Slow Cooker Dr. Pepper BBQ Ribs
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Slow Cooker Dr. Pepper BBQ Ribs are Country Style Pork Ribs, slow cooked in Dr. Pepper, then baked to caramelize the Dr. Pepper BBQ sauce. Only 3 ingredients!
I am what you would call a fair weather winter person. Growing up in the Midwest, it doesn’t seem right to NOT have snow on the ground at Christmastime, but by the time mid-January hits, I am tired of the dreary grey skies and the cold and the white stuff that has now turned a not so pretty white.
I long for long summer days with sunshine and patio sitting and GRILLING.
^Love it? PIN It!^
My son has been home from college for the last month, and he returns this weekend. I have been letting him get in his dinner requests this week. Yesterday though, I thought I would wing it. I had some boneless country style pork ribs in the freezer, so I defrosted them and decided to have barbecue. My family NEVER argues about barbecue, it’s something I know that everyone will be happy about.
I typically boil my ribs in beer before I grill them. You can find my recipe for those pork ribs HERE. Yesterday though, more white stuff was falling from the winter sky, and I decided dinner would not be getting made on the patio. I tossed the ribs in my slow cooker, and dumped a can of Dr. Pepper over the top.
After they cooked slow all day, becoming so tender I could barely move them to my baking rack, I knew they would be awesome. I transferred them to a rack over a cookie sheet, and brushed them with a combination of BBQ sauce and more Dr. Pepper. The sauce was super yummy! I baked them for 30 minutes to caramelize the sauce, flipping them once and adding more sauce.
They were sensational. I served them with hash browns, cheesy cornbread drop biscuits and sweet corn. My husband said “This is the best dinner you have made in a long time!” (He’s partial to the entire menu, so I had no doubt he would be thrilled!) I love making him and his tummy happy!
Did I mention this recipe only requires three ingredients?
What three ingredients do I need to make these Slow Cooker Dr. Pepper Ribs?
- Boneless Country Style Pork Ribs
- Dr. Pepper Soda (Cherry Dr. Pepper is good, too!)
- Barbecue Sauce
Yep! That’s it! The crock pot does all of the work making them tender then you bake them to caramelize the sauce on them before you eat them. You could also do that step on the grill if you aren’t suffering through a freezing January like we are.
I like to buy the boneless ribs. If you prefer the ones with the bone, they work, too! I prefer pork ribs over beef, as I think they just have so much more meat. Plus, pork is seriously economical!
Place the ribs in your slow cooker, and pour a can of Dr. Pepper over the top.
The lid goes on, and you can either cook them on low all day, or you can cook them on high in half the time.
When they are nice and tender, carefully remove them from the crock pot and place them on a wire rack over a foil covered cookie sheet.
Combine your favorite BBQ sauce with some more Dr. Pepper. We love our Sweet Baby Rays!
Brush BBQ sauce on them and bake them for 15 minutes. Flip them and do the same to the other side.
Find the FULL printable recipe at the bottom of this post!!
All set!! Don’t they look amazing?
Dig in!!
Don’t want to wait all day?? Make these delicious ribs in your Pressure Cooker/Instant Pot!
If you love Dr. Pepper and you love BBQ Ribs — here are a couple more recipes you need to try!
A Few Other Great Dr. Pepper Recipes:
- Dr. Pepper Meatballs
- Dr. Pepper Brownies
- Dr. Pepper Donuts
Let’s Dig in! 
Slow Cooker Dr. Pepper BBQ Ribs
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4.5 pounds boneless country style pork ribs
- 2 cans Dr. Pepper soda divided
- 3/4 cup BBQ sauce your favorite, we love our Sweet Baby Ray's!
Instructions
- Place ribs in the bottom of your slow cooker, pour 1 can of soda over them. Cover and slow cook for 7 hours on low or 4 hours on high.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cover a cookie sheet with foil then place a wire rack over the top.
- Combine 3/4 cup BBQ sauce with 1/2 cup Dr. Pepper soda.
- Carefully remove the ribs from the slow cooker, placing on rack. Brush tops with sauce. Bake for 15 minutes, flip and brush other side. Bake 15 minutes more.
- Serve remaining sauce at the table.
Nutrition
This recipe has been updated from its original post … if you followed this old photo here, you are still in the right place! 🙂
Are there no seasonings required? What about salt? Do you taste the Dr. Pepper because I’m not a fan?
No seasoning required. And it doesn’t taste like you’re drinking a can of Dr. Pepper – it just does magical things to the taste, and they are fall apart tender!
Can you use frozen ribs in the slow cooker? Or do they have to be thawed? I have made this 3 times already & my family loves it! But normally my meat is thawed. Today is not that day.
I would imagine you could? You will most likely need to increase the cooking time.
Bake at what temP?
Hi, Sarah. My guess is that you scrolled past the printable recipe card with all of the instructions, measurements and oven temperatures? You bake them at 400 degrees. That card will give you baking times, too. I hope this helps!
I made these tonight – I do not eat pork but I happily cook it for my hubby, who loves ribs. I used a boneless pork side loin and it weighed over 6 lbs. I just increased the amount of Dr. Pepper to 2 cups in the slow cooker and used a bit more BBQ sauce (I did use the Baby Ray’s original) and Dr. Pepper indicated. The pork was fall apart tender when I removed it from the slow cooker and it looked amazing when I took it out of the oven after glazing it. The entire time he was eating it, he kept saying “This is SO GOOD”. It was so tender, he ended up making it pulled pork.
This was such an easy recipe and there are lots of left overs for additional meals. Definitely a keeper that we will do again.
I am so happy to hear that your hubby loved the recipe! Thank you for coming back to share the “yums” with me!
What size slow cooker is best for this recipe? I have a 2.5 quart cooker.
As long as your ribs fit in the cooker, any size will work!
How’s long would I cook 1.5 pounds of ribs in the crock pot?
It will take the same amount of time.
Can you use bone-in ribs?
Absolutely!
I accidentally got ‘bone in’ ribs!! I’m serving them tonight…do i need to modify anything?
You will be just fine! 🙂
Do you think this bbq flavor would be good over a can of pinto beans ?
I might be the wrong person to ask, because I think BBQ is perfect over anything! 😉 Pinto beans sound great!
You are an absolute genius. My best friend is English and visited me once a year before covid, and this next year will be the first time he can come to the USA since. He loves EVERYTHING America, so I linked him this and said, we’re doing this. Thanks so much!!!
Aw!! Have SO MUCH fun when he visits!! I hope you have a great time and enjoy the ribs!
Delicious! Made these for my family. They were so tender, no knife needed. It melts in your mouth and is soooo tasty! Definitely will make this again! Thank you!
I am thrilled you loved them!!
I made these ribs for our 10 yr anniversary dinner and believe me it was a smash hit…now my guest want to pay me to come cook ribs for them once a month 🙂
That is amazing! So happy you all enjoyed them!
Would definitely recommend!! I made a lesser batch, about 1.5lbs because it was just me and my son. He LOVED them….almost didn’t share! Because we made only 1.5lbs our cooking time was a little less, they started falling apart at about 3 hours and then we moved them to the oven for about 10/10. Thank you for this recipe, we will be trying more in the future!
So happy to hear that you both enjoyed them!! Next time, if you make the full amount, try shredding the leftovers for sandwiches another night! 😉 Then you get two meals out of them!
These ribs look fabulous! I’m so amazed that you can make something SO good with just three basic ingredients.
Had this for supper tonight. It’s just as good as it looks! Fall apart tender and the sauce made it absolutely amazing! We had it with baked potatoes that I put in another crockpot and let cook on low all day. I love fixing meals in the crockpot. It’s so easy, especially nice when working long days. Thanks for sharing!
AWESOME! That sounds like the perfect meal! Happy that you enjoyed it!
Do you cut the ribs apart before putting them in the slow cooker?
Thanks,
Dennis
The country-style pork ribs are not attached to one another. I buy them because they have so much more meat on them! If you are using a style that are connected, you don’t need to cut them apart, unless you can’t fit them in the crockpot! 🙂
Can i use diet Dr. Pepper or does it need to be the regular sweetened type!
Diet works great!
Would this be a good recipe to use with pork chops as well?
I think that would work just fine!
This quick, no stress process produced the the most AMAZING tastiest ribs ever!!! Thank you!!!
I am tickled you loved them too!
Would I have to half the recipe if using less ribs? I’m using about 3 lbs
You would be okay to reduce the amount of liquid if you wanted to, but it wouldn’t be necessary for making 3 pounds.