Sweet & Sticky Asian Style Ribs!

These "Sweet & Sticky Asian Ribs" are cooked in the slow cooker and then finished off in the oven to get a good glaze on them. I used boneless country style ribs, because of their meatiness and it's what I had, but you could also use a spare rib or a baby back rib.  

The country style ribs really are good though because they have so much meat on them and get so tender with this method.   This recipe calls for some ingredients you might not keep on hand, but once you make these you will want them again and again, so the spices will not go to waste.


Here is what you will need:

1 large sweet onion, sliced and separated into rings
2  1/2 to 3 lbs. of boneless country style pork ribs
Seasoned salt
black pepper
1/2 cup of hoisin sauce
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup sriracha sauce or chili sauce
1 Tbs. rice wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1 Tbs. minced garlic
1 tsp. Chinese five spice
1 Tbs. sesame seeds (optional)


Place a bed of the onion slices on the bottom of a large slow cooker.  Place the ribs on top of the onions.  Sprinkle the ribs with seasoned salt and black pepper to your taste.

I a bowl mix the hoisin sauce, soy sauce, sriracha or chili sauce, vinegar, brown sugar, honey, minced garlic, and Chinese five spice until smooth.   If you are not familiar with hoisin sauce, it's a delicious Asian sauce you will find on the aisle with the soy sauce and other Asian food items.

The Chinese five spice is usually just on the spice aisle with all of the other spices.   You can use this in so many recipes to give them a unique flavor.

Pour half of the sauce over the ribs.  Refrigerate the other half for later use.  Cover and cook on low for 8 hours or on high for 4 hours.  If you have the time for the low cooking, I think it's better.

When they have cooked the amount of time.  Carefully remove the ribs to an oven safe dish or if your slow cooker has an oven proof insert, you can just remove it.  Pour the rest of the sauce over the ribs and place in a 425 degree oven for about 20 minutes or until the glaze is just starting to bubble and brown.  

Remove and sprinkle with the sesame seeds if you are using them.  One tip on sesame seeds, since you don't use them every day, they will last much longer if you keep them in the fridge.  The same for celery seeds and poppy seeds.  If you don't refrigerate, they can go rancid after a while.

These tender succulent ribs are good with anything.  You could serve them with fried rice and veggies for a more traditional touch or I served them with beans and stewed potatoes and cornbread.  They were so good!