Slow Cooker Barbecue Ribs
These Slow Cooker Barbecue Ribs are baby back pork ribs that are fall off the bone tender. You cannot go wrong with these and it’s the best slow cooker rib recipe out there! Throw these Slow Cooker Barbecue Ribs in the Crockpot and forget about them. The doctored up barbecue sauce puts these barbecue ribs over the top.
SLOW COOKER BARBECUE RIBS
The nice people over at Crock-Pot® offered to send me one of their new NFL Crock-Pot® Slow Cookers with my choice of team. They have all of the NFL teams available.
I of course jumped at their offer because I use my slow cooker at LEAST twice a week if not more (especially during this crazy holiday season).
I of course selected to make my Crock-Pot Miami Dolphins themed. We’re huge fans to say the least. I wouldn’t drag four kids by myself to every game if I wasn’t invested in some way. Loyalty or insanity? I may need my head checked.
I thought since I had a Miami Dolphins Crock-Pot I needed some major football food cookin’ inside. Nothing says manly, messy, and down and dirty food like ribs.
Ribs are a little intimidating. My husband worked at a rib joint in college and always told me that ribs were meant to be cooked by a restaurant.
Any attempt to make them would fall short. So I never even tried. But these were amazing. Fall of the bone tender, better than a restaurant amazing.
My husband gave them two barbecue sauce covered thumbs up. He even called them fabulous. My verbiage must be rubbing off on him.
They say if you’re married long enough you start to morph into one person. Apparently that is what’s happening.
The secret to these ribs is that they are browned in the oven before putting them in the Crock-Pot which allows the fat to render in the oven, rather than in your sauce. Browning brings out a ton of flavor. 
You can season them with whatever you want. I seasoned mine with a 1/2 teaspoon of salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder.
This doctored up sauce takes regular ribs up a notch. But if you’re a new cook you can totally just use regular barbecue sauce and still have tender ribs. Promise me you won’t skip the browning step though! 
Here he is. I’m in love.
If you like a crispy skin you can throw these back in the oven to caramelize the sauce. I’ve done it both ways and don’t necessarily prefer one way or the other.
Look at the meat fall off the bone. I could hardly get it out of the Crock-Pot it was that tender.
If you like these Slow Cooker Barbecue Ribs, you’ll love these slow cooker recipes:
Slow Cooker Tomato Basil Parmesan Soup
Slow Cooker Chicken Caesar Sandwiches
Slow Cooker French Dip Sandwiches
Slow Cooker Barbecue Ribs
These Slow Cooker Barbecue Ribs are baby back pork ribs that are fall off the bone tender. You cannot go wrong with these and it's the best slow cooker rib recipe out there!
Ingredients
- 4 pounds pork baby back ribs
- salt and pepper
- garlic powder, onion powder (about 1/2 teaspoon each)
- 2 cups of your favorite barbecue sauce
- 1 cup ketchup
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 4 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano
- optional 1 Tablespoon liquid smoke if you like a smokey flavor
- optional dash hot sauce my bbq sauce was spicy enough already
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Place ribs in a shallow baking dish and season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. Bake for 15 minutes and then turn over and bake for 15 more minutes. Drain fat.
- In a medium bowl combine BBQ sauce, ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar, Worcestershire, oregano, and liquid smoke and hot sauce if desired.
- Place ribs in a large slow cooker (at least 6 quart). I curled mine around but you can cut them in half if you need to. Pour sauce on top and cook on low for 6-8 hours or until tender.
- If you want to carmelize your bbq sauce put them back in the oven for 15 minutes at 400 degrees. Totally your preference though.
Recipe Notes
adapted from Allrecipes
Making these tonight for the like 1,758th time! This recipe is hands down the best crock pot ribs recipe ever. I’ve been using this method for years now & literally can not eat ribs any other way!!! ☺️
I just wanted to tell you I’ve been making your ribs for years and everyone I’ve made them for gushes about how they’re the best ribs ever. The only thing I change from way you do is that I’m always trying out a different rub on them, instead of just salt, pepper, and garlic. But other than that, I make them exactly as is.
I’ve probably made these ribs at least two dozen times and I’ve never commented to say how awesome this recipe is. So thank you for giving the world this incredible rib recipe!!
Amanda,
I love hearing that. I haven’t made them in a while but now I need to! Thanks for leaving your comment!
At the top of the recipe it says prep time is 22 hours, 15 minutes. Is this a misprint?
Sorry. The recipe plugin has a bug.
This is a family favorite! Easy to make, perfectly seasoned and fall off the bone good!!
Thank you! I love hearing that.
This looks like a great recipe, and thank you for sharing it! I do have one question, would the same time and temps (roughly 200 degrees for low setting) work for cooking 9lbs of ribs in an electric Turkey roasting oven? Thank you again!!
In my experience roasting ovens cook very differently so I’m not sure if I can compare the two.
I made these tonight and my husband can’t stop raving about them. He is already planning a dinner party so I can show off how great these ribs are. Goodbye, expensive restaurants and hello slow cooker!! I followed the recipe exactly. I added some Siracha to my sauce to balance the sweet. It came out perfectly and because it fell off the bone, I didn’t even get my fingers all yucky.
Siracha would be amazing!
I just made these and they were awesome!! They were falling off the bones as I was taking them out of the crock pot! Thanks for the recipe!
I was told to add the bbq sauce at the end (the last hour so it won’t burn?)
It doesn’t burn in a crockpot. At least it doesn’t for me.