This is not haute cuisine.
This is not clean eating.
This is not a recipe with a great story.
This IS, without a doubt, the simplest, most flexible ribs recipe you will ever come across! This is what you make when you have no time and no extra brain power to devote to cooking. And it came about by mere happenstance when I found ribs on sale one day but lacked a game plan. Winging it, I grabbed two bottles of BBQ sauce and the rest is delicious history.
Now a warning: my food photography skills are still a work in progress. And if you think taking pictures of raw meat is a great way to hone them, it's probably not. The pictures after the cut are informative, but not necessarily pretty. You've been warned. Here's an arty picture of my cute rescue kitty, Tiger Lily, to help strengthen you for what's behind the cut:
All you need is:
- Ribs: any meat and around 3-5 lbs., but more if you want, bone in or not
- 2 bottles BBQ sauce: any brand, any flavor. Enough to cover the meat thoroughly (18oz bottles do a good job covering 3-5 lbs.)
There it is! Not too hard so far! I like to fix these in the slow cooker, which means, obviously, that you have to cut these up. I prefer to cut them into 2 rib sections like this:
There's a lot of meat in between each bone, so it's easy to cut through. I actually just use a sturdy pair of kitchen scissors. Finally, start putting them in the slow cooker. I line mine because when a recipe is this easy, I want the clean-up to match. I just put as much of the meat in a single layer in the bottom and then start stacking more on top. Like Meat Tetris (does that game exist? Because if not, I really think there's a market for it).
Meat Tetris in Action
When it's all in, I open one bottle and pour it all over the ribs then follow with the second bottle. I don't even bother mixing the two flavors together. They mix on their own. I set the slow cooker to high and cook for 4 hours for ribs that fall off the bone and meat that melts in my mouth.
There may be recipes that are more flavorful, but I'm pretty sure they take more ingredients and time. Let me know if you try this!