Instant Pot Ribs
Cooking ribs in the Instant Pot is easy and pretty fast 🙂
Servings Prep Time
2 7min
Cook Time Passive Time
22min 25
Servings Prep Time
2 7min
Cook Time Passive Time
22min 25
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Take 1-2 racks of baby back ribs and pull of the thin, white membrane from the back. You’ll just need to get a knife or your finger under one section and then pull, it should come off fairly easy once you get it started. 🙂
  2. Season ribs liberally with a dry rub. I had some store-bought rib rub in the pantry, so I used that. In the future, I will just do a quick Google search and probably make my own (with spices such as cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, brown sugar and salt and pepper). If possible, put the dry rub on your ribs a half hour or more before you are ready to start them in the pressure cooker.
  3. Once the ribs are prepped, get your Instant Pot ready. Put 1-1 1/2 cups of thin liquid in the bottom of your Instant Pot. I used a combination of half water and half root beer (because we had some open!). I’ve read that you can use broth/water combo, bbq sauce diluted thin with water or broth, and a lot of people seem to use a mixture of apple cider vinegar and something. I think both the apple cider vinegar and the soda contain an acid, so you probably need that to help cook and also help tenderize the meat. So use something acidic 🙂
  4. Take the trivet that came with your Instant Pot and spray with cooking spray and insert in the bottom. Wrap the rubbed ribs, with the meaty side facing outwards, around and on top of the trivet. Seal the IP. Cook on manual High pressure for 22-25 minutes (for my 1 rack, I did 22 and they were fine).
  5. (Note: My Instant Pot took about 14 minutes to come to pressure, then 22 minutes to cook.)
  6. After the ribs have finished, let them rest in the Instant Pot, sealed, for 25 minutes. This is called NPR or Natural Pressure release. It allows the juices to redistribute back into the meat, and I believe it allows a little carry-over cooking time.
  7. After the pressure has released for 25 minutes, perform a controlled Quick Release (QR), releasing the rest of the pressure. Open the IP and take out the ribs.
  8. Finish the ribs either on the outdoor grill or in the oven, to crisp them up. We took ours out and put on the gas grill with some souped-up bbq sauce (see notes below) and Tim grilled them. I would also put them in the oven with the sauce to broil, or at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes to finish them.
  9. Serve and Enjoy!
Recipe Notes

Stacy’s Notes: We gave this two thumbs up! I did one rack with root beer and water, cooked for 22 minutes on Hi Pressure, then NPR for 25 and released. We took them out and Tim put them on the grill. I had mixed up a basting/bbq sauce beforehand that he used to baste the ribs. I used store-bought Cattlemans bbq sauce, then I added some of the dry rub that we used to rub the ribs with, then a couple of dashes of hot sauce, a dash of yellow mustard, and some salt-free steak seasoning. These were delicious and we will definitely do ribs this way again! Tim normally smokes them in the smoker, but that takes a couple of hours. The total time inside in the IP, it took about 60 minutes, then a few minutes on the grill, so a good time saving 🙂