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Slow-Cooker Spare Ribs

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Sarah Walker Caron
Updated May 2, 2017
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These falling-off-the-bone tender ribs are slow-cooked with a fabulous, rich BBQ tomato sauce.

More About This Recipe

  • Wednesdays are the days when everything starts off with a rush. It’s midweek, so I have a lot of deadlines to work towards – or meet. Wednesdays are the days when my daughter is home with me and wants to play or help in the kitchen. I indulge her as much as possible. Wednesdays are the days when my son comes home from school tired and cranky, making the remainder of the afternoon … tired and cranky. Wednesdays are the days that I am most in need of a good, easy, home cooked dinner with minimal fuss. Thank goodness, anything in the slow cooker fits the requirements. And thank goodness everyone in our family loves barbecue ribs, because this recipe for Slow Cooker Spare Ribs is awesome. It takes all of five minutes to prep. Wash the ribs and place them into the slow cooker. Then make the BBQ tomato sauce. It’s part tomato sauce, part barbecue, and totally delicious. The ingredients are whisked together in a bowl, and then it’s poured over the ribs (be sure to lift the racks of ribs up so that the sauce gets everywhere). Then you salt it. Finally, it starts cooking – which is nothing more than setting the slow cooker to low. Then you wait. It takes about 10 hours for the ribs to reach that fall-apart-tender stage, and when they do, it’s perfect. Serve these big babies up with crusty bread and a salad, and you will be a happy camper. We were.

Slow-Cooker Spare Ribs

  • Prep Time 5 min
  • Total 9 hr 5 min
  • Servings 4
  • Ingredients 10
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Ingredients

  • 3 lbs pork spare ribs
  • 2 cups chicken broth
  • 1 can (14.5 oz) Muir Glen™ Organic Crushed Tomatoes Fire Roasted
  • 1 can Muir Glen™ organic tomato paste
  • 2 tablespoons molasses
  • 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • Salt, to taste

Instructions

  • Step 
    1
    Rinse the spare ribs under cool water and place into the slow cooker.
  • Step 
    2
    In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the chicken broth, molasses, crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, balsamic vinegar, brown sugar, cornstarch and garlic. Pour over the ribs, lifting the racks to ensure that they are well-covered.
  • Step 
    3
    Salt the ribs, to your tastes.
  • Step 
    4
    Turn the slow-cooker on low and cook for 9-11 hours, until the ribs are tender. Serve immediately.

Nutrition

No nutrition information available for this recipe
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