Slow Cooker Hot Honey Ribs
- Total Time
- 6½ to 8½ hours
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 2tablespoons sweet paprika
- 1tablespoon hot smoked paprika
- 1tablespoon mustard powder
- 2teaspoons garlic powder
- Black pepper
- 2racks baby back ribs (about 4 pounds total)
- 2tablespoons kosher salt, plus more as needed
- Vegetable oil or cooking spray, for greasing
- ⅔cup honey
- 5red Thai chiles or 2 red jalapeño or serrano chiles, stemmed and thinly sliced (or 2 tablespoons red-pepper flakes)
- 3(1-inch) strips lime peel and the juice of ½ lime (about 1 tablespoon juice)
- 1tablespoon apple cider vinegar
Nutritional analysis per serving (6 servings)
224 calories; 7 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 3 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 38 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams dietary fiber; 32 grams sugars; 7 grams protein; 266 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Add the sweet and hot smoked paprika, mustard and garlic powders and several generous grinds of black pepper to a small bowl; mix to combine.
- Step 2
Remove the ribs from the packaging and pat them dry with paper towels. (The easiest place to do this is the sink.) Turn the ribs over to remove the membrane that covers the back of the ribs: Grasp one end of the membrane with paper towels to keep your hands from slipping and pull; the membrane should pull right off in one or two sheets. (If it is not easy to pull off you can skip this step.) Season the ribs all over, front and back, using about 1 tablespoon of salt per rack of ribs. Coat the ribs in the spice mixture, patting it all over both sides of the ribs.
- Step 3
Lightly coat a 6- to 8-quart slow cooker pot with oil or cooking spray. With the meaty sides facing out and the bones pointing up, coil the ribs into the pot, standing them up in a circle. (You do not need to add liquid.) Cook on low until the meat is very tender when flaked with a fork, but the ribs are not quite falling apart, 6 to 8 hours.
- Step 4
Meanwhile, make the hot honey: Combine the honey, chiles and lime peel in a small saucepan over medium heat. Let the mixture get very hot, until it simmers and then starts to foam, about 2 minutes. Remove it from the heat, pour it into a small heatproof bowl and set aside. (The honey can be made several days in advance. When it cools, cover it, and store it at room temperature.)
- Step 5
Line a sheet pan with foil. Using tongs, transfer the ribs to the sheet pan, meaty side up. Heat the broiler. Remove the lime zest from the honey (leave the chiles in) and stir the lime juice and apple cider vinegar into the honey. Using a spoon, drizzle the honey all over the ribs, using about half the honey, but leaving the chiles in the bowl.
- Step 6
Broil the ribs until they are caramelized, sizzling and lightly charred in spots, 2 to 3 minutes. (Check the ribs every 30 seconds or so to prevent burning, and rotate them to make sure that all the surfaces get caramelized.) Season the ribs with salt then drizzle more of the hot honey and chiles this time over the ribs, to taste. Serve with any remaining hot honey on the side.
Private Notes
Comments
Think it means put the ribs in the cooker with the ribs standing upright and their meaty sides on the outside, circling them so that they roughly align with the circle of the cooker. The ribs inside the cooker will look like a coiled spring inside a (non-digital) watch.
This is an easily simplified recipe, delicious. Use prepared dry rub, crockpot all day. Cover with bottled bbq sauce and broil.
Who knew you could do ribs in a slow cooker, and they could be this succulent and luscious - with a comical lack of effort? The dry rub is great ( tho I will play with it next time) Took maybe 10 minutes to make the rub, dry the ribs, rub that in & curl them into the slow cooker. Then I walked away and let that scent the house all afternoon. Used chipotle peppers in the honey glaze ( no Thai red peppers here & hey, chipotles ARE red jalapeños). It gave it a lovely slow burn.
This was good, and also second that 6-8 hours would be too long. Mine was done in 5 1/2 to 6.
Fantastic! Loved the comment to put foil on the bottom of the Slowcooker. Ribs cooked in 4.5 hours. Hot honey was great. I added 3 T of extra hot spicy chili crisp oil. The heat was perfect for us. Finished ribs in the broiler. This is now a go to recipe because it is so easy!
I only had a single rack of thicc baby back ribs. Cut it in half after seasoning and stood them up in 1/2C water. Have a modern slow cooker so I only cooked for 4 hours on low, then they sat on warm for about 4 more hours. Came out perfect!