The mid-season premiere of The Walking Dead was last weekend, so our Walking Dead crew came over for a fun evening of BBQ ribs and yelling at the TV in both horror and joy. (We get into TWD like we get into Broncos football – you gotta cheer for your team!) Our friends typically bring over their baby son T for dinner time and then he either goes to sleep upstairs or he adventures around the basement while we watch the episode (he’s not old enough to understand at all and doesn’t really care about TV screens.)
I think T and I have now become BFFs because I gave him what I believe was his first ever BBQ rib and that kid went to TOWN on it! He gnawed it down for almost 20 minutes making yummy happy baby noises until it was nothing but a bone and a bit of the fat left. We grownups made similar happy noises while eating these ribs, but we did not look as cute as this guy did while chowing down on them. I made double what I thought we’d need, but this kid made sure there weren’t many leftovers.
Just look at that joyful face!! If you’ve never made ribs before, don’t worry because these are going to be super easy. Rib meat is a fairly fatty meat, so the trick is to cook them down low and slow until the fat renders out and you’re left with delicious, tender meat. You can choose to use beef or pork ribs for this recipe, but whichever you choose, be sure and get “loin” or “baby back” ribs rather than spare ribs. That cut of meat comes from the section of the rib attached to the spine of the animal and is what’s left after the pork or beef tenderloin is cut away. This makes for very good eating and plump ribs. (This recipe will also work with spare ribs, but you’ll just have much smaller ribs. Nobody wants smaller ribs! Large ribs for the win!)
When you’re going to cook meat low and slow, you typically want to use a rub rather than a marinade. It’s going to spend a good amount of time on the meat without getting burned from being cooked so long like BBQ sauce tends to do. A lot of people make the mistake of trying to marinade ribs and then throw them on the grill to cook quickly, and they typically end up tough and chewy with a baked on coating of sauce. I’m not a fan of fast grilled ribs, and much prefer them either in the slow cooker or on a smoker. Since we don’t own a smoker, this slow cooker recipe was born!
Besides over-cooking, one of the main things that make ribs chewy is the membrane on the inside of the rack of ribs. I prefer to cut my ribs apart before putting them in the slow cooker because a) they fit better and b) you can get the rub all over every side of the rib. You also give the ribs a chance to shrink up on their own and start falling off the bone, which is my favorite way to prepare them. Before you can cut the ribs apart, you’ll want to grab a paper towel and use it to grasp the membrane layer on the underside (the side under the curve with less meat on it) of the rack of ribs and then pull it completely off. Here’s a handy youtube video with a great demonstration of this step. Leave the fat layer behind if you can because it will add flavor to the ribs. Some butchers remove this as they prepare the meat, so don’t fret if you can’t find it.
From there, it’s just a matter of coating the ribs in my special blend of Texas BBQ rub and then placing them meat-side up in a slow cooker with a bit of beef broth at the bottom (to keep moisture in the cooking environment) and letting the slow cooking do its thing. They are excellent with just the rub, but since I’m a huge fan of BBQ sauce, I love to baste the ribs after cooking with my favorite brown sugar sauce and put them under the broiler for a few minutes to get that beautiful BBQ glaze everyone loves. I hope y’all love these ribs as much as baby T does!!
Slow Cooker Texas BBQ Ribs
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 480
- Total Time: 490
Ingredients
- ~3lb (1 rack) loin back/baby back beef or pork ribs
- 1/2 cup of my Texas BBQ Rub
- 1/2 cup beef broth
- 1/2 cup sweet brown sugar bbq sauce
Instructions
- Bring your rack of loin/baby back ribs to room temperature, then wash and pat dry with a paper towel.
- Turn them over so the meat side is down, and using a paper towel to help you grip, peel off the back membrane of the ribs if the butcher hasn’t already removed it.
- Carefully slice each rib apart from the rack.
- Make my Texas BBQ Rub – that’s the most important part – (you’ll need about 1/4th of a batch for each rack of ribs.)
- Coat all sides of each rib in the rub and place them in a slow cooker meat side up. Stacking is fine.
- Add about 1/2 cup of beef broth to the bottom of the slow cooker (enough to cover the bottom about 1/2 inch.)
- Cook ribs on low for 8 hours or high 4 hours, or until the meat begins to fall off the bone. (It will shrink up a lot as it cooks – this is normal.)
- About 5 minutes before you want to eat them, baste them on the top with a sweet brown sugar bbq sauce and pit them on a cookie sheet under the broiler meat side up for about 4 minutes to give them a nice glaze.
Notes
- Gluten-free: This recipe is gluten-free, just check your seasoning salt carefully or follow the recipe to make your own for the rub.
- Vegetarian: Do I even have to tell you that this is not vegetarian?
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 4
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These look delicious!