Simple Slow Cooker Ribs

For most of us, if you want finger licking ribs, you’re booking a table at a meat house like Hurricanes, Meat & Wine Co or Ribs & Rumps. The idea of making ribs at home that are so tender and so saucy seems like it requires some serious training and a southern American accent. Well, I’m a simple human being and I am going to share with you how to make seriously impressive ribs with some basic ingredients and patience.

What you’ll need

• A slow cooker! I’m using the Breville Smart Temp slow cooker, it has a timer on board which makes it a little easier to use
• Pork Ribs, two racks
• 500ml Barbecue sauce (I’ve tried a few varieties and the quantity is the most important)

• 2 tablespoons of brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons of minced garlic
• 2 teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon of cayenne pepper (this is optional, leave it out if the spicy kick is unwanted)

How you’ll do it

1. Use a cooking spray and coat the inside of the slow cooker bowl.
2. Remove the inner skin from the ribs, it’s fiddly but that membrane will not be enjoyable to eat. Add the ribs to the bowl.
3. Take a bowl and add the sauce, sugar, garlic, Worcestershire sauce and pepper, mix it all together. Pour three quarters of it into the bowl.
4. Get your hands in there and lather the sauce onto the ribs, it’s great if they’re swimming in it and less exposed.
5. Cook on low for 7-9 hours or if you’re rushing make it 3-5 hours on high. Please plan ahead though and do it low and slow, it’s worth the wait.
6. Take an oven tray and line it with a baking sheet. Gently and slow and carefully and lovingly remove the ribs from the cooker to the tray, it won’t be easy as it’ll want to fall apart.
7. Take the remaining sauce from earlier and lather the ribs appropriately and put the tray and ribs into the oven under the grill (or broil) for 10 minutes at 220 degrees.
8. Serve and enjoy….

Tips to take home

Removing the rear or inner skin on the ribs is critical to really making the dish say wow, take the extra time to get that right and the rest will follow.

When slow cooking, you don’t have to splash out for expensive meat at the butcher, the process of cooking at low temp nice and slow is that all the fibres in the meat will breakdown and soften overall.

Avoid opening the slow cooker! It is such a patience game and it will be hard to resist the smell but it’s important to let the process complete properly.