Slow Cooker/Instant Pot Ribs
These Slow Cooker/Instant Pot 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 in the Crockpot and forget about them. You can also make these in the Instant Pot. The doctored up barbecue sauce puts these barbecue ribs over the top.
SLOW COOKER/INSTANT POT 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 all the time.
Obviously I chose to make my Crock-Pot Miami Dolphins themed. We’re huge fans to say the least. I wouldn’t drag five 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 football themed Crock-Pot I needed some major football food cookin’ inside. Nothing says manly, messy, and down and dirty food like ribs.
WHERE TO BUY BABY BACK RIBS?
Quality of meat does matter. I’ve had some really bad, fatty ribs and I’ve had great ones. Make sure you’re buying your ribs from a place that you trust. I love Costco’s ribs.
BABY BACK 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.
You can also cook these in an Instant Pot.
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.
BABY BACK VS SPARE RIBS
Baby back ribs are smaller and more tender. They come from the parts of the ribs that are connected to the backbone, beneath the loin muscle. Spare ribs (aka St. Louis ribs) tend to be larger and cut from the belly. They are usually flatter in shape. I prefer baby back.
ARE BABY BACK RIBS PORK OR BEEF?
This is not a silly question. Many people mistake whether ribs come from a cow or a pig. Baby back ribs are pork ribs. Beef ribs are usually called back ribs or short ribs.
Look at the meat fall off the bone. I could hardly get it out of the Crock-Pot it was that tender.
OTHER SLOW COOKER RECIPES:
- Slow Cooker Tomato Basil Parmesan Soup
- Crispy Pork Carnitas
- Slow Cooker Chicken Caesar Sandwiches
- Crockpot Italian Chicken
- Slow Cooker French Dip Sandwiches
- Crockpot Fiesta Chicken
- Slow Cooker Root Beer Pork
Slow Cooker Barbecue Ribs
Ingredients
- 4 pounds pork baby back ribs
- salt and pepper
- garlic powder, onion powder (about 1/2 teaspoon each)
For the Sauce:
- 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. If the ribs still have a membrane, slide a table knife under the silver skin of the ribs. Use a paper towel to pull the membrane carefully off.
- 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. Note: You can skip this step if you don't want to render the fat off
- In a medium bowl combine BBQ sauce, ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar, Worcestershire, oregano, and liquid smoke and hot sauce if desired.
- SLOW COOKER: 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. INSTANT POT: Place ribs in instant pot and pour sauce on top. Cook on high pressure for 30 minutes. Let it naturally release the pressure.
- If you want to carmelize your bbq sauce put them back in the oven and broil for 5 minutes to carmelize the sauce. Totally your preference though.
Notes
I received a small package with about 6 ribs in it. They are already cross cut, if I render the fat, do they need to stand up AND is the timing different?
They don’t need to stand up and the timing would be the same.
can you skip the oven part and just put the ribs and sauce in the instant pot and then skim off any fat that appears?
Yep! Totally
Yikes we are JET fans!!! Hmmmmm. Recipe looks good
Hopefully we can still be friends.
Wow – thank you – will try it for it looks delicious!!! Thank you once more!!!!
You’re welcome!
Do u remove that transparent membrane from the back of the ribs or do u just leave it on? I’ve used other recipes that tell you to remove it. Difficult to remove! Thanks in advance.
It’s really personal choice. The ribs I buy usually have it removed so I don’t have to.
Where can I find nutritional information for this recipe?
I use MyFitnessPal but it will depend a lot on what brands you use so I would enter it in myself.
What is your favorite BBQ sauce?
Just wondering…
I like sweet baby rays!
I doubled the sauce recipe because I had about 8lbs of ribs. Is it ok to serve extra sauce on the side or does it need to be cooked/warmed?
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.