Slow Cooker Baby Back Ribs

 

The drums have been beating for a very long time, extolling the fabulousness of cooking ribs in a slow cooker. I chose to ignore them. What could possibly be as good as smoking racks of ribs low and slow over hickory for six hours? Well, yesterday I tried slow cooker ribs and the results were fantastic. It's a totally different experience than ribs on a smoker, but Becky and I could not stop eating these ribs!

It certainly could not be any simpler. Toss an onion and garlic in a slow cooker with a half a cup of water. Apply your rib rub and drop the ribs in your slow cooker for eight hours....and out pops the most incredibly moist and tender ribs that will ever cross your lips.

I'll take a moment to comment on rib rub. For years, all I have ever used on my ribs is Famous Dave's Rib Rub. But Famous Dave has moved on, starting a new chain called Old Southern BBQ. I bought some of his new rub last week and now I am completely hooked! You can get yourself some by clicking on this link:

 https://www.oldsouthernbbq.com/store/c1/Featured_Products.html

This recipe scales perfectly for any quantity of ribs. So depending on the size of your slow cooker, the cooking instructions are identical for 1 to 3 racks of ribs. To fit them in your cooker, wind them around the outer rim or cut each rack in half. One additional thing I did was add a teaspoon of Liquid Smoke, which gave the meat a nice hickory bite.

INGREDIENTS

1 medium onion, sliced

4 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced in half

1/2 cup of water

1 teaspoon Liquid Smoke (optional)

1 to 3 racks of baby back pork ribs

Rib Rub

BBQ Sauce

DIRECTIONS

1. Place onion, garlic and water in the bottom of your slow cooker.
2. Generously apply rib rub to both sides of the ribs. Then place the ribs in your slow cooker, standing them on end. Turn slow cooker to low, cover and cook ribs for 8 hours.
3. When ribs are done, turn on your oven broiler. Place ribs on a foil-lined cookie sheet and slather them with BBQ sauce. Place ribs under the broiler for 3 to 5 minutes (the ribs should be browned and the BBQ sauce caramelized). Remove from oven and slice between the bones to serve.

Pairing: A Zinfandel, or better yet, a Pilsner!

Grogs and Goldie, 1956