I had a package of pork ribs in the fridge and I love making ribs in my Instant Pot. They are made quickly and are very tender. Bruce and I did a side by side comparison of cooking ribs in the oven wrapped in foil and cooked in the Instant Pot. The ribs cooked in the Instant Pot won! The only down side to cooking the ribs in the Instant Pot was having to brown them up under the broiler or on the gas grill. If I used the broiler, I had another pan to wash.
I tried an experiment to see if I could use my Instant Pot Air Fryer Lid to see if I could brown the ribs in the Instant Pot and not have another pan to clean. It worked great!
Serves 6
Ingredients
- 3 lbs rack of pork spare ribs
- Your favorite dry rub
- liquid smoke
- 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar or apple cider
- 3/4 cup of water
Tools:
Instant Pot, Instant Pot Air Fryer Lid, trivet that comes with Instant Pot
Instructions
- Pull the silver skin off the pork ribs.
- Cut the rack of ribs into two pieces.
- Lightly sprinkle some liquid smoke onto the pork ribs and rub in
- Sprinkle dry rub over the ribs and rub it in. The ribs should be well coated.
- Add the apple cider vinegar and water to the inner pot of the Instant Pot.
- Turn on the Saute function for 5 minutes while the dry rub sits on the ribs. This will heat up the liquid and make the Instant Pot come up to pressure sooner.
- Once the Saute function is done, hit cancel and add the trivet to the inner pot of the Instant Pot.
- Carefully, stand the ribs along the edge of the Instant Pot with the meat side facing out (toward the the inner pot) on top of the trivet.
- Set the lid on and lock it. Set the Manual or Pressure function to High and the time 25-30 minutes (25 minutes for low altitude and 30 for high altitude)
- I’ll admit, I just did a quick release, but most recipes call for a natural release for 10 to 15 minutes and then a quick release.
- Remove the ribs to a plate and empty out the fluid from the inner pot.
- Put the inner pot back in with the trivet and put the ribs in the pot so the meat side is up and they are leaning in toward the middle of the pot.
- Put the Instant Pot Air Fryer lid on top of the Instant Pot.
- Set the broil function to 400 degrees F and the timer to 15 minutes.
- When the timer beeps, remove the Air Fryer lid and place it on the Air Fryer Lid resting pad
- The ribs should be browned nicely.
- Carefully remove the ribs and enjoy!
Notes:
Next time, I make this I will take pictures of the food and add them.
Retirement RV Dream 
That sounds good and easy. I’m still trying to figure out how an instant pot is different than a crock pot, an air fryer and a rice cooker. I’m trying not to have too many specialized cooking things that don’t get used that much, but maybe an instant pot would be worth it.
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Hi Meg – I love my Instant Pot; after getting it and using for a bit, I put my crock pot in the garage for the garage sale I’m planning. An Instant Pot is a multi-cooker device. It is usually used to cook food under pressure, but it has other functions. One of the really nice features it has is the saute function, which allows you to saute food before you use the slow cook (crock pot) function or the pressure function. It has a steam function that allows you to steam cook food, I didn’t have a rice cooker, but now I use my Instant Pot to cook perfect rice. I used it to cook 8 cups of rice for my Mardi Gras party! I had to cook in two batches of 4 cups of rice, and it was quick and easy. You can use it to cook other grains. I find it does a great job of cooking dried beans. I make stews and pot roast in it. I also make pasta with tomato sauce in it. It is great for one pot cooking. I also use it to sous vide steaks and chicken. I use my Instant Pot at least 2 or 3 times a week. I had been thinking about trying an air fryer, so, when the Instant Pot company came out with the Air Fryer lid, that fit my Instant Pot, I bought it. I’m really happy with how well it works. I made a cheese cake in my Instant Pot, and it was so good. It makes great boiled eggs.
People use it to make yogurt (I haven’t made yogurt.). I’ve seen were people use it to as a place for their bread dough to rise. (I have not done that either.)
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