Slow Cooker Pork Spare Ribs

Or, another in a series of cooking cheap meat that was on sale at Publix!

Having never made spare ribs at home before, I needed some guidance. I found this recipe on Allrecipes.Com. I was a little wary of using canned soup in the slow cooker; it reminded me of something a certain semi-ho would do. However, I decided to go for it because (a) it wasn't cream of crap soup, (b) the recipe had a lot of good reviews., and (c) I had everything else I needed in my pantry. I tweaked it a little bit, but not much.

I was worried that the sauce would be too greasy. To remedy this, I decided to cook the ribs overnight and chill them in the fridge during the day. I scooped off all of the day-glo orange hardened grease that was floating on top of the sauce when I got home from work tonight and re-heated everything in the slow-cooker for an hour while I went for a run. It worked very well! The sauce was savory and sweet, not fatty.

1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed tomato soup
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon molasses
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons soy sauce
Tabasco sauce (as much or as little as you want, or none at all)
1 teaspoon Freshly ground black pepper
2 pounds pork spare ribs

Bring copious amounts of water to boil in a pot large enough to hold the ribs. Drop the ribs in and let them cook for 15 minutes. Mix together the rest of the ingredients in a bowl, and remove the ribs from the water. Lay the ribs in the slow cooker and pour the sauce over top. Flip the ribs over a couple of times to coat them with the sauce. Cook on low for 6-7 hours or overnight.

Take the ceramic insert out of the slow cooker and place it in the refrigerator for several hours. When it's totally chilled, use a spoon to scoop off the hardened grease puddles floating on top of the sauce. Place the ceramic insert back in the slow cooker and heat on low for an hour. Shred the meat off the bones and serve with rice, plenty of sauce and, if you feel like it, a little chopped cilantro on top.



Rating: This is awesome

It took some planning and time but hardly any effort. Just the kind of trade-off I like :-)