Slow Cooker BBQ Pork Ribs

Hey there!!

It's been harder & harder for me to plan ahead, lately, but I actually DID thaw out my boneless ribs so I could make them today.  I was excited like a child waking up on Christmas morning, knowing I get to cook my ribs today.  Is that silly?  Oh, I don't care!

Once again, I do what I always do - - I search and search and take information from a handful of different recipes and make up my own.  Here's how it went.... 

Ingredients:

(Roughly) 3 lbs of boneless pork ribs

1 large white onion, big chunks

1C water

Chicken bouillon powder (enough for 1 1/2 cups of 'stock')

Garlic powder

Cumin (I love this stuff!!!)

Mesquite seasoning

(small dash) of cinnamon

1/2 C white wine

Bay leaves

1 lg bottle of Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce (or your favorite)

1/2 C brown sugar

1/2 C applesauce (I used my homemade apple butter, but -of course- did not write down the recipe. Ugh)

Liquid smoke

Hot sauce or spicy bbq sauce (just a bit - to add a tad of Ooomph to it)

Directions:

1) Spray the inside of your crock-pot with cooking spray.  I found this tip in one of the many recipes and it just made sense.  I've never done it before, but not sure why.  Chop the onion into big chunks and cover whole bottom with it.  

2) Mix together the 1 C water and the next 7 ingredients in a cup & pour half of it over the onions.  Layer in all the boneless ribs and pour the rest of the mixture over top.

3) Sprinkle the brown sugar and applesauce/apple butter on top of the pork.  Put the crock-pot on High/6 hours, put the lid on it and walk away for awhile.  

4) After it cooks a little over an hour, I checked on it to see how it's coming.  The house is already starting to smell pretty good.  I stirred it a bit, moved some things around, re-covered it and let it go some more.

5) After another hour, I came back.  The ribs are starting to look tender, now, which is good.  I mixed into the juices about 1/2 C of the BBQ sauce I am going to use.  Moved the ribs around a bit with some tongs, re-covered then walked away, once more.

6)  Once they have been cooking for about 3 hours, I came back and they looked juicy and smelled delicious!!!

Still 6) I took out most of the liquid & discarded it.  I reserved a small amount (about 1/2 C or so) in a small bowl and mixed in the rest of the BBQ sauce.  Add in the liquid smoke & a few small squirts of the spicy BBQ sauce, to give it a bit of a kick.  Poured it all on top of the ribs (which are starting to fall apart now, yummy!!) lowered the temp to Low/10 hours, re-covered again and walked away.

7)  1 hour later the ribs were awesome and ready to be matched up with yummy sides and devoured.  My meal consisted of the BBQ Ribs, Buttery Dill Mashed Potatoes, Bacon & Green Beans and Parmesan Garlic Biscuit Knots (will post that recipe separately)  YUM!!