These Instant Pot BBQ Ribs are the perfect recipe to make to break in your Instant Pot! They are so easy to make and taste like they’ve been slow-roasting for hours. Tender, fall-off-the-bone perfection! 
Tender, smoked BBQ ribs that have been bathed in smoke for hours are pretty magical. Heck, I believe most all slow-smoked meats should have their place in heaven! But unless you own a BBQ restaurant, are independently wealthy, don’t have children, or have a blessed BBQ pitmaster as a neighbor that will share with you, ain’t nobody got time for smoking your own bbq ribs!
Am I right?
The beauty of Instant Pot Ribs
This is where the Instant Pot comes in. If you’re not familiar, an Instant Pot is an electric pressure cooker that doubles as a slow cooker, rice and yogurt maker, and more. There’s so much you can do with it! There are lots of brands out there that make similar electric pressure cookers, but the Instant Pot is what I have and love with a big capital “L.”
Pressure cookers work by cooking food under intense pressure, so they cook incredibly fast and do a great job of breaking down the collagen and connective tissue in meats that typically take hours to break down.
But with the pressure cooker, making tender, fall-off-the-bone Instant Pot Ribs takes about one hour start to finish. Take a look!
Cooking tips for these Instant Pot BBQ Ribs
- Make sure to remove the membrane or silver skin on the back of the baby back or spare ribs before cooking. During cooking, this membrane forms a thick, leathery skin that is less than desirable and prevents the flavors from penetrating into the meat fully.
- Root beer or Beer? Your choice! Both obviously yield different flavors, but are equally delicious!
- My recipe below includes a super simple spice rub for the bbq ribs that is phenomenal but feel free to use your favorite homemade or store-bought dry rub. The process of cooking is the same no matter what seasoning you choose to use.
These Instant Pot Ribs are so tender and cooking them in either beer, or root beer gives them just a little extra punch of flavor.
Once the ribs come out of the Instant Pot, I like to put them on a cookie sheet, brush my favorite BBQ sauce on them, and put them under the broiler for a few minutes. Doing this gives the sauce a chance to stick to the ribs and caramelize a bit, just like they were finished off on the grill!
Want more easy BBQ recipes?
Tools Used in making Instant Pot BBQ Ribs
- The Instant Pot! : This is the model that I have and LOVE. It’s been with me for over a year, and I’ve definitely put it through the ringer, but still works like new! It’s changed the dinnertime routine at our house and helps me make meals in under an hour that used to take HOURS!
- OXO Stainless Steel Tongs: These tongs take a beating in my kitchen. They go from the grill for flipping meats to the salad bowl for tossing with very little complaint. They are built like a tank and have silicone grips that make them super easy to use, even with my very small hands.
Instant Pot BBQ Ribs
Ingredients
- 1 rack pork baby back ribs
- 1/4 cup smoked paprika
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon garlic salt
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 11 ounces beer or root beer *See Notes*
- 1 cup BBQ Sauce
Instructions
- Remove ribs from packaging and dry well with paper towels. Cut into sections of 3 ribs and set aside.
- In a small bowl whisk together smoked paprika, sugar, garlic salt, and onion powder. Sprinkle all of the seasoning over the ribs and rub in with fingertips.
- Place ribs into your Instant Pot and pour entire bottle of beer or root beer over the ribs. Close lid and set the pot to cook for 25 minutes at high pressure.
- Preheat oven to Broil on high
- When cooking time is up, allow pot to naturally release pressure most of the way (about 10 minutes) and then quick-release the rest.
- Remove ribs from pot and place on a baking sheet. Brush each piece with your favorite BBQ Sauce and place under the broiler until sauce is bubbly and starting to brown and caramelize-- about 5 minutes. Just watch them closely as things go fast under the broiler!
- Remove from oven and serve.
Notes
- Baby Back, St. Louis Style, and Pork Spare ribs will all work for this recipe. I used Baby Back for the video and pictures.
- Both Beer and Root Beer lend great flavor to the finished ribs-- so use what you have/want to! The end flavor will obviously be different but both are phenomenal.
Nutrition
What a surprise to find that Instant Pot BBQ Ribs can cook so quickly and still be tender and tasty! Thank You
Great recipe! The ingredients are simple and easy to process, I just finished it today, the results are great, it’s beyond my expectations, it’s great. Thanks for sharing
Can you use boneless for this recipe? If so, what would be the alterations, if any?
Your grilled ribs look attractive. I like grilled ribs and I can feel its great taste. added the menu for the weekend. Thank you for sharing the recipe for making them, this is great.
My Instant Pot got delivered a couple of days ago and this is the first thing I tried making in it. A great Share!
Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe, I have all the ingredients and now I will start to cook right away
Thanks for sharing this great recipe! I going to try it by this weekend.
First time user of an Instapot and dove in and made these ribs tonight in it, OMG, I hate ribs as a normal, but in like 30 mins (including the broiling for 5 mins in the oven) they were fall off the bones delish.
Very very happy so far
😘 Definitely a keeper
This was my first recipe using my new instant pot. I followed it exactly and they turned out amazing! My family LOVED these ribs. Thank you!!! I will be saving this one for sure!!!
Has anyone used diet root beer and sugar free barbecue sauce??
I made these ribs as directed and they came out just as described in the recipe! I am new to Instant Pot, so this was the second dish I made! They really were “fall off the bone” tender and flavorful. I used root beer. The only recommendation I would have is for those that like a little heat with their ribs to add a little black pepper or cayenne pepper to the spice mix. Another spice to add some additional flavor is ground mustard. I think any cola would also work well in this recipe.
Can you make these by just using barbecue sauce in the instapot
I’ve done ribs in the instapot alone before, and I felt that they were a bit too tender. The taste was great, but the meat was a bit too soft for my taste. I think most recipes call for some oven time for a reason…
No, BBQ sauce doesn’t have the water content to bring the Instant Pot up to pressure.
Just tried these and they came out great!! I did use brown sugar instead of white sugar, and I used Dr Pepper instead of root beer – because that’s what I had my house LOL and everything came out great. They’re so tender, and so good. Thanks so much for sharing this recipe!
What do I do with all that wonderful leftover juice from the beer?
You could definitely make a homemade bbq sauce with it!
Just made these for my husband for Father’s Day. I was nervous because I’ve never made ribs AND I’m new to using the Instant Pot. We ALL loved them, including my 13 year old daughter! Thanks for sharing!
First time making ribs of any kind-turned out awesome!!!!!!
Excellent ribs! Followed recipe exactly and it came out great. Don’t hesitate to try it.
Good recipe. I’ve also used Dr. Pepper for the liquid. Before I cut my ribs apart I pull the membrane off the underside by grabbing one end with a paper towel and carefully pulling.
If you cook two racks at the same time, do you have to increase the cooking time? 25 minutes was perfect for one rack!!
It depends on the size of your pressure cooker. If the racks can both fit in there easily and allow the heat to hit all sides of the ribs as it does with just one rack, the time shouldn’t change. But if they are really crammed in there, the heat won’t be able to penetrate the meat as easily and will need a longer cooking time. Hope that helps!
I had the same question. Has anyone tried 2 racks at one time? I make this often with one rack, but am cooking for a bigger crowd and wanted to try 2. I have the 8 qt pot.
put them in a circle on inside he other and they cook just fine
Where is a beer only 11oz?!
Imported beers are commonly .33 liters which is 11.2 oz.
Anything over 11oz. is for the cook. 😉
This was my first attempt with the Instant Pot. I literally went from the initial water test to this. Amazing! I feel like I’ve discovered magic. That said, these ribs were fall-apart delicious. My husband, who prior to this told me I make the best (4 hour process) ribs he’s ever tried, told me he could eat these everyday. I’m sold. Consider me a Pothead! I used root beer with this recipe, btw.
These were very good, however 25 min. was not enough cooking time. I used St. Louis ribs so that may have been the problem. They were done but still very tight on the bone even after broiling. Will let them go another 10-15 min next time.
I’m new to Instant Pot use, and this looks like a great first recipe! Are the ribs frozen or defrosted to start? I’ve heard frozen meat can go into the Instant Pot so eanted to clarify.
I prefer to use my meat defrosted. I haven’t ventured into frozen meat territory. 🙂
I would aKwaYS. Start with DEfROsTEd ribs…you are going for “tender” with ribs and my experience with the Instant pOt I said that froz n meats don’t tender up very well. pLUS, the SEASONING you are putting on them WONT STICK to frozen ribs.
Oops….Sorry for typos…”defrosted”
This worked great! I used St. Louis ribs and hard cider instead of beer/root beer because that’s what I had on hand (oh and no onion powder). I flipped my ribs in the broiler to get both sides done.
Hi there, what kind of beer did you use?
Made these for the second time in just a few weeks. I will never fire up my smoker and tend it for 6 hours again! These are hard to tell from the slow-cooked variety. I have used beer both times but added 1/2 bottle of Liquid Smoke tonight. For the BBQ sauce topping I LOVE Stubbs “Sticky and Sweet’, with NO corn syrup or additives. My husband and I can easily put away a whole rack of these!
This is perfectly quick and simple. Exactly the way I like to keep things in my own kitchen. I can’t wait to try these ribs!! They look so amazing!
Do you stand the ribs upright on the sides or lay flat down? With or without trivet? Thanks
Hey Kim, when I watched the video I see she did NOT use a trivet and stacked the 3-rib portions on top of each other flat side down.
Yes, I just put three rib portions right into the pot without the trivet. I know some wrap the rack of ribs around in a circle on the trivet, but I haven’t done them that way.