Ribs....in the crock pot

My husband and I decided that our one culinary goal for this summer is to master the art of cooking ribs.  We both love ribs. For years we've discussed ways to cook them and new ideas on how to make THE ultimate ribs.  There are several ways to cook them, and since it's not exactly warm outside yet, I decided to start now using the slow cooker method. 

My husband, who believes cooking ribs on the grill will yield the best results, was skeptical about the slow cooker method.  While I understand his skepticism, I've had it all worked out in my mind on how to do this and hopefully have good results.  The one element I didn't really think about was beef ribs verses pork.  I can not say with certainty if this recipe/method would work exactly the same on both types of meat or not, but now that I've tried it with one I will have to try making it the same way with the other.  I suppose that would be the best way to go about doing this little experiment!  I chose beef ribs for this round.

I thought these ribs were delicious - fall off the bone, finger licking good!  There are of course other elements involved that will influence the outcome, such as the sauce you use.  For me, on this day, it was more about the method than about the "recipe."  I wanted to see if the slow cooker would produce the fall off the bone result we were looking for, and it most certainly did. PS - I had a difficult time getting a good picture of these ribs.  This is the only one that was halfway decent, yet it still doesn't portray how good these ribs were!

Beef Ribs (slow cooker method)

4 lbs of beef ribs - *MAKE SURE TO REMOVE THE MEMBRANE*
1 can or bottle of beer, any kind will do but I used a darker beer
Garlic salt and pepper seasoning
Your favorite BBQ Sauce - here's two of my homemade recipes:  Honey Chipotle BBQ Sauce
or BBQ Sauce I

The first step to making fabulous ribs is to remove the membrane from the back of the rack of ribs.  Rather than me trying to explain how this is done, here is a great video that will show you exactly what to do - Click here for video.  Season both sides of your ribs with the garlic salt seasoning mix, then cut the rack into to sections in order to best fit in your slow cooker.  Place one section in and spoon a little bbq sauce on, then lay another layer of ribs on top and repeat process until all the ribs are in the slow cooker.  Pour beer over the ribs, put the cover on and turn it on low.  

After 4 hours I flipped the ribs around so the ones that were on top ended up on the bottom.  Cook another 4 hours.  Check to see if the meat is falling off the bone, and if it is carefully remove the ribs from the crock pot and place on a lined baking sheet.  Brush your favorite BBQ sauce all over the ribs, then place tray in the oven under the broiler for 4-5 minutes.  My broiler has settings from low to high, so I set mine to medium and watched them carefully.  If you don't want to use the broiler, just turn your oven on to about 375 and place the ribs into the preheated oven.  Leave them in there for about 5-10 minutes.  Serves 4.