How to Cook Ribs on an Indoor Electric Grill

If you are planning on grilling up some ribs, using an indoor grill is always an option that you have at your disposal. Today, we’re going to go through a simple step-by-step process on how to cook ribs on an indoor electric grill.

How to Cook Ribs on an Indoor Electric Grill: Step by Step

Let’s now go through a step-by-step tutorial on exactly how to cook ribs on an indoor electric grill. As you are about to see, the process, although it will take a while, is actually fairly easy.

1. Prepare the Indoor Grill for Use

Your first step is to prepare the indoor grill for use. First and foremost, this means finding a flat, level, and stable surface to put it on. You don’t want your indoor grill being wobbly or on a crooked surface. Next, make sure that the indoor grill is perfectly clean. You don’t want any debris being present before you put your ribs on there.

The ribs are going to have a lot of spicy BBQ sauce, so it’s already going to be messy enough, which means that you don’t want debris on there before you begin in the first place. Just make sure that it is perfectly clean.

At this point, or anywhere between 10 and 15 minutes before you plan on starting to cook, you can preheat your grill. You’re going to want to preheat the grill to around 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Remember, when it comes to cooking ribs, this is a low and slow process, not high and fast, such as if you are searing steak.

2. Remove the Rib Membrane

Before you can get started with grilling your ribs, you need to prepare them, which generally means removing the membrane located on the underside.

You might think that the underside is only bone, but you should see a very thin and white membrane, almost like a semitransparent piece of very thin plastic. This membrane is extremely tough and not at all enjoyable to eat, so you want to remove it first.

With a very sharp knife, cut in between the bone and the membrane on one side of the ribs. After you make a little slit, you should be able to pull the membrane off with your fingers relatively easily.

Make sure that your fingers are dry and hold the membrane where you cut it. Use your other hand to hold the ribs and then pull the membrane off. If at any time the membrane breaks or snaps, you will need to repeat this process until it has been removed.

3. Make a Broth and Boil the Ribs

OK, you might be confused why we are talking about broth to boil your ribs. The reason for this is because you first need to boil your ribs until they are more or less 100% cooked before you can put them on your indoor grill.

The reason for this is because your indoor grill just isn’t powerful enough and shouldn’t be on for long enough to cook ribs from scratch. Remember, ribs should be cooked low and slow, which means that they should be cooked at just over 300 degrees Fahrenheit for anywhere up to four hours.

However, most indoor grills shouldn’t be left on for that amount of time. Therefore, you are really just going to be finishing the ribs on the indoor grill, not totally cooking them on the indoor grill. So, you first want to make yourself a bit of a broth to boil the ribs in.

We recommend using spices and ingredients such as brown sugar, bay leaves, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and a bit of vinegar. Making sure that you have a flavorful broth will infuse the ribs with a whole lot of flavor. You now want to boil your ribs for up to an hour, until they are more or less 100% cooked.

4. Prepare a Dry Rub and Season the Ribs

Once the ribs have been boiled for about an hour, you then want to prepare a dry rub to season them with. Of course, the exact seasons that you use for your dry rub are completely up to you.

However, if you want to go with something fairly classic, you can mix pepper, salt, onion powder, garlic powder, chili powder, paprika, and even a bit of brown sugar for some sweetness.

You now want to coat your ribs with this dry seasoning rub, making sure that all of the meat is coated. The ribs are going to absorb a lot of flavor, so you don’t need to be conservative with the seasoning. Just make sure that you don’t use too much salt.

5. Wrap the Ribs in Foil and Grill

You can now wrap your ribs in a double layer of tin foil and put them on the grill. Remember that the grill should be heated to no hotter than 400 degrees. Seeing as your ribs are already more or less fully cooked, they are just going to need around 30 minutes here.

What is going to be really beneficial is if you have an indoor grill that has a lid. A lid is going to help keep the heat in and will allow for much more consistent temperatures, even cooking, and fast cooking.

If you happen to have an indoor grill that is like a panini press, by which we mean that there is a cooking service located in the lid, you can always close the lid to cut the cooking time in half. However, remember, low and slow is the name of the game when it comes to ribs. This is not something that you want to rush.

6. Add BBQ Sauce & Keep Grilling

You can now add your BBQ sauce of choice to your ribs, put the foil back around them, and keep cooking for about 20 minutes. This is going to help the flavor from the BBQ sauce infuse into the ribs.

7. Remove the Tin Foil & Add BBQ Sauce to Add Color

Now comes the time for you to remove the tin foil. Up until this point, everything you have done has been solely to make sure that the ribs are cooked and fall off the bone tender. However, you want to add a bit of a crust and some brown color to the outside.

Getting that BBQ sauce to caramelize a little bit is going to add a whole lot of tasty flavor and texture to the equation. Therefore, take off the tin foil, add some more BBQ sauce, and let the ribs cook for another 10 to 20 minutes. Just make sure to keep a close eye on things to make sure that the BBQ sauce doesn’t burn.

8. Let the Ribs Cool & Enjoy

You can now let the ribs cool down to the point where they are cool enough to handle with your hands and enjoy.

9. Clean Your Indoor Electric Grill

The tasks that many people are going to forget once your ribs are done is to make sure that you clean your electric indoor grill. All of that BBQ sauce can get very sticky and cake onto your indoor grill.

Therefore, unplug your indoor grill and allow it to cool down to the point where it is cool enough to handle. Once it is cool enough to handle, remove the grill grates and soak them in hot water.

You can also use a bit of mild dish soap. If need be, you can scrub the grill grates a little bit, but make sure that you don’t use anything abrasive. These nonstick grill grates that indoor grills have are easily damaged by metal or abrasive materials. You should also wipe down the exterior of the grill and empty the grease tray.

Final Thoughts

Now that you know exactly how to use an indoor grill for cooking ribs, you can choose the seasoning mix and the BBQ sauce of your choosing and create yourself one heck of a tasty meal.