tbsp honey (divided)
- 4 Tbsp brown sugar (divided)
For the Dry Rub (enough for 3–4 racks)
- 2 Tbsp 16-mesh ground black pepper (I get mine from Amazon)
- 1 Tbsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients and equipment you need.
To Prepare the Dry Rub
- To a glass jar, add the dry rub ingredients: 2 Tbsp 16-mesh ground black pepper, 1 Tbsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt, 1 tsp onion powder, and 1 tsp garlic powder).
- Close the jar and shake well. I highly recommend using a maraca sifter for even sprinkling.
To Prepare the Ribs
- Remove the membrane from the back of 2 racks pork baby back ribs by pulling it down with a paper towel (it‘s slippery). We usually ask the butcher to do this when we purchase the ribs. Add 1–2 Tbsp (15–30 ml) apple cider vinegar to a mister and spray the meat to wet it.
- Evenly sprinkle the dry seasoning all over the meat, starting with the bone side and including the edges. Let the meat rest for 1 hour at room temperature.
To Smoke the Ribs
- After 45 minutes, start preheating the Traeger smoker to 275ºF (135ºC).
- Create a metal cup with aluminum foil (I used a measuring cup as a mold) and pour the remaining 6 Tbsp (90 ml) apple cider vinegar inside.
- Once the Traeger reaches 275ºF (135ºC), place the ribs on the rack, meat side up, along with the cup with the vinegar. Smoke for 2 hours.
- Meanwhile, make 2 cups your favorite BBQ sauce. We made a BBQ sauce using a recipe from Franklin Barbecue: A Meat-Smoking Manifesto cookbook.
- After 2 hours, use the mister to spray the apple cider vinegar on the ribs.
- Use a brush to apply BBQ sauce on the meat side of the ribs.
- Smoke for another 15 minutes.
- After 15 minutes, flip the ribs over. Mist more vinegar on the meat.
- Brush the BBQ sauce on the ribs again. Smoke for an additional 15 minutes.
To Bake the Ribs
- Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 275ºF (135ºC). Prepare 2 layers of heavy-duty aluminum foil for each rack of ribs (leaving plenty of room to wrap the ribs).
- For each foil sheet, cut up 1 Tbsp unsalted butter into 4 pieces and spread it on the aluminum foil. Drizzle the foil with 2 Tbsp honey and 2 Tbsp brown sugar.
- Mist with apple cider vinegar and pour some BBQ sauce on top. Make the same aluminum sheet with butter, honey, sugar, apple cider vinegar, and BBQ sauce for the other foil sheet.
- Take out the ribs from the smoker and transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Lay a rack of ribs, meat side down, on the mixture on each foil sheet.
- Spray the bone side with vinegar and brush with BBQ sauce.
- Carefully wrap the meat without puncturing the aluminum foil.
- Seal the end of the aluminum foil so moisture can’t escape.
- Place the ribs on a baking sheet and bake in the oven for 2 hours.
To Serve
- Take the ribs out of the oven and rest in the foil for 20–30 minutes. Enjoy the ribs with your favorite BBQ sauce.
To Store
- You can keep the leftovers in an airtight container and store in the freezer for up to 1 month. To reheat the ribs, preheat the oven to 250ºF (121ºC) for 30 minutes or until warmed through.
Notes
- Heavy-duty aluminum foil
- Brush
- Glass jar
- Mister (optional)
- Maracasifter (optional)
Equipment
- Heavy-duty aluminum foil
- Brush
- Glass jar
- Mister (optional)
- Spice shaker (optional)
Thanks for this valuable information! It’s great to see discussions like this
I followed the base of this recipie and adjusted slightly. Had to adjust cooking time a bit for high altitude (4300′ + above sea level). 2hrs smoke, spritz, 15, spritz, 15, wrap bake for 40 min
I used 50/50 acv/dr pepper spritz and measured with my heart when it came to honey, butter, brown sugar, etc
Everyone said these are the best ribs they’ve ever tasted.
I sincerely appreciate the recipe.
Hi Rich,
Thank you so much for trying the recipe. I’m glad your guests enjoyed them as well! What did you have to adjust for cooking at high altitude?
Cooking time in the oven. The ribs hit temp after about 40 min. Although they were room temp when I started smoking them so that may have played a part in the oven time.
Making the same recipient tonight
I’ve tried multiple variations of traeger recipes, to include their own. This is the best so far hands down. I do three large racks at 250 for 3 and then 2 1/2 hours with an hour rest versus the 275 in this recipe, but overall a great recipe 👍👍
Hi Travis, thank you so much for your kind comments!
We are planning to follow your rib recipe. We however have a Kamado Classic grill so our cook will differ. Most Kamado grillers usually bring temp to your suggested temp of about 275 ( up to 300 is ok). Smoking would be for 2 hours before wrapping in your foil method for 1 to 2 hours. It would be after that the bbq sauce would be applied till it tacked up and the temp of the ribs at about 204. Misting would be every hour for the first 2 hours. Wood chunks added at the start for smoking. At least this is basically the usual method for smoking ribs on a Kamado type smoker. Have you had any experience with this grill and if so have you attempted to try your recipe on it or have readers or friends done it similarly?
Hi Alan,
I haven’t tried the recipe in the Kamado grill. If I understand your question correctly, you will apply the BBQ sauce after 4 hours of cooking, correct? We find incorporating the sauce while wrapped makes the ribs more juicy and the flavors more integrated.
Has anyone tried to smoke the ribs one day, and then finish the baking before a dinner party the next day?
You can keep it wrapped and warm up in the oven the next day at 200 F.
Wow-zer!! Made these for dinner tonight and they were a hit all around! I’m thrilled that I’ve FINALLY found a go-to recipe for ribs on the Traeger. They were so incredibly flavorful and fall-off-the-bone delicious! 😋 And the Franklin’s BBQ sauce you recommended—👌🏼 so so good! Thanks for sharing.
Hi Jackie! Thank you so much for trying the baby back ribs recipe. Nami and our daughter loves it as well and it’s one of our favorite summer meals!