Slow Cooker BBQ Country Style Ribs

These Slow Cooker BBQ Country Style Ribs are soft, sweet, and sticky, made with only three simple ingredients. The slow cooker does most of the work, and a quick broil at the end makes them extra sticky with a little char. It’s a fun, easy meal great for family dinners, potlucks, or game day fun.

These slow cooker 3-ingredient BBQ country style ribs are the kind of meal my brother asks for every single weekend. They turn out so soft that they fall apart, sticky, full of sauce, and take almost no work to make. This is one of those small-town, busy-family recipes that people bring to potlucks and game days because it only needs three easy ingredients, while the slow cooker does the rest of the job.

If you want a dinner that always comes out great and tastes like you spent all day making it, this one is a must-try.

These ribs taste really good served with creamy coleslaw and buttery mashed potatoes or baked beans to soak up all that extra sauce. If you want something a little lighter, try them with a simple green salad or roasted veggies. They also taste great stuffed inside soft sandwich buns with pickles and extra BBQ sauce for an easy game-day meal.

I like to serve the ribs right in the foil pans with some tongs, so everyone can grab their own, family-style.

Slow Cooker 3-Ingredient BBQ Country Style Ribs

Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 4–5 pounds bone-in country style pork ribs
• 1 (18–20 ounce) bottle thick barbecue sauce, plus extra for serving if wanted
• ½ cup brown sugar, packed

Directions

1. Use paper towels to pat the pork ribs completely dry. If you’d like, trim off any big, thick chunks of fat. This helps the ribs brown a bit better and keeps the sauce from getting too greasy.
2. Spray the inside of your slow cooker with a little nonstick cooking spray to make cleaning up easier later. You can also use a slow cooker liner if you have one.
3. In a small bowl, mix the barbecue sauce and brown sugar together. Stir it well until most of the sugar has dissolved and the sauce looks smooth, shiny, and a little thicker than before.
4. Spoon a thin layer of the BBQ sauce mix onto the bottom of the slow cooker. Place the ribs inside in an even layer. It’s fine if they overlap a little bit, but try not to stack them too high so they all cook evenly.
5. Pour the rest of the BBQ sauce mix over the top of the ribs. Use tongs to turn each rib so it gets fully coated in sauce. Spoon any extra sauce from the bottom onto dry spots you notice.
6. Put the lid on the slow cooker. Cook on LOW for 7 to 8 hours, or on HIGH for 3½ to 4 hours, until the ribs are very soft and easily pull apart with a fork.
7. Once the ribs finish cooking, turn your oven’s broiler on to high. Line two rimmed baking sheets or foil trays with aluminum foil so cleanup is easy.
8. Using tongs, carefully move the ribs from the slow cooker onto the foil-lined trays. Let a little extra liquid drip off first, but leave plenty of sauce stuck to the meat.
9. Spoon or brush more of the thick BBQ sauce from the slow cooker over the top of the ribs so they look nice, shiny, and well coated.
10. Place the trays under the broiler on the upper-middle rack for 3 to 5 minutes. Watch them closely so they don’t burn, until the edges look slightly charred and the sauce turns bubbly and sticky. Turn the trays partway through if needed so they brown evenly on all sides.
11. Take the trays out of the oven and let the ribs rest for a few minutes. Spoon any extra sauce that dripped to the bottom of the trays back over the ribs for a sticky, saucy finish.
12. Serve the ribs hot, right in the foil trays, for a fun, easy family-style meal. Put extra barbecue sauce on the side for anyone who wants more.

Slow Cooker Poor Man’s Beef and Noodles