Easy Instant Pot Pork Spare Ribs - Perfectly Tender Every Time

Nutrition: 467 Calories | 11.5g Net Carbs | 46.2g Protein | 26.1g Total Fat

An easy recipe for Instant Pot pork spare ribs that are fall-off-the-bone tender in about an hour. This family favorite can be a quick weekday dinner.

Ribs, ribs, ribs. There’s nothing like tender, juicy, fall-off-the-bone ribs. It is a favorite meal at our house. I have made ribs many ways over the years. But now that I started making them in the Instant Pot, I’ve never gone back. It’s really easy, and compared to other methods, it doesn’t take that much time. I like making homemade rib rub, so I can control the sugar. However this recipe can easily be used with any rib rub and BBQ sauce too.

Remove the Silver Skin

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When you’re preparing ribs, no matter how you’re going to cook them, you need to remove the silver skin. The silver skin is the thin membrane on the backside of the ribs. Removing the silver skin makes the ribs even more tender, and it’s pretty easy to do. First, use a knife to peel up the edge of the silver skin and make it easier to grab. Then, hold onto the silver skin firmly with a paper towel, and pull it off. The paper towel is helpful because the silver skin can be really slippery to hold onto. Once you’ve removed the silver skin, leave the rack of ribs whole or cut it into sections for easy serving.

Season the Ribs with Homemade Rib Rub

The next step is seasoning the ribs. You can use a store bought rib rub, or make your own. It’s quick and easy. All you need is brown sugar, chili powder, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and salt. You can also use Splenda brown sugar blend or another sweetener of choice to control the amount of sugar. Mix all the rub ingredients together in a bowl. Then, cover the ribs with yellow mustard using a pastry brush. The vinegar in the mustard helps tenderize the meat, and gives the rub something to stick to. Finally, sprinkle the rib rub over the mustard to cover the ribs. Turn the ribs over and repeat on the other side.

Pressure Cook the Ribs in the Instant Pot

Now that the ribs are covered in the flavorful rub, it’s time to get them in the Instant pot. First, the pot needs some liquid for pressure cooking. So add a cup of water, one half cup of apple juice (or extra water if you don’t have any), and a little bit of liquid smoke to the bottom of the Instant Pot. Then, put in your steamer rack. Finally, add the ribs. If you cut them in portions like I did, just stack the ribs on top of each other. If you left the rack of ribs whole, just wrap them around themselves lining the inside of the pot.

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Put the lid on the Instant Pot, make sure it’s set to sealing, and pressure cook on Meat mode for 25 minutes. It takes some time (10-20 minutes) for the pot to come to pressure before it starts to cook, so make sure you account for that when you’re meal planning.

Finish the Pork Spare Ribs in the Broiler

The final step to creating some seriously delicious ribs, is the put them under the boiler for a couple minutes. First, removed the cooked ribs from the Instant Pot, and put them on a baking sheet. Then, brush on your favorite barbecue sauce. Finally, put the spare ribs under the broiler until the sauce forms a nice crust. Remove the ribs from the oven, and they are ready to serve. As a side note, I have fit two racks of ribs in my 8-quart Instant Pot. I brought them to a pot-luck and finished them in the broiler at the host’s house. Everyone loved them.

Other recipes to check out: Crockpot Spare Ribs, Instant Pot Bratwurst, and Instant Pot Kalua Pork.