Paco's Pork Baby Back Ribs

 Pressure Cooker Version

**I never really measure. The amounts below are the amounts I would say I used if I had to make a guess**

Main Ingredients:

1 rack, baby back ribs

1/2 c (more or less) Favorite BBQ sauce 

Dry Rub, mix in a small bowl, set aside: 

1/2 c brown sugar

3 tbsp red chili powder (or paprika)

1 tbsp garlic powder

1 tbsp salt 

1/2 tbsp white pepper *black pepper works too*

1 tsp mustard powder 

1 tsp celery powder  

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (give or take for heat) 

Liquid Mix:

1 cup water

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar (this is a must! It does not touch your ribs, but will steam and add flavor)

1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke *prefer Wrights Brand liquid smoke*

Directions:

In the pressure cooker, pour in the 3 ingredients of the Liquid Mix. Place a short wire rack in bottom of the pressure cooker. **Short wire rack needs to be short enough so the ribs do not stick out above the top edge of the pressure cooker pot, but high enough so the ribs do not sit in the liquid.

With the ribs in the sink, peel off membrane from the underside of the ribs. Rinse ribs with water and pat ribs dry with a paper towel. Rub a liberal amount of dry rub to the front, back, sides, and crevices of the rib rack. Use gloves if necessary.

Stand ribs up in a circle inside the pressure cooker; meat side of the rib out away from the center. 

Close pressure cooker lid. Seal the vent on top of lid. Set pressure cooker temperature to high pressure for 30 to 35 minutes. **If cooking a rack and a half of ribs at one time, set pressure cooker to 45 minutes. Not sure there is room for two whole racks of ribs in 1 pressure cooker.** 

I use a Ninja 6qt Foodi which has an air fryer combo.

After pressure cooker counts down 35 minutes, let the pressure cooker sit un-touched for an additional 10 minutes for a natural pressure release. After 10 minutes passes, open the vent on top of lid to let the remaining pressure release. 

Set oven to High Broil. Raise the wire oven rack to the top of the oven (there is not enough room in my air fryer to lay the ribs flat, so I use the oven).

Once all the pressure is out of the pressure cooker, open lid and set lid aside. 

Place rib rack on a foil-lined cookie sheet, meat side up. Brush on a nice layer of BBQ sauce on top of the ribs. 

Place ribs in the oven until BBQ sauce bubbles and makes a light char, about 2 to 5 minutes. **Don’t walk away**

Remove from oven, let the ribs rest 2 minutes - if you can. ENJOY! 

Pictured with Oven Roasted Garlic Parmesan Sweet Potatoes and an Avocado. 

Roaster Oven Version

When you have a lot of ribs to cook, it doesn't make sense to cook them in the pressure cooker, I will use my roaster oven. This may take more time, but they are still DELISH!

Start 8 hours before you want to serve.

In the bottom of your roaster oven, add enough water to cover the bottom of the roaster, but not too much that it reaches the short rack you have. Add in the remaining liquid mix ingredients.

Prepare the ribs as directed above using the dry rub.

Place ribs onto the rack in the roaster oven, meat side facing up. If you need more than two racks of ribs, suspend another wire rack above the bottom and add more ribs to the second rack.

Set the temp to 150°F and cover the roaster oven with foil and the lid. 

Five hours later, up the temperature to 250°F. Cook for another 3 hours or until the internal temperature is 165°F.