Instant Pot BBQ Ribs

These Instant Pot BBQ Ribs are fall off the bone tender, delicious, and super sticky from a delicious Whiskey BBQ sauce. But most importantly they will be on your dinner table in under an hour!

The Best Instant Pot BBQ Ribs Recipe

I spend all day today fantasizing about fall off the bone tender pork ribs, slathered in a tangy whiskey BBQ sauce, paired alongside some creamy coleslaw. As you all know, my dreams (when they involve food) are always attainable. I decided to pop these pork ribs in my Instant Pot to speed the process along and I’m glad I did because I didn’t have to wait long at all before digging in.

I usually hold off on making ribs at home, they just take too long after a full day of work. But not anymore! Your trusty Instant Pot will develop so much flavor and cut your cooking time in half. I slathered these meaty treats in a homemade whiskey BBQ sauce that had just the right amount of kick after rubbing them all over with a gorgeous rub. Enough chatting, lets get BBQing!

Ribs

• Ribs – Baby back pork ribs are what we’re using today. About 2 racks worth.
• Apple Juice – We need some liquid in our pressure cooker to ensure it actually works. Don’t worry about the juice washing off your dry rub!
• Apple Cider Vinegar – We need some tang and apple cider vinegar is the best thing for it. It will also chemically tenderize your meat while it cooks. If white vinegar is all you have that is more than fine as a substitute.
• Liquid smoke – This ingredient is optional if you can’t find any at your supermarket, but I definitely recommend it in terms of achieving that smokey flavor that all good BBQs have.

Dry Rub

• Sugar – We want to be sure our rub has a bit of sweetness, and that complex molasses flavor that we get from brown sugar is what we want most of all.
• Seasoning – Salt and pepper! Savory and rubbed in well.
• Spices – Dry mustard, onion powder, cumin, smoked paprika, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper all mixed up well. These ingredients are key to achieving our scrumptious flavor so do your best to hunt them down!

Whiskey BBQ Sauce

• BBQ sauce – We’re using some store bought sauce as our base, any kind will do as we’re going to improve upon it!
• Ketchup – Some sweetness, some acidity, plain old ketchup is perfect for a pork rib BBQ sauce.
• Whiskey – The star of this sauce will offer some beautiful depth and vanilla notes. Any kind will do so don’t worry about picking up anything that’s too fancy.
• Brown sugar – We want to carry that sweet molasses flavor through our entire BBQ Pork Rib recipe.
• Worcestershire sauce – This will give our ribs some savory umami flavor.
• Liquid smoke – Since we aren’t actually smoking these ribs, we want to ensure that faux smoke flavor is incorporated in every step.

Cook The Ribs

Before starting anything, you want to prep the ribs first by removing the rib membrane. Next, you’ll want to combine all the dry rub ingredients together and generously rub this into the baby back ribs.

Place the seasoned ribs in the Instant Pot, standing up and wrapping around the inside of the pot. Pour in the apple juice, apple cider vinegar and liquid smoke, then close the Instant Pot. You’ll want to pressure cook these on the Meat/Stew setting for 20 minutes. If your IP doesn’t have this setting, just use the Manual setting for the same amount of time. Once complete, wait until the natural release cycle is complete, should take about 15 minutes. 

Make The Barbecue Sauce

While the ribs are cooking, you can get started on the BBQ sauce. All you have to do is add all the BBQ sauce ingredients to a small saucepan, stir to combine and simmer on low heat for about 20 minutes. The sauce should reduce a bit.

Brush Ribs With BBQ Sauce And Broil

Carefully remove the ribs from the Instant Pot and place them onto a baking sheet. Brush them generously with the prepared BBQ sauce on both sides and place under the broiler for about 5 minutes. Keep the door to your oven open while broiling the ribs and keep an eye on them, because they could burn quickly. Serve with additional BBQ sauce and enjoy!

How To Remove Membrane From Baby Back Ribs

1. Slide a dinner knife under the membrane and over a bone starting at one end of the rack.
2. Lift and loosen the membrane until it tears.
3. Grab the edge of the membrane with a paper towel and pull it off.
4. The membrane should come off in one whole piece.

Other Ways To Cook BBQ Pork Ribs

Slow cooker

Follow all the above instructions just the same, but instead set the slow cooker to LOW for 8 hours or HIGH for 4. Follow it up with a good broil session and enjoy with additional BBQ sauce.

Oven

Combine the apple juice with apple cider vinegar and liquid smoke and marinate the ribs in this mixture for an hour to overnight. Preheat your oven to 325°F degrees. Remove the ribs from the marinade and rub well with our dry rub mix. Wrap your dry rub encrusted ribs in some heavy duty foil. Bake for about 2 hours or until tender. Remove and slather in your homemade whiskey BBQ sauce before broiling as instructed above.

Storing Leftover BBQ Ribs

If stored properly in an airtight container or wrapped tightly in aluminum foil, these ribs will last 3 – 4 days in the fridge. You can also freeze this recipe, for 2 – 3 months wrapped tightly in foil before thawing in the microwave or in cold water. Reheat in the oven and slather in sauce.

Craving More BBQ? Try These Delicious Recipes

• Korean BBQ Ribs
• Greek Pork Loin Ribs and Potatoes Sheet Pan Dinner
• Beer And Honey BBQ Chicken Skewers
• Instant Pot BBQ Pulled Pork
• Maple BBQ Glazed Bacon Wrapped Shrimp
• Baked Honey Glazed Pork Ribs
• BBQ Baby Back Ribs