Instant Pot BBQ Pork Spare Ribs made with St. Louis style or Baby Backs are super simple to make in the pressure cooker. Make them a head and then crisp them up under the broiler or Mealthy CrispLid, on the grill or right in the pot using the CrispLid!
Pressure Cooker BBQ Pork Spare Ribs
When you are in a hurry and want some ribs NOW, this is the recipe for you. There are a couple of options to make your life easier.
You can partially prepare these Instant Pot BBQ Pork Spare Ribs today in, your Instant Pot, Mealthy MultiPot or Pressure Cooker and package them up and then finish them off the next day on the Barbecue Charcoal Grill or in the Oven.
Use Mealthy Crisplid to Caramelize!
You can even crisp them up right in your pressure cooker using the very cool CrispLid!
So, if you are planning a barbecue, either at home or away and don’t want to spend hours over a hot Charcoal Grill or precious time in the kitchen using the oven, this recipe for you.
Of course, you can finish them off with barbecue sauce outside on the Charcoal Grill or set your oven to broil. There are so many possibilities.
Cast of Ingredients to Instant Pot BBQ Pork Spare Ribs
I use half apple cider and half apple juice. Some people add a bit of apple cider vinegar to their pot. This is a super fast and very easy recipe, using a Pressure Cooker and bottled barbecue sauce.
My preference for ribs is always on the Grill, using My Favorite BBQ Pork Ribs Recipe with homemade barbecue sauce, but sometimes we want ribs now, today, without any planning, so this recipe is great.
You also might be interested in my Pressure Cooker Homemade BBQ Pork Spare Ribs, which is made with a Homemade BBQ Pork Ribs Rub and homemade Carolina BBQ Pork Spare Ribs Sauce.
Place the onions, apple cider, vanilla, (liquid smoke, if using) and water into the Pressure Cooker cooking pot.
If you are going to finish off the ribs on the Charcoal Grill, don’t use liquid smoke, as the ribs will get smoky enough from the Charcoal Grill.
Salt and pepper your ribs and place them in the cooking pot and cook for 20-30 minutes, depending on the type of rib. Baby Back Ribs take 15 minutes and St. Louis Style and Spare Ribs take 20 minutes.
If you want “fall off the bone ribs,” add 5 minutes. I prefer to bite the meat off my ribs and not having them fall a part.
Remember though, “fall off the bone ribs” are really overcooked ribs. 🙁
If you are planning to finish off the ribs on the Charcoal Grill, use the Kosher Salt. If you are planning to finish off the ribs in your oven, use either Kosher Salt or Rachael Ray Applewood Smoked Sea Salt.
At this point, you can let the ribs cool, wrap them up and place in the refrigerator. Then finish them up at a later time.
Or, you can slather on your favorite barbecue sauce and finish them off in the oven, under the broiler or Mealthy CrispLid, or on your Charcoal Grill!
Brush on the barbecue sauce and place in the oven, under the broiler or Mealthy CrispLid, or on the Charcoal Grill.
If using your broiler, place the rack on the second area down from the top. Watch the ribs closely, as the sauce may burn.
If cooking on the grill, you may only need a minute or two for each side.
If using the CrispLid, follow the instructions on the recipe card below.
Pressure Cooker Super Simple BBQ Pork Spare Ribs
Pressure Cooker Super Simple BBQ Pork Spare Ribs, in under an hour, from start to finish! Ribs are always great served with Elote (Mexican Street Corn), Pressure Cooker Corn on the Cob, Pressure Cooker Baked Beans, Pressure Cooker Potato Salad and a green vegetable.
Equipment Equipment and Essentials
- Instant Pot, Mealthy MultiPot or Pressure Cooker
- J.A. Henckels Classic 8 inch Chef’s Knife
- Anchor Hocking Glass (Liquid) Measuring Cups
- Alton Brown Salt Box
- Sonder LA End Grain Teak Cutting Board, Juice Grooves & Compartments
- OXO Stainless Steel Tongs
- Silicone BBQ Brush
- Extra Large Charcoal Grill
- Weber Chimney Starter
- Rachael Ray Applewood Smoked Sea Salt
- Mealthy CrispLid
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Here is your handy printable recipe:
Instant Pot BBQ Pork Spare Ribs
Print Pin RateIngredients
- 1 rack Baby Back Ribs or St. Louis Style Ribs
- 2 teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract (gives a Bourbon flavor)
- 1 cup Apple Juice
- 1/2 cup Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 cup Yellow/Brown Onion rough chopped
- 1.5 teaspoons Smoked Sea Salt
- 1 teaspoon Freshly Ground Black Pepper
- 1 teaspoon Liquid Smoke
- 1.5 cups Barbecue Sauce
Instructions
- Place onions, vanilla, apple juice, apple cider and liquid smoke into cooking pot.
- Salt and pepper the ribs.
- Curl the ribs and place into cooking pot.
- Lock on lid and close Pressure Valve
- Cook on High Pressure for 15 if making baby back ribs or 20 minutes if making St. Louis style ribs.
- When beep sounds wait 10 minutes and then release the rest of the pressure.
- Place ribs on baking sheet and slather on the barbecue sauce.
- Place in a 450 degree oven for about 5 minutes each side. Or place under a broil. Or, finish off on the grill.
CrispLid Instructions
- Place long legged trivet into pressure cooker and place CrispLid basket on top.
- Slather ribs and place into basket. You will need to do this in sections.
- Place CrispLid onto cooking pot and set temperature to 450 degrees and time to 10 minutes.
- Flip ribs after 5 minutes and cook until the sauce has caramelized and ribs have a nice char.
Notes
Nutrition
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Toby Brown says
July 4, 2019 at 8:05 pmPerfect 4th of July dinner! Used Baby Back Ribs and finished them on the barbecue – YUM!
Jill Selkowitz says
July 5, 2019 at 1:41 pmWonderful, Toby. Thank you. Jill
Sherry Blizzard says
February 4, 2019 at 10:45 amI found your recipe in the Instant Pot Miracle Cookbook (pages 86-87) with a link to your blogspot. I did a taste test with this recipe and regular oven baked method. Hands-down…..this was the bes! The meat did ALMOST fall off the bone. Excellent! I’ll admit I was a little uncertain about the addition of vanilla, but after sampling these ribs I wouldn’t change a thing. I will not be making ribs any other way again. Thanks for sharing your recipe.
Jill says
February 4, 2019 at 1:03 pmThank you, Sherry. I appreciate you talking the time to find me and comment. I hope you will enjoy the other recipes on my blog. Jill
Deanna says
January 27, 2019 at 5:33 pmI made these this morning for lunch. Kept them on warm in the Instant Pot all day because we decided to go out for lunch. So about 9 hours later I did the sauce and put them in the oven. They are SO delicious! Super easy to make.
Karen Beghly says
September 14, 2018 at 12:41 pmI cut up 15 lbs of St Louis Style ribs last night, seasoned them, wrapped them and put them in the refrigerator. Today I’m going to cook them for 20 minutes and finish them off tomorrow when my company will be here.. I have a Trager wood pellet grill. Since the ribs will be cold, do you have any estimate on the cook time on this type of grill? I’m worried that I will ruin my ribs because I’ve never cooked them in two stages like this before. I have made this recipe by putting the ribs under the broiler after taking them out of the pot and they were fabulous. it will be 90 degrees here tomorrow so I’d rather cook them outside on the grill.
Thanks for your consistently wonderful recipes!
Ann says
June 16, 2018 at 10:18 amJill, can I make these in the Mini? Any adjustments you would recommend?
Jill says
June 16, 2018 at 1:55 pmHi Ann, No adjustment needed. Jill
Becky says
January 1, 2018 at 3:41 pmSo my cooker does not have a high pressure button! What do I use to set the time!
I am not finding this as easy to use. Not enough information.
bbq chicken breast says
October 10, 2017 at 10:54 pmIt’s actually a great and helpful piece of info.
I’m happy that you simply shared this useful info with us.
Please keep us up to date like this. Thanks for sharing.
Jim says
August 5, 2017 at 6:19 pmI did everything that this recipe was but I put chipotle cranberry wing sauce on baby backs and they were awesome
Deborah Bolduc says
May 27, 2017 at 1:35 pmJill,
Doing baby back ribs for the first time. Didn’t have apple juice or cider- so, cranapple juice was used. Should I have put thrm on a rack? Already to pressure. How long NPR? Thanks for your recipes and help.
Shelly says
March 26, 2017 at 10:25 amCan you do anything with the oniony liquid afterwards? I hate throwing that out. Country style ribs turned out fantastic! Left in for 25 min and NPR 20 accidentally. Oven 5 minutes on each side. Thanks for the recipe!
Bea says
May 13, 2018 at 5:18 amI cook it down & make bbq sauce with it. Find a recipe & use it as the liquid.
Muriel says
March 12, 2017 at 4:42 pmI could use ur help. I made ur rib recipe for the 3rd time. They haven’t been as tender as I would like so I did 30 min. I had some hard cider I had left. So used that for the liquid. My ribs turned out extremely tough? Any idea what I did wrong? Appreciate ur wisdom and feedback. Thanks
Christine Collins says
March 2, 2017 at 7:03 amI didn’t plan ahead and my ribs are frozen. Can I cook them right from the freezer? If so, what adjustments to cooking time do I make when starting ribs that are frozen?
Jen says
February 2, 2017 at 7:31 pmHello! I had a question! It says vanilla…. does this mean vanilla extract? Thank you!
Jill says
February 6, 2017 at 7:30 pmHi Jen!
Vanilla extract.
Jill
sahara0519blog says
January 30, 2017 at 2:33 pmIn your picture it looks like the rack is in the pot with the ribs on top of it but the instructions don’t say to use the rack. This is my very first time using the Instant Pot so pardon my ignorance. Does the rack need to be in the pan to use this recipe? Thanks in advance.
Sarah Moore says
January 28, 2017 at 9:55 amHow much apple cider vinegar, onions, water, etc. I would like to know the amounts to use before adding the ribs.
Jill says
January 28, 2017 at 12:43 pmHi Sarah~
Please look at the recipe for the directions.
Jill
Amanda McFadden says
January 11, 2017 at 7:03 pmI followed the directions-20 mins for spare ribs then 15 NPR and they came out cooked on the outside and bloody raw on the inside. What would cause that? I “finished” them in the oven to cook through, but wasn’t expecting them to be raw centered after cooking them in IP. When all was said and done they did taste good and I do appreciate having a recipe.
Tom Olsen says
February 3, 2018 at 6:40 pmFrom my experience I would guess the rib slabs were laying right on top of each other. It cooked like one large price if meat. Space them out, or use the onions as spacers or place tbem in teepee style
Susan Cavanaugh says
December 7, 2016 at 6:36 pmSo, using my Instant Pot for the first time tonight. Did the water test. Then used your rib recipe. Made my own sauce – just winging it as I usually do. Didn’t realize until I read a comment, that I used apple cider vinegar instead of apple cider and thought I was about to have a total fail for dinner. Well, it wasn’t – still one of the best rib meals I’ve ever done! I usually do them on the BBQ and while they taste great, they tend to be tough and on the dry side. These were moist, tender and yummy! I finished them off under the broiler after slathering them in sauce. And if I hadn’t mentioned the vinegar faux pas, my husband wouldn’t have noticed. His comment – “you can make these every week”! Looking forward to trying some of you other yummy recipes. Thank You!!!
EJ says
December 21, 2016 at 2:16 pmI did the same and started freaking out till I read your comment. Hope mine turns out good. It’s in the instant pot now…
Jill says
December 4, 2016 at 6:02 pmI’m so excited to try these. My husband loves ribs. One question though, is the vanilla the same flavoring used in baking or is this something different? I don’t mean to sound silly, I just wasn’t sure. Thanks
Emmie says
December 1, 2016 at 12:45 pmHi Jill!
I just bought my IP on Black Friday! I tried cooking 4 small racks, more like strips, of baby back ribs last night and got mixed results. I cooked it in the IP for 20 minutes and then natural release. Finished with BBQ sauce in the oven. 2 of the ribs were tender and the other 2 were dry. Not sure what went wrong? Is it just that ribs with less fat tend to get dry/over cooked? Now I’m afraid to cook baby back ribs ???? Help!
I tried cooking a chuck roast in a different brand pressure cooker a couple months ago. It turned out more like shredded meat withnot much flavor. The flavor was all in the sauce it cooked in. Could you share some tips for a foolproof roast?
Lastly, have you ever cooked prime rib in the IP?
Love your site! So useful!
Emmie
Jerry says
November 29, 2016 at 11:23 pmJust bought an Instant Pot so am very interested in this group.
Angelica Campos says
September 7, 2016 at 1:22 pmIn your picture it shows apple cider vinegar, but in the list of ingredients and what you refer to is simply apple cider. Is there a difference? Can both be used interchangeably?
Jill says
September 7, 2016 at 2:42 pmAngelica, under the photo is says that I use apple cider and/or juice. If using the apple cider vinegar, just use a little. I like to give people options.
Jill
Zita Cavanaugh says
September 6, 2016 at 12:29 pmI love your bar-b-que recipes!! Thank you sooo much for sharing them!!