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My fall-apart tender Slow Cooker Pork Ribs are easy to make with just 10 minutes of prep and simple ingredients! Set them to cook early in the day, and have them ready to enjoy by dinner. They're perfect for a family meal or as part of a game day party spread!
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Spare Rib Crock Pot Recipe
If you have yet to try slow cooking pork ribs, you're in for a treat. My pork short ribs slow cooker recipe is simple to follow, even for total beginners to slow cooking or cooking ribs, but the results speak for themselves. This is a delicious recipe for pork short ribs, complete with an outstanding bourbon BBQ sauce that will have you wanting to lick the plate.
In my recipe for slow cooker pork ribs, I'll show you how to cook pork ribs in the crock pot step-by-step on both the HIGH and LOW settings, share my rib rub and homemade BBQ sauce with you, and answer questions like whether or not pork ribs need to be seared before slow cooking or if you can cook ribs for too long in the slow cooker. After years of experience cooking ribs and with slow cooker recipes, I can confidently say this recipe for slow cooker pork ribs is refined to perfection!
Made these so many times. Delicious, fall off the bone ribs and the sauce is on point.
Tools to Make Pork Ribs in the Slow Cooker
- A slow cooker. I've tested more than a few slow cookers over the years, and my favorite out of all of them has been my All-Clad Stainless Steel Electric Slow Cooker. It's a 7-quart slow cooker, and it's fantastic for cooking meals like this slow cooker pork ribs recipe.
- A bowl for mixing your BBQ sauce.
- A sharp knife for slicing the ribs.
Ingredients for Slow Cooking Pork Ribs
- Spare Ribs: I'm using a 4-pound half-rack of spare ribs. However, you can also use short ribs with this recipe if you prefer.
- Seasoning: For the spare ribs seasoning, I'm using a mix of paprika, cinnamon, garlic powder, oregano, salt, and pepper. I recommend using sea salt flakes or kosher salt, and freshly cracked black pepper, for the best flavor.
- BBQ Sauce: I highly recommend making a batch of my sweet BBQ sauce. It is tremendous and I always use it to make these ribs. The flavor of this sauce mixed with the bourbon and brown sugar is irresistible! However, if you want, you can also use your favorite brand of BBQ sauce. Sweet Baby Ray's is always a good choice for store-bought BBQ sauce.
- Bourbon: You can substitute rum, brandy, cognac, or any type of whiskey for bourbon in this recipe. If you want to avoid alcohol altogether, use ginger beer. It has the same sort of vanilla flavor as bourbon and will be a great substitute.
- Brown Sugar: You can use light or dark brown sugar - it doesn't matter which, both will be delicious! Dark brown sugar has more of a molasses flavor than light brown, so choose your favorite. But, don't use white sugar. It is not the same!
Can I make pork short ribs in the slow cooker instead?
Yes! You can make slow cooker pork short ribs if you prefer. Use the same slow cooking instructions outlined below. The prep method and cook time both remain the same.
Slow Cooker Pork Ribs
Equipment
- 1 Slow Cooker or oven
Ingredients
- 4 lbs spare ribs - half rack
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- ¼ cup bourbon
- 2 cups barbecue sauce - of your choice
- ¼ cup brown sugar
Instructions
- Place paprika, cinnamon, garlic powder, oregano and salt and pepper in a small bowl, and mix. Using a knife, carefully remove the membrane from the ribs. Spoon the rib rub onto the pork ribs, and use your hands to coat them on both sides with the seasoning.1 tablespoon paprika,½ teaspoon ground cinnamon,1 teaspoon garlic powder,1 teaspoon dried oregano,1 teaspoon salt,1 teaspoon pepper,4 lbs spare ribs
- Place ribs in slow cooker. Combine barbecue sauce, bourbon and brown sugar. Add ¾ of the barbecue sauce mixture to slow cooker with the ribs.¼ cup bourbon,2 cups barbecue sauce,¼ cup brown sugar
- Cook on high 4 hours, or low 8 hours. Once cooked, set oven to broil at 300°F. Remove ribs and place on tin foil lined baking tray. Spoon over 4 tablespoons of the rib sauce from slow cooker. Baste with half of the remaining barbecue sauce. Set in oven for 8 to 10 minutes, or until sauce starts to caramelize.
- Place remaining barbecue sauce and leftover juices into a small bowl for dipping. Cut ribs into pieces and serve. Garnish with a little parsley if desired. Enjoy!
Notes
- Preheat oven to 250°F. Rub pork ribs with the rib rub.
- Wrap ribs in tin foil. Place in oven and cook 2 to 2.5 hours.
- Remove from oven and discard juices. Baste with the rib sauce on both sides.
- Place back in oven for 30 minutes, basting every 5 minutes until sauce is sticky. Using a meat thermometer, the internal temperature should read 145°F when they are done cooking.
- Cut ribs into pieces and serve. Use a spoon to carefully scrape remaining barbecue sauce into a serving dish for dipping. Enjoy!
Nutrition
Hi, I'm Isabel! I've been sharing my recipes online, in cookbooks, and in TV specials since 2012. The most important thing to me is Sunday supper with my family, and inspiring togetherness with my recipes!
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My ribs turned out so good following this recipe! They were super tender and my family's favorite part was the sauce. My grandpa said we need to make these again. Thank you for this great recipe!
Expert Tips
- Cook for 8 hours on low for the ultimate tender ribs, but 4 hours on high will be good too.
- No slow cooker? No problem. You can slow-cook ribs in the oven. Slow-cooker ribs will end up slightly softer than oven-baked ribs, but both methods work great. Oven pork ribs are great if you're especially short on time as they take only 3 hours to make. See my instructions below.
- I sometimes like to experiment with the rub recipe and often use the rib rub I use for my baby back ribs recipe.
Alternate Cooking Methods
- Oven pork ribs: Prepare ribs as instructed, then wrap in aluminum foil and bake in a preheated oven at 250°F for 2 to 2.5 hours. When ready, remove, discard the juices, baste with sauce, and place back in the oven for another 30 minutes, basting every 5 minutes until the sauce is sticky. The internal temp should read 145°F on an instant read meat thermometer when they're ready to eat.
- Grilled ribs: See my recipe for grilled baby back ribs for grilling instructions!
- Smoked ribs: See my recipe for smoked short ribs for smoking instructions!
- Slow cooker beef short ribs: See my recipe for slow cooker beef short ribs if you want to use beef short ribs instead of pork spare ribs.
- Braised ribs: See my recipe for red wine braised ribs for braising instructions.
- Korean-style ribs: I have a recipe for these amazing Korean BBQ ribs, too. Give it a try!
I've made this a few times and it's always a hit. I like the simplicity of this recipe, and I can take the time to make some superb sides with it.
FAQ
To avoid burning the slow easy slow cooker ribs recipe and to add flavor and moisture, you should cook pork ribs in a liquid. In the case of my recipe for crock pot ribs, a bourbon BBQ sauce mixture is used as the liquid.
You can cook crock pot BBQ ribs for too long. If the meat becomes too tender, it is likely overcooked. I recommend cooking crock pot pork ribs for no more than 8 hours on low heat and no more than 4 hours on high heat.
You do not need to sear pork ribs before slow cooking. Instead, you can sear them after cooking them in the crock pot by using your oven broiler at the end of the cooking process. This gives them an amazing sticky char.
Super easy and tasty.
jerseygirlcooks says
These ribs look fantastic! And that sauce!
Pierre says
Super easy and tasty
Isabel Laessig says
So glad you enjoyed it, Pierre! Thank you!
Damien says
I've made this a few times and it's always a hit.
I like the simplicity of this recipe, and I can take the time to make some superb sides with it.
I like to use my homemade whiskey BBQ when I can plan ahead, but I'm not against just buying some Swwet Baby Ray's and adding some Edward Williams (inexpensive whiskey great for cooking) to it.
Isabel Laessig says
So glad you enjoy it, Damien! Thank you so much for letting us know!
thatskinnychickcanbake says
Cannot wait to try this BBQ sauce!
Christie Campbell says
Anything with bourbon is delicious in my book!
Trang says
This sounds absolutely delicious, and I love that it's made easier by cooking in the slow cooker too!
Tara says
Such gorgeous ribs! That bourbon bbq sauce sounds incredible
H.A.G. says
Ribs are perfect football food! I love this slow-cooker, oven finish method too- very easy!
mgewrites says
These look sooooo crazy good!! 🙂
kylie says
Made these so many times. Delicious, fall off the bone ribs and the sauce is on point. Must broil to get that char
Em Beitel says
Thank you so much, Kylie! We are so glad you enjoy them!
Jordin Webert says
Can you sub something for the bourbon?
Em Beitel says
Hi Jordin! Thank you for your question! You can substitute rum, brandy, cognac, or any other kind of whiskey for bourbon in this recipe - alternatively, if you want to leave out the alcohol, you can use ginger beer. It has the same sort of vanilla flavor.
Jordin Webert says
My ribs turned out so good following this recipe! They were super tender and my family's favorite part was the sauce. My grandpa said we need to make these again. Thank you for this great recipe!
Em Beitel says
Jordin, that's awesome! We're so glad you and your family enjoyed these ribs!