Country Style Pork Ribs and BBQ Sauce Recipes

Tender Slow Cooked Country Style Pork Ribs

In the past, I have tried making country style pork ribs, and they have never come out tender, juicy and falling apart, to my much disappointment.  I can’t tell you what I was doing, but whatever it was, the method was not working for me.  I almost threw in the towel, swore them off permanently, but then I got a craving for them…and so did the mister.  So, we picked up a package of boneless country style pork ribs, and I went to work.  Scouring the web for a method that was sure to deliver what I knew was possible, it had to be easy, but I didn’t expect just how easy it was to be.  For some reason, these are the things that seem to challenge me the most.  To date I have never made a batch of rice crispies treats that came out well.  Bizarre, eh?  Yeah, I know, I’m quirky.

Long story short, what I found on the web seemed to be a consensus of cooking them low (heat) and slow (lotta time).  I wanted a slow cooker recipe, because I love my slow cooker and haven’t broken it out in a while.  So, here was my answer, simplistically: put a layer of onion slices in the bottom, on top of this put your pork ribs, cover with sauce, and let it cook on low for 8-10 hours.  OK, I thought, I’ll give it a shot.  One—last—shot.

Success!  The result was accurately predicted by those folks on the various websites I consulted.  The ribs were tender (!), juicy (!), falling apart (!).

• I started the night before with a simple rub of garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper, very little salt and some ground thyme.

• I also put a few pats of margarine in the bottom of the crock pot under the slices of onions…just because.

• I covered the ribs with a watered down bbq sauce, reserving enough of the full sauce for coating at the end (when they were done).

• My ribs were done in exactly 9 hours to perfection.

I did, however, also make my own sauce, which is really not that hard at all.  

Here are two versions of a BBQ sauce I make:

Version 1

1/4 C apple cider vinegar

1/2 C ketchup

1/4 C strong coffee

2 T finely chopped onion

1 T minced garlic

1 T margarine

1 T molasses

1 T mustard

1 T brown sugar

2 t Worcestershire sauce

1 t paprika

1 t chili powder

1 t oregano

1 t thyme

1/2 t salt

Directions:

Sauté onion and garlic in margarine for a couple of minutes in a med. sauce pan

Add all other ingredients

Combine, bring to a low boil, bring to a simmer, stir from time to time

Makes about 1 1/2 Cups

Version 2

(This is just version 1, simplified)

1/4 C apple cider vinegar

1/2 C ketchup

1/4 C strong coffee

2 T finely chopped onion

1 T minced garlic

1 T margarine

1 T molasses

1 T brown sugar

2 t Worcestershire sauce

1 t black pepper

1 t oregano

1 t thyme

1/2 t salt

You can also substitute 1 t of onion powder for the onion and 1 t of garlic powder for the garlic, to taste, of course, in this version without hurting anything

Directions:

Add all ingredients to a medium sauce pan

Combine, bring to a low boil, bring to a simmer, stir from time to time

Makes about 1 1/2 Cups