Ribs are one of those foods that always intimidated me, and while I liked them, I was never brave enough to cook them for the first few years I was married. Then, one day, there was a huge sale on ribs at our local store, and having no better idea for dinner, I bought them. On the drive home, I realized that I didn’t have a grill at the time or a even a recipe for ribs, so after some online research, a slow cooker recipe was born. It turned out great and we’ve been cooking these ever since!
This is one of several variations that I make, and it might be my favorite. Adjust spices and sweetener to fit your own taste…
Slow Cooker Ribs Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 lbs beef ribs (or pork)
- 1 medium onion
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp pepper
- 15 oz tomato sauce
- 6 oz tomato paste
- 2 TBSP apple cider vinegar
- 2 TBSP Worcestershire sauce
- ½ tsp all natural liquid smoke
- ¼ cup honey or molasses (or molasses or a dash of stevia, optional)
Instructions
- Cut the ribs into 3-4 rib sections so they will fit in the Crock-Pot.
- Dice the onion and place it at the bottom of the Crock-Pot.
- Sprinkle the ribs with chili powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper and put them in the Crock-Pot on top of the onions.
- Ina small bow, mix together the tomato sauce, tomato paste, vinegar, Worcestershire, liquid smoke, and sweetener if using and then pour evenly over the ribs.
- Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours or until tender.
- Toss in sauce before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
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Ever barbecued in your Crock-Pot? How did it turn out? Share your recipe below!
Very good. I placed mine under the broiler after I took them out of the crock pot with a little homemade bbq tossed on….muy muy Bueno.
This recipes reads “scrumptiously”, and I’ve never been completely satisfied with recipes I’ve tried.
Love the tomato sauce and paste instead of ketchup, and pineapple and pork love each other.
I have a rack of ribs and a couple of beef short ribs from the meat csa. Going to try doing them together tomorrow. Added a little extra spices to the sauce, and coconut sugar for the brown sugar flavor. Hoping forthe best. Worried that I have to put them in crockpot at 8:30 but I don’t get home til 6. Will ask hubby to turn them down to warm around 5ish.
That’s some killer smelling bbq sauce, it’s cooking with the ribs now. For a beginner like me, that’s exciting! I’d like to find some more of your recipes that I can do, any recommendations on where to start? Thanks for this recipe.
From the first time we made these last summer (2013) to their appearance on this week’s meal plan, every single person has RAVED about these ribs!!
When we travelled over to America a couple months ago we fell in love with ribs! Haven’t tried cooking them yet! It’s 100% on the ‘to cook’ list!
I just realized I got boneless ribs. will Indeed commodify the cooking time.? Help!
Do you think the liquid smoke is ok for us, or carcinogenic like actual smoke is?
I would love to try this recipe, but all the Worcestershire sauce I find in the store has terrible ingredients in it like MSG and/or high fructose corn syrup…can you recommend a good brand?
Lately, I’ve been making my own with the recipe on this page: https://paleoleap.com/homemade-paleo-condiments/ (just make sure you use fermented soy sauce)
Lee and Perrins Worcestershire sauce has no weird ingredients in it (it does have a little sugar, but that’s it) and is gluten free.
I made this for dinner tonight. It was amazing! The barbecue sauce was so easy to make and delicious. My family loved it, this is definitely an instant classic in our family now.