Slow Cooker Chinese Spare Ribs
This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Affiliate, if you purchase through those links, I earn a small commission. Thank you! Read our disclosure policy
Chinese spare ribs are melt-in-your-mouth tender with deep flavors of honey, hoisin, and five-spice powder.
We may earn a small commission for purchases made through links in this post. Read our disclosure policy here
Chinese spare ribs are made in the crock pot and come out so tender and delicious, better than in any take-out restaurant. Smothered in a flavorful sauce that becomes a delicious, finger-licking sticky glaze! If you love Chinese flavors as much as we do you'll have to check out my Chinese BBQ Pork.
Why this recipe works
I love ribs, especially the ones in Chinese restaurants. Super tender with a stick,y delicious sauce, once you start hard to stop! These are great for game day appetizers or my Easy Oven BBQ Baked Ribs. These Chinese spare ribs come out so tender, cooked in aslow cooker.
Ingredient Notes
- Ribs: I use St Loius style ribs, and I have the butcher cut my ribs into riblets, but baby back ribs will also work, like my Slow Cooker Dr. Pepper Ribs.
- Soy Sauce: Low-sodium soy sauce can also be used.
- Brown sugar: I use dark, but light brown sugar will also work.
- Hoisin Sauce: Adds a unique layer of flavor that can not be replaced.
How To Make This Recipe
- Step 1: Add all the sauce ingredients to a small bowl and mix.
- Step 2: Cut the ribs up into riblets.
- Step 3- Toss the ribs and the sauce together.
- Step 4-Place the riblets into the crockpot.
- Step 5-Cook on low for 6-8 hours or high 4-5 hours.
- Step 6- Place the riblets onto a foil lined baking sheet and brush sauce over each one and broil.
Recipe tips
- Red food coloring is optional but adding the red food coloring gives the sauce a deep rich color like what you would get at your local Chinese takeout.
- You can leave the ribs whole, I just prefer to have them cut especially if serving for an appetizer.
- Broiling them for the last few minutes helps the sauce caramelize just a tad, giving them the perfect texture.
- Add a little of your favorite barbecue sauce if you prefer before broiling.
- Add a drizzle of sesame oil over the top for a nice twist.
Recipe FAQ's
Yes, you can also use spare ribs or pork back ribs. Boneless country-style ribs will also work for this.
Made up of cinnamon, fennel, star anise, and cloves. It adds a depth of flavor to any dish. Here is a recipe to make your own.
More Take-Out Recipes
Letās stay connected! š“Follow Butter Your Biscuit for cozy comfort food inspiration
Slow Cooker Chinese Spare Ribs
Ingredients
- 3 lb St. Louis-style spare ribs see notes
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/3 cup hoisin sauce
- 1 1/2 teaspoon Chinese five spice powder
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons sweet chili sauce
- 5-6 gloves garlic minced
- 2 teaspoons fresh grated ginger
- 1 teaspoon red food coloring optional
- 2 teaspoon cornstarch
- sesame seeds
- green onions
Would you like to save this?
We'll email this post to you, so you can come back to it later!
Instructions
- In a small bowl mix soy, honey, hoisin, five-spice, brown sugar, sweet chili sauce, garlic, ginger, and red food coloring. Set aside
- Cut the ribs between the bones to give individual ribs and place them in a large bowl or freezer bag. Pour the marinade over ribs and marinate for 12 hours or 24 hours for the best flavor.
- Place ribs and marinade in the slow cooker and cook on low 6 hours or high 4 hours.
- Remove ribs from the slow cooker and place them on a foil-lined baking sheet.
- Remove the top layer of fat from the juice in the slow cooker. Pour liquid into a small saucepan and whisk in 2 teaspoon cornstarch. Let come to a low boil to thicken.
- Brush thickened sauce over ribs and broil 5-6 minutes to caramelize on top.
- Garnish with green onions and sesame seeds if desired.
Yay Mary so glad you loved it. I love the flavors too. Thank you for coming back here to share that with me, always makes my day š
I made slow cooked ribs in the oven using this sauce. Before I even put it on the ribs, when I tasted for balance, I was amazed. I upped the garlic by adding ground garlic 'cuz we love garlic, but this is my new asian marinade recipe for all my meats and vegetables. So well balanced and not sickly sweet like teriyaki. I will be saving this recipe and using I future. Thank you.
Hi Dorie. There are a few different versions of Chinese Five Spice in the grocery stores where I live so I just looked for the most common mixture and bought one. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five-spice_powder As for Hoisin Sauce, it is a sauce often used for dipping but some are quite a bit thicker than others - almost like a paste (really thick), harder to work with, and much more salty in my opinion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoisin_sauce
Chinese Five Spice is located in the spice section of your local grocery store. The Hoison sauce is located in the Asian section of your grocery store, its very common. Or you can get both of these on Amazon if that is easier https://amzn.to/2S0lFbK https://amzn.to/2EyeTax hope this helps Dorrie š
Could you please put the recipe for the Chinese 5 spice on Facebook and also where you buy the Hoilson sauce from.
Yes you can! Hope you enjoy them Michael š
Can I use baby back ribs instead?
I would probably omit the apple juice that I had added to the slow cooker at the start of the cooking time. The marinade had tasted really salty before I added it to the ribs last night so expected they would be salty when done too but once the time was up on the slow cooker, they could have used that salty taste. I should have just made the recipe as shown for the first time and then adjusted from there. For time, I did the first hour on high starting at 1:00 and then 4 hours on low until 6:00 and they were falling off the bone. Six hours on low as you suggested would be bang on but I was late getting them into the slow cooker.
I hope you loved them Ida š
I added 1/4 cup apple juice to the marinade to cut the overpowering saltiness from the soy sauce and the hoisin sauce. My hoisin sauce looks like more of a hoisin paste so maybe an actual hoisin sauce may be less salty.