Recipe This | Slow Cooker Chinese Spare Ribs (2024)

FAQs

Why are Chinese spare ribs so good? ›

One of the recognizable factors for a dish like Chinese spare ribs is the sweet, caramelized flavors, which used to come from heating the sugary marinade over the fire. Spare ribs are usually served as an appetizer or small dish, though you can make the char siu in buns or as part of your main meal, as well.

The characteristic red hue of char siu comes from red food coloring, which you can add to the marinade if you'd like, but I prefer to go au natural. It's plenty pretty on its own. Hoisin sauce—a fermented soy bean-based sweet and savory barbecue sauce—is the primary flavoring agent in the marinade.

Oven Cook - Wrap the ribs in aluminium foil. Bake uncovered in a pre-heated oven at 160c degrees celsius fan for 90 minutes. When done, remove from oven and check for caramelisation. If you want to give them a bit more simply baste in the juices and pop back in the oven at 190c for 20 minutes more.

Cooking in the Slow Cooker

The ribs don't need to swim in liquid, but they should be moistened well — a cup or two of liquid is sufficient, depending on the size of your cooker and the number of ribs.

The key is low, slow heat. You can do this in a regular oven, but I put a rack of ribs in the slow cooker and let them cook all day. They practically fall off the bone and are delicious.

The rib tip is basically the section removed from the spare ribs when a butcher is making a more squared off cut. They are a less common cut, but are one of the best kept secrets of Chinese cooking! They contain soft bones or cartilage, which, when cooked properly, are absolutely melt-in-your mouth DELICIOUS.

They're made from a boneless pork butt (which is actually from the shoulder of the pig). The pork is cut into thick slices, roasted, and then cut into long thin lengths. Chinese takeout restaurants popularized this method years ago.

The red hue on the pork comes from the sticky, crave-able barbecue sauce in which it's marinaded before roasting. Often, this deep crimson hue comes from a combination of Hoisin sauce, ketchup, soy sauce, and fermented red bean curd (aka fermented tofu, bean cheese, or tofu cheese).

The name of this dish is siu paai gwat. Siu means “roast”, and just like caa siu or siu juk (or Crispy Pork Belly), BBQ Spare Ribs belongs to the epic family of siu mei, which means Cantonese-style roasted meats.

A rich savoury sauce with a hint of sweetness, blended with soybean paste, Chinese plums and sesame. This is a ready-to-use, rich tasting, brown sauce mix great for oriental wraps, meat stews; as a dressing for aromatic crispy duck, dips for spring rolls and other fusion food.

Should I sear spare ribs before baking? ›

No. You don't sear baby backs. Place the ribs, covered, in a low oven 250–275 degrees F and cook for until nearly “fall off the bone”. Remove and increase the oven to 350, baste with BBQ sauce and bake for about 20 minutes.

Place ribs bone-side down in smoker at 225 F /110 C and cook for three hours. Remove ribs from the smoker and wrap tightly in aluminum foil to form an airtight seal. Return to the smoker bone-side up and smoke for two hours. Unwrap the ribs and return to the smoker bone-side down for one more hour.

You may, if desired, spritz or mop your ribs while smoking with a liquid of your choice. Apple juice or cider, butter, Dr. Pepper, apple cider vinegar, beer… there are plenty of options.

If your ribs are chewy, you either forgot to remove the membrane from the back of the ribs or you didn't cook them long enough. If your ribs are dry, you likely cooked them too hot and fast. Luckily, there are a few things you can do to fix dry and chewy ribs.

You would think that longer cooking times would simply mean more tender, succulent beef. Sadly, this is simply not the case. Cooking any kind of meat for too long will usually leave it dry, tough, and utterly unappealing. In all honesty, cooking BBQ ribs to perfection is something of an artform.

However Chinese pork spare ribs are done in different styles such as braised, steamed (a dim sum dish), deep fried, and stewed in a broth.

Well, it turns out that Char Siu, even though it sounds like charcoal, is not grilled or smoked. It is roasted in a special oven, usually gas fired. And most of the time it gets its ruddy tone from red food coloring (some chefs use a red bean paste, or beets, but that's not common).

You will often see them sold trimmed “St. Louis Style” to make the rack of ribs easier to deal with. Overall, baby backs win out as the lowest in fat and calories, plus they're more tender and quick-cooking.