Slow cooker ribs are the best, most tender, flavorful ribs you’ll make! These are just about the easiest thing in the world and the meat just falls right off the bone!
My husband is straight up obsessed with pork.
The man would eat it for every meal if I weren’t around to shove beef, chicken, and a stray vegetable or two at him every now and then.
Man cannot live on bacon alone, my dear husband.But, still, he tries.
Anyway, I’ve come up with some crazy amazing pork deliciousness over the years. My pulled pork is literally the best thing ever. I make it almost every time we have a big family get together, because not only does everyone love it, it’s easy.
Today I’m here with something porky, but different!
Crock pot ribs! Y’all are going to flip for how simple this one is.
My slow cooker ribs recipe starts with a homemade dry rub. You can use a store-bought version if you must, but I swear, my bbq rub is AMAZING and you really don’t want to miss out. 😉
How to make crock pot ribs:
This is the easy part, friends.
You literally just coat the ribs in my homemade BBQ dry rub.
The dry rub consists of brown sugar, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, and parsley. Super easy stuff that you probably have in your cupboards.
Sprinkle that over your ribs and rub it all in on both sides.
Add some apple cider (or apple juice!) to your slow cooker, pop the ribs in, cover, and cook!
Every slow cooker heats differently, but mine takes 4 hours on high and 8 hours on low. If your crockpot cooks hotter, you can reduce the same as needed.
These slow cooker pork ribs get pulled out and popped on a baking sheet. Slather them in my Carolina BBQ sauce and then pop them under the broiler for a couple of minutes.
Once the barbecue sauce starts to caramelize, your ribs are ready!
These are seriously best slow cooker ribs!!
What to serve with crock pot pork ribs:
Oh goodness, there are so many tasty possibilities!
We always have my coleslaw recipe with ribs.
Jiffy corn casserole is a definite hit.
Cowboy beans, cauliflower potato salad, and crockpot hashbrown casserole are all amazing as well.
More crockpot recipes:
If you love using that crockpot to make dinner time easy, I have some tasty recipes you should try!
My French dip sandwich is the most popular recipe on this site!
Crockpot BBQ chicken, crockpot pork roast, and crockpot chicken and stuffing are on repeat at my house month after month.
Serve these ribs with some cucumber tomato salad and crockpot mashed potatoes!
Slow Cooker Ribs
Ingredients
- 3 racks baby back ribs
- 2 tablespoons paprika
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon onion powder
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 tablespoon ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon parsley
- 1/2 cup apple cider
- 1/2 cup barbecue sauce
Instructions
- Remove the membrane from the back of the ribs and cut each rack of ribs in half so that they fit easily in the slow cooker.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the paprika, brown sugar, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, and parsley.
- Sprinkle the dry rub over each side of the ribs and use your hands to press it into the meat.
- Add the apple cider to the bottom of a slow cooker and place the ribs in the slow cooker.
- Cook, covered, on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours.
- When ribs are nearly falling apart, carefully remove them from the slow cooker to a large baking sheet. Brush with barbecue sauce.
- Place under the broiler until the sauce has thickened and begun to caramelize, about 5 minutes.
- Serve immediately.
Mag says
Can you place them on a grill instead of a broiler?
Karly says
I’m sure you could! Great idea.
nancy buchanan says
Oh my goodness!! SLow cooker baby back ribs – I love it!! With the eating machine (aka my son) comes home for the summer this weekend – this recipe is going on my list to make ASAP – those ribs look fabulous!!
Karly says
Thanks, Nancy!
Di says
These are now one of our favorite meals. I mix in about 1/4 cup of liquid smoke into the bbq sauce before slathering it onto the ribs before broiling them. My husband swears they taste just as good as ribs that come off a smoker. And that’s a bold statement t in the land of bbq.
Karly says
Yay! Love hearing that!
Milena says
This is my kind of recipe! The dry rub has such amazing flavors and you cannot beat using the slow cooker to do the heavy lifting. Love it, pinned!
Lauren @ Lemon & Mocha says
I love ribs, but I’ve never made them at home. This recipe looks so good and definitely do-able! I’ll have to try it out! Thanks 🙂
Michele says
I love ribs and these look so good. I have never tried them in the slow cooker. I’m going to have to try these ribs.
Brooke says
They are in the Crock-Pot now! Can’t wait! Just out of curiosity…why apple cider vinegar? Does it add flavor sitting in the bottom?
Karly says
Hi Brooke! You add apple cider, not apple cider vinegar! And it does add flavor. I’d try to dump the vinegar if you can…those ribs might be a bit tangy otherwise.
Connie Herm says
OMG! I made the same mistake! I just dumped the apple cider vinegar out after about 1/2 hr in the crock pot. I didn’t have cider so I replaced it with beef bouillon.
I’m so glad I came back to this site to read the reviews!
I’m hoping for the best outcome.
I’ll make note after they are ready to eat.
Karly says
Ooh, good luck! Hope you caught it in time!
John Epps says
I did at apple cider vinegar since I didn’t have apple cider. Will tell you later how they come out. Barbecue sauce may take the tangy out will see
Sam says
I used apple cider vi what every time I made them bc I obviously didn’t read the fine print… turns out amazing every time! You’re safe if you used vinegar!
kristy riley says
Omg I guess I’m not the only person who go it wrong. Used apple cider vinegar instead of apple cider…2 hours into the cooking. Had to go take the ribs out of the cooker and dump out the apple cider vinger. Thanks for sharing the recipe but i agree, might need to reword that part of the result of the recipe since a LOT of people are messing up. Totally my fault for not reading though. Hopefully it turn out ok. I pour it put and add chicken stock instead.. wish me luck
Megan | 3 Scoops of Sugar says
These look absolutely delicious!! I can’t wait to try these! Thanks for sharing!
Liz says
I made the ribs ! They were delicious, but they didn’t need 8 hours, the mest was falling off the bone ?
Karly says
Hi Liz!
Every slow cooker cooks a bit differently – some run hotter than others. You’ll know to adjust for next time. 🙂
Jessica says
I really want to try this recipe but I’m doing only 2 pounds of spare ribs. How long on low would you suggest I do them for?
Karly says
I think it will likely take a similar amount of time. Maybe an hour less, if that.
Thomas Chandler says
I used to do my ribs this way .. 4 hurs and so yummy, but discivered a new way this year …. ans a lot quicker.
Use an electronic pressure cooker… dry rub in the pot with a little liquid at the bottom and 20 minutes at pressure and they are equiva;lent to 4 hours in warm oven or slow cooker… Ribs on the table in an hour or less
Lisa says
Thomas Chandler – pressure cooker version sounds like a brilliant variation! Thanks for sharing the tip.
Filmoracrack.com says
I tried that and want to tell you that it was so delicious that i tried that 3 days regularly 🙂
Kay says
Can I make this with non-baby-back ribs, such as pork country spare ribs?
Karly says
I think that would work fine, though I haven’t tried it myself.
Robert says
Hi I had to try your recipe and I use them on my country ribs and OMG! so tender, as I was taking them out of crock pot to broil them most of the bones fell off in the pot. I didn’t have apple cider so I used orange juice and cook them on low for 7 hours great flavor, thanks…
Maggie Martin says
I am a die hard charcoal griller, but you have never let me down so I am going to give this a try, I will let you know.
Thanks Karly
Maggie
Mimi says
Well they do look spectacular! I need to use my slow cooker more often! This is genius!
Christopher Synol says
Do you lay the ribs down in the crock pot or stand them up in the cider?
Karly says
Just pile them all in there. You can see how I did it in the video in this post.
Grif says
Is it just apple cider or apple cider vinegar??
Karly says
Apple cider! That’d be an awful lot of vinegar in there. 🙂
Linda says
how much liquid to I use – please be specific. It says apple cider vinegar in the recipe. How much. I always have that around. I don’t want to buy a whole bottle of apple cider if I’m only going to use a little bit. Thanks! My husband loves ribs, but I said I didn’t know how to make them, so I want to try this as it looks so easy. We like fall off the bone ribs, not the chewy ones where you have to gnaw on the bone
Karly says
The amounts are all located within the recipe card. I would not use apple cider vinegar for this recipe.
Syndi says
Made these tonight! They were awesome! Best… Easiest ribs ever! Thank you!
Karly says
So glad you gave them a try!
Natasha says
I made these ribs and they were so frickin good!!!! I am just curious but how much degrees do you broil these bad boys at?
Karly says
I use a gas oven which doesn’t have a temperature setting for the broiler. Flames just come out of the broiler. I would guess around 500 degrees though? Just keep a close eye on them.
Scott says
I add 2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar to the apple cider…. perfect
sharon says
also make your baked potatoes in the crock pot in a line while ribs cook I stand the ribs on the side and baked potato’s in a liner in the middle
Sonia says
Would like to know if apple juice can be used instead, will make this by the end of the week.
Karly says
Apple juice works just fine! 🙂 Enjoy!
Kierra Phillips says
I’m not sure why, but I read apple cider as apple cider vinegar when I made this recipe last night ; despite my mistake, absolutely delicious. Saving this recipe for future uses!
Judy says
I did the same….not a fan at all. I should read it twice. Waste of ribs.
Karly says
I’m sure they weren’t all that great with the vinegar. If you try again, be sure to use apple cider. 🙂
Cynthia says
Can you please put a note next to your Apple cider ingredient that says something like this…1/2 cup of apple cider (NOT apple cider vinegar…Apple cider juice). I, too, thought apple cider vinegar. It’s not your fault, as I read it incorrectly. But since so many people have made this mistake, it would be helpful. Thank you.
Karly says
Hi Cynthia! I’m scared that adding the word vinegar in there is going to cause people to use it even more often…people skim and if they see that word it may just make the problem worse. I’ll try adding a note in the recipe card, but half the time people don’t even read those. 😉
Karly says
Uh oh! I bet those were some tangy ribs. I’m sure they’ll be even better with apple cider. 🙂
Jody says
Crap mine are in crockpot with apple cider vinegar too! Hope they are still good…
Karly says
Uh oh! I hope it still works out for you!
Sher says
I read Apple cider vinegar too and used it and loved them. I grated some Apple and brown sugar into the excess liquid after removing the ribs from the Crockpot and left that while broiling the ribs. I then used a slotted spoon to collect the Apple to lay onto in the ribs. Delicious
Lida says
This recipe is nasty, the only thing giving it any flavor at all was the bbq sauce…We are used to smoking our ribs, but since it was cold, I tried this recipe…I think if you use an good rub and let it soak in for 24 hours, it might turn out better, I will never cook my ribs any other way besides smoking them, it’s the best way. The ribs were falling off the bone and soft though.
Karly says
You can’t expect the same flavor of a slow cooker rib that you would from a smoked rib. They’re obviously going to taste pretty different.
Kendra says
Ummmm NOTHING will taste the same as smoked meat?
Nina says
Use some liquid smoke!!!!!!
casey says
do you use dried parsley or fresh?…im using fresh so i hope thats ok
Karly says
Either should be fine, but I use dried in things like rubs and spice blends. 🙂
Joyce Perez says
Love Love Love bar-b que ribs will make this very soon thanks for the recipe and others as well
Jessica Kahanek says
I improvised since I didn’t have either apple cider or apple juice. So instead I used cinnamon apple sauce : )
Britt says
HOW many pounds of meat does the rub cover? I’m about to try this recipe! Yay!!!
Karly says
Hi Britt! This should easily cover the 3 racks of ribs. If you have extra, just store it in a sealed container for next time. 🙂
Amanda says
Can u use beef ribs instead of pork?
Karly says
I haven’t tried it, but I think it’d work fine.
Delaney says
Is the BBQ sauce necessary or can I broil without the sauce? My boyfriend and i arent the biggest fans of BBQ sauce.
Karly says
I always leave one or two of them plain for my husband and it works fine! 🙂
JL says
Oh no! I’m doing this now and realized I grabbed apple juice instead of cider. Should I skip it or use the juice instead?
Also I’m only doing 1 rack cuz there’s only 2 of us at home. How do I adjust the cooking time? Thank u.
Karly says
Apple juice and apple cider are basically the same thing…won’t hurt anything to use the juice. For the cook time, I’m really not sure how it will change. Should be a bit less time, so just keep an eye on them.
Gloria says
I tried this last night and I must say it is one recipe that stands true! Although I didn’t need the full 8 hours either, they fell off the bone & the flavor was great. Loved the caramelization process for the final touch. It was a hit with hubby…and he’s very picky!!! Meal was complete w/ Mac n cheese, baked beans & coleslaw. Thanks!
Karly says
So glad they were hubby approved! 🙂
Mary says
I am not a rib cooker and I will tell you these turned out wonderful. Planning to use this recipe again!! And share like crazy.
Thank goodness for google. I googled crockpot ribs. This one came up and at 415am it looked like a winner. My ribs went in the crockpot frozen. No problem. The meat fell off the bone. My first tine using the broil setting in an oven too.
Thank you for the recipe.
Karly says
So glad you gave them a try! 🙂
Jeanne Roberts says
Do you need to take the “skin” off as you are supposed to do when you grill ribs?
Karly says
Yep!
Sadie says
Made these yesterday, they were great! Didn’t have apple cider or apple juice so I used half a bottle of flat coke I have in my fridge. Worked perfect! Loved the rub, will use again for sure.
Karly says
Great swap!! So glad you enjoyed the recipe.
Katie Quan says
Like so many others I made the mistake of using Apple cider vinegar ?????They have 20 minutes left in the slow cooker so I guess there is no changing it up now. Just hoping they aren’t terrible
Karly says
Uh oh! I hope they turn out.
Matt says
These are the best comments ever!!! I’m so happy I have common sense!!! I love everybody!!!
Diana says
It came out fantastic. I slow cooked it at home wrapped it up took it to our cabin and finished it up on the grill. Funny thing is I did not read the recipe very well and did use apple cider vinegar instead of apple cider juice and it still came out awesome. My guests thought it was absolutely fantastic and so did I.
Karly says
So glad you enjoyed this one – even with the vinegar! 🙂
Cecilia Osladil says
Hi Karly. Thanks for posting this super easy recipe! My husband woke up thinking about last nights ribs. Luckily I made a big batch! I had to make a substitution (no parsley) and I’m glad I read your note about apple cider versus apple cider vinegar. Again, Thanks for sharing!
Kristen Terhune says
My ribs have been in the crockpot 5 hours on high and are still not fall off the bone tender… wonder what went wrong!
Karly says
Hi Kristen! They just need to cook longer…sounds like your crockpot runs a little cooler than most or the ribs were extra large? Either way, if the meat isn’t tender, it likely just needs more time. 🙂
Jules says
I LOVE these ribs so much! I’ve made them 3 times now, 1st time like many others, I accidentally used apple cider vinegar, my picky eater said they were the best ribs ever and the rest of the family agreed, really good. 2nd time I used apple cider and even tastier for sure! But still pretty close to when i used the vinegar. 3rd time I didn’t have apple cider again so I used these Spiced apple cider packets(you make them like tea) and WOW even better than the last time! My picky eater again was like “oh man these are even better than before I didn’t think they could get better!!” Thanks for the radiator karly
Karly says
Oh wow, so glad they’re such a hit! I’ll have to try with the apple cider packet sometime! I’m always out of apple cider myself. 🙂
Nancy says
I’m serving 16 people and would like to make the ribs ahead of time. Any thoughts on how they would turn out if I made the ribs in the crockpot and froze them. When I need to serve, I would put the thawed ribs in the broiler with the barbecue sauce…
Karly says
Hi Nancy! I’ve never tried this, so I’m really not sure how well they’d work. I don’t think the time under the broiler would be enough to fully heat them through either way though.
Katie says
These are INCREDIBLE. Since I first made them a few months ago, my boyfriend asks for them at least once a week. We’re in a teeny NYC apartment with no outdoor space so it’s great to have recipes that make great BBQ without a grill. We make them with spare ribs a lot and they’re great that way too.
Karly says
So glad you guys enjoy these! 🙂
Jessica says
I put this in my crockpot and accidentally put the bbq sauce in with it. Hopefully it still turns out okay
Karly says
I hope they turned out for you!
Melissa Rossin says
What can i use besides apple cider on the bottom if the crockpot for my ribs
Karly says
Chicken stock would probably work fine, though we like the little bit of sweetness from the apple cider.