Learn how to grill boneless country style pork ribs with these easy to follow step by step photo instruction. Great taste with minimal work.
Editor’s Note: Originally Published March 26, 2010. This has been a constant popular post on this blog even though it hasn’t been updated for over eight years. The post has been completely rewritten, and all photos re-shot. Please enjoy the update.
Boneless country style ribs are one of my favorite “cooking for two” meals. It is about the right size with two large serving or 3-4 more reasonable size servings.
It is leaner than lots of pork (healthier). And they can be prepared in many ways (grill, stovetop, and oven). You just need to know how.
My rating:
Low 5 or high 4. Great taste and the drying was minimal.
Pro Tips: Recipe Notes for Grilled Boneless Country Style Pork Ribs
What are Boneless Country Style Pork Ribs?
Boneless country style pork ribs are not real ribs. They are the tail end of a whole pork loin cut in half and scored to make “ribs.” So more a pork chop than real ribs.
Usually, that scoring is not very deep, so I like to deepen the cut to a little over half the thickness of the meat. I consider this to be more surface area for seasoning.
Unfortunately, there is also “bone-in country style pork ribs” which may get confused with the boneless variety. The boneless are the tail end of a pork loin and are lean while the bone in variety is more like a slice of pork shoulder.
The bone-in country style ribs need to be cooked more like a pork shoulder (AKA pork butt), meaning low and slow. While the boneless ribs are lean and are usually cooked more rapidly.
To brine or not to brine.
These “ribs,” because they are lean, can tend to dry if overcooked. But if not overcooked, they can stay moist like a nice pork chop.
A brining would fix the some of the moisture issues and add taste depending on the brine. But this would add hours and take it out of the weeknight recipe class.
A suggested brine would be 2 tablespoon table salt 1 tablespoon sugar and 2 cups of water for 1-4 hours. Other spices like allspice, garlic, pepper, etc. can be added.
I will be continuing to do these ribs by this method and brine if it fits my schedule.
What Grill Temperature to use?
These are a lean cut unlike normal ribs, so low and slow is not recommended. I suggest a nice medium grill temperature of about 450 degrees surface temperature. You can use a higher temperature, but they will dry out more.
To learn about controlling the surface temperature of your grill, please see A Beginners Guide to Grill Temperature on a Gas Grill.
What should be the final internal temperature for grilled boneless ribs?
For many years, due to the fear of trichinosis which was a parasite found in undercooked pork, pork was cooked to 170 by common wisdom. However, with modern farming methods, that has not been a risk in the USA for decades.
The FDA went to a recommendation of 160 for a number of years. Then in 2012 went to the current recommendation of 145 with a 3-minute rest.
Taste and moisture wise, 145 is correct. There will be a little pink left in the pork at 145, and if you are like my wife who wants no pink, you will be more comfortable at 150 or even 155. Please do not go over 155 for this cut or it will begin to dry.
Also, the 145 recommendation is not for ground pork which is 160 degrees. And cuts like pork butt and ribs like baby back ribs, although safe at 145, would not be considered done cooking.
What Rub to Use for Grilled Boneless Country Style Pork Rib?
First, you don’t have to use a rub. Since they are so like pork chops, if you have a favorite pork chop recipe you can adapt it here. But I like to do the “rib” thing.
I tend to use a premade rub with this recipe since it is all about lazy. So you will see rub from Gate’s of Kansas City in the pictures along with their sauce.
But here is a great homemade rub that I keep around during grilling season. This makes enough for 2 slabs. Cut in half to have less left over if you want, but I save it for next time.
8 tablespoons (1/2 cup) brown sugar
3 tablespoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
What Sauce to Use for Boneless Country Style Pork Rib?
Again, I tend to use premade out of laziness. I love my Gate’s BBQ Sauce from Kansas City which I buy by the case. Bull’s-Eye Original Barbecue Sauce is recommended by CI.
But if you want the best sauce ever, try My Memphis BBQ Sauce.
Optional: Brine first if you have time. 2 cups water, 1 tablespoon table salt, and 1 tablespoon brown sugar for 1-4 hours in the refrigerator. Rinse well and use a rub without salt.
Clean and oil grill grates then preheat grill to a grill surface temperature of 450-500.
Trim ribs of any excess fat. Deepen the cuts that are already in the ribs to about 75% through.
Coat both sides of ribs with a rub of your choice. Be sure to get in the cuts. Rub in and let rest for 10 minutes while preheating grill.
Place over direct heat and close lid. Flip about every 5 minutes and grill until internal temperature of about 145-150. About 20 minutes depending on the grill and the thickness of the meat.
The last few minutes, coat with sauce on both sides and grill until brown. Let stand for 5 minutes before cutting.
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How to Grill Boneless Country Style Pork Ribs
Ingredients
- 1 slab boneless country style pork ribs
- rub of your choice
- Barbecue sauce of your choice
Optional brine
- 2 cups water
- 1 tablespoon table salt
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
Instructions
- Optional: Brine first if you have time. 2 cups water, 1 tablespoon table salt, and 1 tablespoon brown sugar for 1-4 hours in the refrigerator. Rinse well and use a rub without salt.
- Clean and oil grill grates then preheat grill to a grill surface temperature of 450-500.
- Trim ribs of any excess fat. Deepen the cuts that are already in the ribs to about 75% through.
- Coat both sides of ribs with a rub of your choice. Be sure to get in the cuts. Rub in and let rest for 10 minutes while preheating grill.
- Place over direct heat and close lid. Flip about every 5 minutes and grill until internal temperature of about 145-150. About 20 minutes depending on grill and the thickness of the meat.
- The last few minutes, coat with sauce on both sides and grill until brown. Let stand for 5 minutes before cutting.
Recipe Notes
Pro Tips:
- I remove most/all of the fat pad.
- Extend the "rib cuts" to 75%
- Brine if you have time.
- Rub and sauce of your choice.
- Grill over a medium grill with a surface temperature of 450.
- Do not overcook. 145-150 is nice.
- If you don't have a rib, try this version of 8311. This makes about twice what you need so cut in half or keep the extra for later. Also, if you brine, leave the salt out of the rub.
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
Have a question or something not clear? Ask in the comments.
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Nutrition is for one serving. Number of servings is stated above and is my estimate of normal serving size for this recipe.
All nutritional information are estimates and may vary from your actual results. This is home cooking, and there are many variables. To taste ingredients such as salt will be my estimate of the average used.
If you like this recipe or find it useful, the pleasure of a nice 4 or 5 rating would be greatly appreciated.
Originally Published March 26, 2010
Elizabeth Lebens
Couldn’t find the Stars to click on. So here is my rating: ******
I went for lazy and rubbed them with a little olive oil and Penzys Galena Street rub for a couple hours. These weren’t connected, but in pieces. Grilled as you said. Delicious. Thanks for your informative instructions!
BThompson
I doubled the rub recipe and grilled 4 packages of boneless country ribs over hardwood lump charcoal in a cheap Weber grill hot and fast turning every 3-4 minutes for about 20 minutes. The results were outstanding… the meat was tender and the rub was absolute perfection. No need to add any other sauce. I can’t thank you enough for this rub recipe.
Darr
Thanks for the recipe but my very favorite thing here is the beautiful 4 legged family member, absolutely love the photos.
Thank you,
Darr Arizona
Ted
Really like the recipe and explanation about this cut. Great info.
Peggy Heitz
I hadn’t cooked boneless pork loin country style ribs before and I needed a recipe with step by step instructions. I’m very fortunate to have found Dr Dan’s website. I decided to brine the meat. I hadn’t done this before either. I followed the easy to understand steps. I made half of the rub omitting the salt. I couldn’t find the recommended Bull’s Eye commercial barbecue bottled sauce so I bought the on sale store brand sauce for 99 cents! Well the meat was delicious and I have a go to recipe for grilled barbecue ribs. Thanks Dr Dan!
DrDan
Hi Peggy,
This is one of my older recipes but it still works great.
Thanks for the note.
Dan
Naturally simple
Thank you for ribs “boneless country style” lol cooked to taste excellent and fast! Just what I was hoping for!! Yummmmmy!
DrDan
Hi Dale, Thanks for the note(s). I recently went PC to a Mac, and the spell checker is so different.
The brine is easy and will help any dryness of this cut.
Good old “me” obviously was not having a good day. I should have just deleted his comment, but it is a common confusion between two totally different cuts and I had a bad day that day also, so I just replied. He did carry it a bit too far.
Thanks again
Dan
Dale Baranoski
Upon review I see two typos: ISIS should be IDIOTS and SHE should be ABLE to brine.
Dele
Dale Baranoski
Don’t you just love even isis show the world just why they are idiots? I will be trying these instructions tomorrow and will now be she to brine thanks to your info.
I will hopefully update after.
Thanks!
Me
This “recipe” demonstrates exactly 0 understanding of how fat behaves over fire and will absolutely ruin the meat you’ve bought. Pork fat will render very well leaving you with succulent meat even in a cheap cut if done low and slow. Cooked high the way this recommends wont allow the pork fat ot render, it will actuaslly SOLIDIFY connective tissue. That the meat was moist is of no value when every other bite is grissle. THe simple fact is even with country “ribs” there’s no such thing as a quick meal. All this method will do is waste your money and your time. Save the pork for the weekend when you can do it right.
DrDan
Well “Me” I’m at least temporarily responding to an anonymous comment.
So let’s talk about what exactly are “country style boneless pork ribs”? They ARE NOT a boneless version of bone-in country style pork ribs. The bone-in variety are more like a slice of pork butt. They have lots of fat and need to be cooked low and slow.
The boneless country style pork rib is the tail end of a pork loin. So it is very lean. This tail is cut down the middle and then scored into “ribs”. So unlike the bone in namesake, these need to be cooked more rapidly or you have dried out not eatable pork. Would you suggest low and slow for a slice of pork loin? I hope not…
You apparently have no clue of the difference, but one look at a picture should have been a clue. If you look around you the site you will find a low and slow method for the bone-in variety. https://www.101cookingfortwo.com/slow-grilled-bone-in-country-style-pork/
Thank you…
Rachele Bearden
Do you warp with foil for the ribs on the charcoal grill? Write be back.
DrDan
No foil but I don’t do charcoal grills.
DrDan
Daphne
I had never brined anything before, but I was really happy with how this turned out. Also, the rub made the ribs brown up a lot nicer than I’ve ever been able to achieve with this cut. Next time, I’ll omit some of the salt in the rub, but otherwise I’ll stick to this recipe. Thanks!
DrDan
Thanks for the note. Generally if you brine, rinse the brine off well and use a rub without salt or cut down the rub a lot.
DrDan
juned
nothing, but good
Hollie
Nothing was sounding good for dinner tonight, so off I went to the market to see if anything inspired me. I came across some country style pork ribs and took them home. Having arrived at the house the same time as my hungry family,I was in a pinch. Desperate to cook these fast AND have them taste good, I went to the iPad and found your recipe. I made the rub and my husband went to work at the grill. (The sauce, we will try next time!) The results were fabulous. We all loved them. You saved the day. Well, at least dinner. Thank you!
DrDan
Thanks for the note. I do this one over and over with variations. You really need to try the sauce.
DrDan
Joe
This worked just as the recipe said. It was really fantastic.
DrDan
Thanks so much for the comment and rating. This is one of my older recipes and had almost no comments. Now it looks better. Also I still do this at least once a month during grill season.
DrDan
Pat
No idea what I’m doing so not challenging your directions. Just curious why there’s both a rub and barbeque sauce? That surprises me. About to give this a try and sure it will be great but doesn’t the barbeque sauce smother the rub? Thanks.
DrDan
The rib is flavor for the meat. The sauce was to caramelize some for at the end for the BBQ taste. You can easily skip the sauce. It just won’t brown up as nice.
DrDan
Karen
Thank you for the great instructions on how to cook these. They came out fabulous with your rub and barbecue sauce recipe. At a birthday bbq, where we served grilled chicken, burgers, hot dogs and these ribs, the ribs were the star of the show. Everyone was slathering the chicken and ribs with extra homemade sauce and raving over it. For the rub, I halved the sugar for the chicken, then added more sugar before rubbing the ribs. If this cut of pork didn’t work for me this time, I promised myself I would never attempt them again. You proved to me that they are doable on the grill!