Cookin' Fools
Baby back ribs, seasoned and baked a little before they go into a crockpot with raspberry BBQ sauce (feel free to use premade sauce to save time), and slow simmered for a few hours to produce super tender and saucy slow cooker baby back ribs. Thus, crockpot baby back ribs make the perfect set-it-and-forget-it BBQ rib meal.
As someone who started the website GrillinFools.com more than 16 years ago, I grill more than most and don’t believe there is a “BBQ Season.” I will grill all year long. But there are a few days out of the year I do not want to grill. When it’s either so cold that even standing next to a hot grill is still miserable. OR, those wicked hot days in the summer when it’s 95 degrees with 100% humidity. The last thing I want to do on a night like that is stand next to a hot grill.
That’s where this website comes into play. At CookinFools.com we bring the cooking indoors. Sometimes all you need is some ribs and a crockpot. Although, if you want a smoked ribs recipe, we’ve got you covered:
- Simple Wet Brined Ribs
- Or and alternative to 3-2-1 ribs we call 90-60-30 ribs
- Of if you are slightly more daring, and own a blow torch, I give you blow torch ribs
And here at CookinFools.com we will have lots of crockpot recipes like this Beyond Easy Mississippi Pot Roast as well as lots of comfort food like this Easy Chicken Pot Pie Recipe which is maybe my favorite recipe on this site. And I just added this Cheesy Tomato Pie recipe.
Now back to the task at hand.
Slow Cooker Baby Back Ribs Ingredients
- 2 slabs of baby back ribs
- 1 onion
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1/2 cup water
BBQ Rib Rub
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- 1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon pepper
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
Raspberry BBQ Sauce
- 1/4 cup ketchup
- 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup barbecue sauce of your choice
- 1/2 cup raspberry jam (feel free to substitute apple jelly or apricot preserves if raspberry is not your thing)
Remove the membrane off the bone side of the ribs.
One way to do this is to take a spoon handle and get between the membrane and the meat in the middle of the ribs and then pull.
Thus, the membrane will pull free from each end:
Then, cut each rack into two-bone pieces:
Now combine BBQ rib rub ingredients together in a bowl:
Sprinkle BBQ rib rub evenly on all sides of the rib pieces:
Line a sheet tray with parchment paper and then set the rib pieces on the tray:
Bake rib pieces at 450F degrees for 20min to get some color on the ribs before going into the slow cooker.
In a saucepan combine Raspberry BBQ sauce ingredients and bring to a slight simmer:
Time to Assemble our Crockpot Baby Back Ribs
Line the bottom of slow cooker with roughly 1/3 of the sauce.
Then set the baked ribs in the slow cooker and cover with another 1/3 of the BBQ sauce, reserving 1/3 for dipping:
Simmer the crockpot baby back ribs on low for 4-6 hours, until super tender and saucy:
And a close up of those saucy beasts, just because:
Slow Cooker Baby Back Ribs Recap:
Sure, the slow cooker baby back ribs are not going to have the smoky flavor from a BBQ grill, but at the same time you neither lost a toe to frost bite or a gallon of water weight from sweating. What you still get is super tender ribs with some ooey, gooey sweet BBQ sauce slathered all over them. The BBQ purists will cry foul here and yell how these are not true BBQ ribs. Let them. There are just a few days out of the year when I’d rather cook inside. And when doing so, I’d be giddy to have crockpot baby back ribs.
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below or send me an email.
Also, if you could leave us a great review with lots of stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ that would be most appreciated!
Additionally, you can follow our sister site’s GrillinFools Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter/X and YouTube feeds where we will post content from this site as well.
Crockpot Baby Back Ribs Recipe Card:
Slow Cooker Baby Back Ribs
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Remove the membrane from the bone side of the ribs. Then, cut each rack into two-bone pieces.
- Combine BBQ rib rub ingredients together in a bowl. Sprinkle BBQ rib rub evenly on all sides of the rib pieces.
- Line a sheet tray with parchment paper and then set the rib pieces on the tray. Bake rib pieces at 450F for 20 minutes to get some color on the ribs before going into the slow cooker.
- In a sauce pan combine Raspberry BBQ sauce ingredients and bring to a slight simmer.
- Line the bottom of the slow cooker with roughly 1/3 of the sauce. Then set the baked ribs in the slow cooker and cover with another 1/3 of the BBQ sauce, reserving 1/3 for dipping.
- Simmer the crockpot baby back ribs on low for 4-6 hours, until super tender and saucy.
