Recipes

BBQ Pork Ribs with Roasted Potatoes and Caesar Salad

BBQ ribs don't have to be labourious or time consuming, just stick them in your slow cooker first thing in the morning and be rewarded with tender, fall-off-the-bone meat when you come home

By Catherine RBarr /

Credit: Catherine Roscoe Barr

No BBQ? No problem! Turn your pork ribs ultra tender in a slow cooker

Tender, slow-cooked ribs are easy to make when you have the help of a roaster-oven-style slow cooker

Still lamenting my lack of BBQ, I got creative and decided to make ribs in my roaster-oven-style slow cooker for dinner the other night. First thing in the morning I put two racks of pork ribs in the slow cooker, generously topped them with BBQ sauce, and left them to cook all day. About nine hours later they were ooey, gooey and Tony-Roma-tender.

I served the ribs with my favourite roasted potatoes and my mom’s easy, delicious Caesar salad recipe – and, of course, a nice cold beer.

I recently had a great question from a reader about serving sizes. As I explained to her, for nearly all of my recipes (minus anything with seafood because it doesn’t reheat well) the serving size is 4 (2 people for dinner and leftovers for 2 lunches). But it’s a bit skewed because my husband is a big man with a big appetite. For clarity’s sake, I will forthwith include serving sizes based on Canada’s Food Guide and with that information you can tweak the recipe as you see fit.

Based on Canada’s Food Guide recommendation of 75 g (2 ½ oz) of pork per serving, this meal serves about 8.

Ingredients

  • 2 large racks pork ribs, cut into 2-bone pieces
  • 2 cups BBQ sauce
  • 1 small bag baby potatoes, chopped
  • 1 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1 tsp coarse sea salt 
  • 1/2 head Romaine lettuce, washed and chopped
  • 2 tbsp mayo
  • 2 tbsp finely grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 tsp fresh lemon juice
  • 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 tsp coarse ground pepper

Instructions

  1. Turn roaster-oven-style slow cooker to about 250F.
  2. Add ribs to slow cooker and mix with BBQ sauce to evenly coat.
  3. Cover and cook for about 9 hours or until meat is tender.
  4. About an hour before ribs are ready, preheat oven to 400F.
  5. On a large baking sheet, combine potatoes, oil and salt, stirring well to combine.
  6. Cook, uncovered, for about 40 minutes, stirring halfway through.
  7. About 15 minutes before ribs are ready, combine mayo, Parmesan, garlic, lemon juice, Worcestershire and pepper in small bowl, stirring well.
  8. In large bowl, toss lettuce with dressing.
  9. If desired, serve salad topped with extra coarse ground pepper.