Slow Cooker Ribs
Serves 4
5 mins prep
300 mins cook
305 mins total
🐷🎉 Tender, juicy, fall-off-the-bone baby back pork ribs that are finger-lickin’ good! With just 5 minutes of active prep, your slow cooker does all the work in creating ribs that your friends and family will beg you to make over and over!
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Optionally, flip the ribs over and take the skin off the bone. Start at the side of the ribs where they taper off. At the edge, you will see there is a thin layer of skin over the ribs. You can sometimes pry it up with your finger or you can take a paring knife and run it along the bone right under the skin just to get a small flap up so you can get a grip on it. It is slippery so I suggest using a paper towel to help leverage your hold on the skin; it will then pull off easily. You can skip this step of taking the skin off. This helps with tenderizing but some people skip it.
Plug in and turn on your oval 8-quart slow cooker to get it preheating (a 7-quart oval slow cooker should be okay, but I don't recommend any smaller).
Cut the ribs in half between two of the bones; set aside.
To a small bowl, add the brown sugar, paprika (or chipotle), black pepper, salt, garlic powder,
onion powder, optional cayenne pepper, and whisk together to create the dry rub; set aside.To a separate small bowl, add 1 cup of the barbecue sauce, 2 tablespoons of water to thin it slighting, and stir to combine; set aside.
Lay one of the half racks of ribs into the slow cooker, meat side up.
Evenly sprinkle half the dry rub on top.
Evenly drizzle half of the barbecue sauce mixture on top.
Add the other half rack of ribs on top, meat side up.
Evenly sprinkle the remaining rub.
Evenly drizzle the remaining barbecue sauce.
Cover with the lid and cook on low for 6-8 hours or high 3-4 hours; however I recommend cooking on
low to prevent the ribs from drying out. Tip - You know the ribs are done when you pierce the meat with a fork between two bones and there is no resistance.
Allow the meat to rest for about 15 minutes before serving. Or optionally, continue onto step 15 and broil the ribs to create a thicker, stickier glaze* (See Notes for more info).
To optionally continue with broiling the ribs - Adjust the oven rack to the second-highest position and preheat your broiler to high.
Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
Very carefully lift the ribs out of the slow cooker, one half at a time, and place them on the lined sheet pan.
Optionally, brush them with additional barbecue sauce if you like them extra saucy, about 1 cup; or leave them as is.
Broil for a few minutes, until the outside of the ribs is bubbling and caramelized. Keep watching at all times because they can burn very fast!
Allow the ribs to rest for about 15 minutes before serving. Extra ribs will keep airtight in the fridge for up to 5 days.