Low Sodium Pork Ribs and Sauce - Tasty, Healthy Heart Recipes (2024)

Sadly, these Low Sodium Pork Ribs and Sauce never even made it off the roasting pan the first time I made them. It became 3 people standing around having a finger food feast (fight). All while I’m trying to take pictures with BBQ sauce on my hands and trying to keep other people’s hands out of the picture before it was all gone. I will have to do it again when I actually can get some ribs to a plate. I’ll probably have to do it by myself but I won’t complain or tell.

HOW MUCH SODIUM IN PORK RIBS

The sodium in the actual ribs themselves is on the lower side as they only contain 70 milligrams in a 4 ounce serving. It is typically the rib dry rub and BBQ sauce that is slathered on the meat that makes the sodium content soar.

Finding the total sodium content for this rib recipe was a little difficult as the nutrition calculator was coming up with over 1000 mg sodium per serving. That was obviously way off for calculating just the meat.

So doing it by hand using the meat nutrition label, the weight of the meat (which was just about 3 ½ lbs. each) and adding in the rub and Low Sodium BBQ Sauce I came up with roughly 280 mg of sodium for your meal – Serving size = 1 lb. or approximately 1/3 rack of ribs. But only when you use my rib dry rub and sauce any additional sodium will be extremely minimal.

Check out most typical recipes online and you will see sodium bombs at over 1700 mg per serving! Pre-packaged samples from the store are close to 500+ mg and who knows how much you’re getting at your local BBQ joint.

Yet with this recipe you’re still getting all the goodness and incredible fall off the bone taste. With my spice dry rub and if you choose to add my Low Sodium Barbecue Sauce, you will be wolfing these down without having to worry about sodium.

HOW MANY RIBS PER PERSON

A full rack of ribs has 12-14 individual rib bones. The two rib racks that I used for this recipe were a little less than 3 ½ lb.’s per rack. Some amount of that total is the weight of the bones too. From my experience I usually eat about 1/3 of the rack per meal when served with sides. When I’ve dealt with caterer’s in the past they used the rule of thumb to allow a about a pound of ribs per person. So a rack of ribs being your main entrée would generally feed about 3 people or servings. You probably could stretch to 4 people if you have some good side items to go along with it.

THE BEST LOW SODIUM BARBECUE SAUCE

The two aspects to make this rack of ribs low sodium is my spice dry rub and my low sodium BBQ sauce that you can see through my link. I make my low sodium BBQ sauce about once a month and use it almost all the time in place of ketchup. If you keep it in an old ketchup bottle it always makes for an easy quick squirt of goodness. With so many things to use it on, I often end up using it even more than where I would use ketchup. Be sure to check it out and use it!

REMOVING SILVER SKIN ON PORK RIBS

My dad showed me how to do this a long time ago and I highly recommend doing it. If the silver skin is left on it ends up being a barrier and won’t let any rub permeate that you put on the bottom and when it cooks, it turns into a tuff chewy covering. And it also ends up making it harder to cut through and chew. It really is simple to do and you can see how to remove it in this remove silver skin video. Make sure to use a non-sharp knife! Well worth the extra minute or two, trust me. See my *FIRST* YouTube video here: Removing silver skin.

HOW TO COOK RIBS IN THE OVEN

Remove silver skin as shown above, rinse and then pat ribs dry with a paper towel.
Pat on my low sodium dry rub mixture on both sides (recipe below is for two racks of ribs).

Wrap ribs in foil with a tablespoon of water and a dash or two of liquid smoke. Place foil wrapped ribs on a baking tray. Wrap each rib rack individually if more than one.
Bake at 350°F for 2 1/2 hours.

Then for the last half hour of cooking, slather with my BBQ sauce recipe. Use a brush or spoon to spread it evenly over the tops, leaving foil open and place back in oven for remaining time. I usually do this once more about 15 minutes later.

Broil for an additional 2-5 minutes if you want to get a crispier top and a little charring on the edges. If you can, let the ribs rest for 5-10 minutes

As always, please let me know how you like this recipe in the comments! I get motivated when I hear from you and am interested to learn about how you liked and served your Low Sodium Pork Ribs. And please leave a comment or rating and share any tips you might have.

Nutrition Information – The information shown is provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be substituted for a doctor’s or nutritionist’s advice. Please understand that not everyone’s sodium requirements are the same, therefore some recipes may be higher than you’re allowed. Always consult with your doctor for your recommended daily sodium allowance.