Superior Taste: These Are Hands Down The Best Pre-Sauced Grocery Store Ribs

For many, the ideal ribs are fresh off the smoker after hours of low-and-slow cooking. However, you may not have the time or energy required to craft them from scratch, or even to head out to a barbecue restaurant and pay someone else to do it. That's where those convenient, pre-sauced and pre-cooked ribs sold at the supermarket come in. They offer satisfying meals in just minutes instead of hours, but not every brand has the same taste and value. In Mashed's ranking of pre-sauced grocery store ribs, from worst to best, Curly's baby back pork ribs came out on top. Although the two biggest contenders for the crown were neck-and-neck, Curly's narrowly edged out second-place Kroger St. Louis style pork spareribs on cooking speed and food quality. 

The difference in the former was dramatic. Instead of the 80 minutes the Kroger brand takes, Curly's requires just 20-25 minutes in the oven. That shifts the meal from a still somewhat lengthy but hands-off experience to a truly convenient weeknight option. Naturally, faster cooking speeds don't matter unless the dining experience is enjoyable too, and fortunately, Curly's delivers there as well. The tenderness matched the high levels found in fourth-place Burgers' Smokehouse's baby back pork rib, which "practically falls off the bone." Curly's sauce really stood out too, striking the perfect balance of sweetness and acidity often missing from premade barbecue.

Curly's baby back pork ribs come with two small potential drawbacks, depending on your budget and how many people are being served. The 24-ounce package is one of the smaller options on the market, with other common choices often reaching into the 35-40-ounce range. In addition, on a per-ounce basis, it's less affordable than some of the lower-ranked options. It's also vital to note that these Curly's ribs are baby back ribs, not spare ribs — and there is a difference. They're different portions of the pig's overall rib section, with baby back ribs being smaller, more tender, and leaner. 

Meanwhile, our runner-up, Kroger St. Louis style pork spareribs, is the top choice for spare ribs, which boast robust flavor of their own when cooked slow and low. So, if you don't have the time or energy for a daylong smoking session (or even a few hours for our oven-baked spare ribs recipe), make sure your grocery store pre-sauced ribs are the best option. By a narrow margin, that's definitely Curly's baby back pork ribs, which offer a texture, flavor, and convenience unmatched by their many competitors.