How to Make Memphis-Style Ribs in the Slow-Cooker

[Music] when i think of making barbecue i think of charcoal and hardwood and a grill and maybe even a smoker but i don't think about a slow cooker i don't either but the promise a big outdoor flavor and the convenience of a slow cooker well it does sound pretty darn tempting but without the right recipe you end up with that i've seen that before this is stew it's not barbecued let me show you the problem it's all this liquid that was added to the slow cooker all that flavor is washed out of the meat and into that liquid now will i take this off to the side and eat it and probably drink all this liquid later on yes i will but it is not barbecue all right i'm going to go take this off to the side so before we get cooking let's talk about buying ribs at the supermarket now there's up to three different kinds of ribs that you might find and let's go through them here we have a st louis style rib here we have a full spare rib and here we have a baby back rib now these two cuts the st louis and the spare rib are cut from the same part of the pig from the belly area in fact if i pick up the st louis rack and i put it on top of the spare ribs you can see how much bigger the spare rib is now this brisket part of the belly is attached to the spare rib making it much bigger and that will change the cooking time dramatically now when it comes to baby back ribs they're from a different part of the pig altogether they're from the back so they have more bones less meat and require yet a different cooking time so when you're shopping for ribs it's important to know which kind you're buying and why well today we're buying the st louis spare ribs all right now each of these racks weighs between two and a half to three pounds the reason that we chose st louis it's cut from the spare ribs so it's got plenty of fat intramuscular tissue that's going to mean more tender and juicy ribs most importantly we can fit two racks in our slow cooker oh good yeah so we're going to make a lot of ribs i'm going to cut it right in half so let me find a meaty section there just cut it right in half and we'll move on down the line as they say all right so another problem with slow cooker recipes they don't treat these like barbecue they just put them into the slow cooker maybe dump some barbecue sauce on there we're going to treat these as if they were going outside and that means starting with a rub so this is two tablespoons of paprika just regular paprika i've got a tablespoon of packed brown sugar you can use either light or dark a tablespoon of kosher salt we've got two teaspoons of granulated garlic and two teaspoons of onion powder and that's two teaspoons of ground black pepper all right let's just mash this together get any lumps out of that brown sugar all right that looks good i want to take a tablespoon of this and reserve it because we're going to use it a little bit later on oh secret spice for later secret spice we're going to make a perfume with it so i'll take some paper towels and blot them dry because we want that spice rub to stick we still have the membrane on these you don't need to take that off it's actually going to help them hold together all right let's start getting some of the spice rub on there i know my hands are going to get messy and i'm fine with it make sure that we get plenty on all sides and the ribs get a rub down starting to look like real barbecue over there isn't it so now it's time to put them in the slow cooker and how we put them in there is going to affect how they cook you see if you look at the side of one of these ribs got a fatter end over here got a thinner end over here we want that wider end to go down and we want the meatier side to go around the edges of the slow cooker that's so that they cook more evenly now these will overlap and that is fine all right lid is going on there's no liquid in there you're right there's no liquid in there as these cook they're going to start to give off some of their liquid not a whole lot but that means that they won't have that washed out flavor interesting so it's a dry slow cooker it's a dry slow cooker now you have two choices when you're using your slow cooker you can cook it on high for five to six hours you can go for low and that's going to take about six to seven hours we're gonna go for low today low and slow that's right [Music] all right look at all that liquid in there yeah see it gave off some of that liquid but it's nowhere near that amount that was in that bowl from earlier we're done with the slow cooker at this point so i want to get these out we're going to put them on a wire rack set over a rimmed baking sheet i went ahead and lined that sheet with aluminum foil later on you're going to see it's going to help it clean up as these cool down for 10 minutes they're going to dry out a little bit on the top that's going to make it easy for us to apply our barbecue sauce it's going to stick to those ribs stick to the ribs stick to the ribs speaking of sauce this is a very easy pantry friendly sauce and like all good things it starts with ketchup so this is three quarter cup of ketchup all right and i've got six tablespoons of apple juice huh you find that a lot in especially memphis style ribs sometimes they'll brush them with apple juice and makes it really really good this is two tablespoons of molasses so we're going all over the country here two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar two tablespoons of worcestershire i've got a tablespoon of yellow mustard gotta love the hot dog mustard all right we've got a teaspoon of ground black pepper a little kick a little bit of liquid smoke quarter teaspoon if you wouldn't mind handing oh the secret spice that's right that's our secret spice that goes right in and that's a tablespoon all right so i'll whisk this together all right that is it very easy nice and easy all pantry staples goes together like that and it cooks very fast too we're going to bring it up to the boil and then we're going to lower that heat let it simmer for about 10 minutes until it's reduced to a cup that's it easy peasy that is a quick cooking sauce 10 minutes that's nice and thick it is nice and thick all right so this is ready to go on those ribs again those have also sat there conveniently for 10 minutes so the surface is nice and dry we're going to go ahead and brush it with some of the sauce about half the sauce that's in here that's about a half a cup so we're going to just slather it all over the place oh that makes those ribs look a lot better now it's looking like barbecue you're painting them on very artistically you like that i do i've got this bob ross method it's a happy little rib right the happy rib all right this is beautiful now we're going to save the rest of that sauce for just a moment but these are going to go into the oven under the broiler you want to leave them in there for about four minutes so a little glazing effect exactly it's gonna look like barbecue now those ribs are really close to that broiler element that is totally by design so this rack is about three inches from the broiler element those ribs are about an inch away that means really really good char kind of like what would happen on a grill ah all right now take a look at that that is some good looking barbecue it looks like it came right out of the smoker doesn't it we're not quite done yet got the rest of this beautiful sauce i'm going to shellac it right at the end these look so different than when they came out of that slow cooker there's no stew here i'm entranced it is mesmerizing all right so good patience patience we have to wait 20 minutes to tuck into these they need to rest a little piece of foil right on top and again we're going to tent this and let it sit for about 20 minutes [Music] all right big reveal et voila those are gorgeous and what you don't see is a whole bunch of juice underneath the ribs they're not swimming in it because we didn't add it to the slow cooker that means all the flavor is in there and you don't have to take my word for it i'm going to cut them enough of this more of this all right so let me cut these for you now i like to cut them upside down because just take a knife and you can go right in between the ribs makes it much easier to see [Music] all right how many ribs would you like yes a full skeleton please i'll give you three oh nice because one is never enough one's never enough all right i'm just gonna dig in please do super tender and i like that sauce it's a little got a little bit of kick to it must've been that secret spice you added so juicy too it is really juicy because again the juice wasn't in the bowl at the end it's in the ribs that's right and that's where all the flavor is so to make killer memphis style ribs in the slow cooker start in missouri buy st louis style ribs and give them a good rub down with a flavorful spice rub then arrange the ribs in the slow cooker with the thick ends pointing down and the meaty side facing out and cook them without any liquid until they're just tender to finish the ribs and give them a saucy glazed exterior run them under the broiler and baste them with a sweet smoky barbecue sauce and there you have it from cook's country the best recipe for slow cooker memphis style wet ribs that's a mouthful that is a mouthful that's a better mouthful i agree thanks for watching cook's country from america's test kitchen so what'd you think leave a comment and let us know which recipes you're excited to make or just say hi now you can find links to today's recipes and reviews in the video description and don't forget to subscribe to our channel see you later alligator

Channel: America's Test Kitchen

Views: 447,942

Keywords: slow-cooker, slow cooker, slow-cooker recipes, recipes, recipe, slow cooker ribs, memphis ribs, memphis ribs recipe, slow cooker memphis style ribs cooks country, slow-cooker ribs, ribs, how to make ribs, ribs recipe, ribs recipe slow cooker, how to make memphis ribs, memphis-style ribs, memphis style ribs

Id: cKEcHiPdTcY

Length: 9min 22sec (562 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 17 2019