Chili's Baby Back Ribs Recipe - Secret Copycat Restaurant Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What kind of ribs does Chili's use? ›

Our Texas-Size Baby Back Ribs are slow cooked and smoked in house over pecan wood.

They are rubbed in a secret seasoning

The very first step to unlocking the mystery behind what makes Chili's baby back ribs so delicious is the secret seasoning that's dry rubbed onto the meat (via MultiVu). There are a lot of benefits to using a dry rub when cooking ribs.

Next time you want your baby back ribs, take matters into your own hands with this copycat recipe for Chili's famously succulent pork ribs.

I was pleased with my choice of the house BBQ sauce, which added a delicious sweetness to the tender meat. Right away, I could see why Chili's is so famous for its baby-back ribs — I could have easily polished off the full rack.

What makes their ribs so great is the process in which they prepare them. Each Texas Roadhouse location uses the exact same 3-day preparation process that includes their own unique blend of seasoning and signature BBQ sauce. The end result is meat that literally falls right off the bone.

"Chili's uses a pressure cooker to pre-cook the ribs, which helps maintain juiciness, then finished on the grill to give them that crunch on the outside. Sauce is pre-made from the distributor, it's not my favorite, but it's good."

Yep, they are slow smoking ribs now in a Cookshack type pellet pooper, actually for 4+ hours. My neighbors kid works in the kitchen of Chili's and was telling me all about it and how they are just as good as mine.........

A year after Norman Brinker acquired the one-time burger restaurant, Chili's took its first step toward change when their sizzling fajitas were added to the menu. Not long after that, those famous Chili's baby back ribs showed up two short years later in 1986.

Beef ribs tend to be fattier and more flavorful than pork ribs, although pork spareribs, cut from the sternum, are also fattier and pretty darn tasty. One thing that differentiates the two is where the meat comes from. Beef back ribs are leftover from where the ribeye is cut away, which makes them less meaty.

Who wrote Chili's baby back ribs? ›

The Inventor of the Chili's Baby Back Ribs Song Has Never Eaten Their Ribs. We spoke to Guy Bommarito, the Don Draper of the 90s who created the catchiest meat-related commercial jingle of all time—and the story behind it is fascinating.

This method entails smoking them for the first 2 hours directly on the smoker rack. After 2 hours, wrap the ribs in aluminum foil and baste on BBQ sauce and let them smoke for 2 more hours. For the last hour of smoking, remove them from the aluminum foil and then apply BBQ sauce directly to the ribs.

Essentially, 3 2 1 ribs go like this: 3 hours of smoking the ribs directly on the pellet grill. 2 hours wrapped in foil, still cooking on the grill. 1 hour of cooking, unwrapped and slathered in barbecue sauce.

A Few Words on The 2-2-1 Method

The initial 2 hour step is where the smoke flavor gets into the meat, the middle 2 hour step is where the super tenderizing takes place. The last 1 hour step is where the crust develops on the outside.

Country-style ribs are from the shoulder (or blade) end of the loin. With these, you'll find the most meat per bone and the least amount of fat.

Texas Roadhouse Ribs use pork loin ribs, also known as baby back ribs, which is also what we used for this recipe. It's best to pick ones that have a good thick layer of meat around the bones.

"Riblets" is Applebee's branded name for button ribs or rib tips (as they are called at Walmart), which is a short cut trimmed from the back end of pork spareribs, packed with lots of connective tissue.

Beef ribs come in two varieties: short ribs and back ribs. Short ribs are taken from the chuck or plate primal cuts, whereas back ribs are obtained from the loin primal cut. These are the most frequent beef rib types that come from, including what we find at grocery stores and order in a restaurant.