Perfect Instant Pot Ribs

Here’s how to make the best, most tender ribs with the help of your Instant Pot or other electric pressure cooker: Perfect Instant Pot Ribs!

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Love ribs? Love your Instant Pot? Let’s get them together, preferably today! It took a lot of experimentation to come up with this method for making the perfect Instant Pot Ribs — but, those repeated experiments were a sacrifice we were all willing to make in this house. You know. For the common good. 😉

So: Here’s how to make ribs in the Instant Pot

While ribs will never be perfectly “instant,” using an electric pressure cooker does cut down considerably on the cooking time, without compromising their tenderness or flavor.

In the Instant Pot I like to use meaty spare ribs, which often go on sale at ALDI. This makes this Instant Pot ribs recipe, if not the most economical dinner option, much more economical than going out for a family rib dinner. Simply season your ribs with your own favorite spice mix, cook them tender in the Instant Pot, then brush with BBQ sauce and finish under the broiler (or on the grill) to caramelize the sauce.

Perfect Instant Pot Ribs

Ingredients

4-5 lbs bone-in spare ribs
1 cup water
Sea salt, to taste
Black pepper, to taste
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 cup BBQ sauce

Directions

Place the trivet into your Instant Pot and pour in one cup of water. Remove excess fat and membrane off the back of the ribs, if desired. Cut ribs into 3-4 even pieces, then season on both sides with spices.

Stand the rib pieces in a circle around the edges of the trivet. Close the Instant Pot, set valve to sealing, and cook ribs on manual high pressure for 30 minutes.

After the Instant Pot beeps, let it natural release for ten minutes, then turn valve to release the pressure the rest of the way.

Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil. Use tongs to remove the ribs from the Instant Pot and place them on the foil-lined pan. Brush ribs on both sides with BBQ sauce, then broil for seven minutes on high, with the meaty side of the ribs up.

Serve with additional BBQ sauce, if desired.

And that, my friends, is how to make Instant Pot Ribs!

How easy is that? Your perfect Instant Pot ribs will be ready in about 75 minutes start to finish (including the time it takes for the Instant Pot to come to pressure). This is a nice time saver over cooking them low and slow in the oven, but you end up with the same tenderness you want in a good batch of ribs. We enjoyed ours with some oven-roasted asparagus and baked potatoes, but really, ribs go nicely with just about any side.

So, if you’ve been wondering how to make ribs in the Instant Pot, give these Perfect Instant Pot ribs a try. They’re so easy, so tasty, and my whole meal here is also naturally gluten free. I like to use Stubb’s original BBQ sauce on my ribs (and in any recipe calling for BBQ sauce) because it’s lower in sugar and has a wonderful flavor, but you can substitute your own favorite sauce.

Perfect Instant Pot Ribs, printable recipe

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Perfect Instant Pot Ribs

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Simply season your ribs with your own favorite spice mix, cook them tender in the Instant Pot, then brush with BBQ sauce and finish under the broiler (or on the grill) to caramelize the sauce.

Course dinner

Total Time 1 hour hour 15 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Author Rachel Singer

Ingredients

• 4-5 lbs bone-in spare ribs
• 1 cup water
• Sea salt, to taste
• Black pepper, to taste
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp Italian seasoning
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 cup BBQ sauce

Instructions

• Place the trivet into your Instant Pot and pour in one cup of water. Remove excess fat and membrane off the back of the ribs, if desired. Cut ribs into 3-4 even pieces, then season on both sides with spices.
• Stand the rib pieces in a circle around the edges of the trivet. Close the Instant Pot, set valve to sealing, and cook ribs on manual high pressure for 30 minutes.
• After the Instant Pot beeps, let it natural release for ten minutes, then turn valve to release the pressure the rest of the way.
• Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil. Use tongs to remove the ribs from the Instant Pot and place them on the foil-lined pan. Brush ribs on both sides with BBQ sauce, then broil for seven minutes on high, with the meaty side of the ribs up.
• Serve with additional BBQ sauce, if desired.

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