Slow Cooker Sweet and Sour Country Style Ribs
17 Comments Jan 21, 2022
Updated May 27, 2024
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These Slow Cooker Sweet and Sour Country Style Ribs are easy to make and are sweet and tender. They are made with tomato soup and a few other secret ingredients that make the BEST sweet and sauce. Sweet and sour ribs are a perfect dish if you have company coming.
Country-style ribs are AMAZING made in the crockpot! We also make Country Style Ribs with Onions and Peppers and Molasses Country Style Ribs.
Table of Contents
I found this recipe inside of a vintage Pillsbury cookbook that I bought at an estate sale. It was initially a grilling recipe, then an oven recipe, and I had to try it in the slow cooker. It worked so well! It’s a great way to serve pork that isn’t a barbecue sauce recipe; it has a sweet and tangy sauce. We did this with mashed potatoes and loved it! We also make sweet and sour chicken often in our crockpot.
Recipe Ingredients
- Country Style Ribs – The texture of these ribs always remind me of tender pork shoulder but with a bone! You will be surprised how well country style ribs cook up in the slow cooker.
- Tomato Soup – This is the Campbell’s Condesned Tomato Soup, do not add water!
- Apple Cider Vinegar – Lots of apple cider vinegar in this to help balance the sweetness.
- Brown Sugar – Can’t have sweet and sour sauce without a touch of sugar.
- Worcestershire sauce – Always my favorite secret ingredient in recipes! Adds tang and depth of flavor.
Step-by-Step Directions
Step One – Add the soup, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, and apple cider vinegar to the slow cooker. Stir until combined.
Step Two – Add the country ribs to the slow cooker flip them in the sauce to coat.
Step Three – Cover and cook on LOW for 7-8 hours. The best way to cook ribs is low and slow. If you are in a pinch, you can cook the ribs on HIGH for 4 hours, but low is best.
Step Four – When the cooking time is done, degrease the sauce. I do this by laying paper towels over the sauce and lift up. The grease will stick to the paper towels.
What to serve with Sweet and Sour Ribs
- Serve with a starch such as Mashed Potatoes, or Rice.
- Add a green vegetable like a garden salad or steamed broccoli.
Recipe FAQs
Yes! Use a jar of sweet and sour sauce or even the canned variety such as Contadina sweet and sour.
Yes! Any pork rib will work for this recipe, even spare ribs. Be sure to remove the sinew (membrane) off the back of the ribs. I like to cut racks of ribs into fourths.
Yes! Add one 20 ounce can of drained pineapple tidbits or pineapple chunks to this recipe at the beginning of cooking.
Yes. Sweet and Sour ribs can be made into a beautiful freezer meal! Add the entire recipe into a large freezer ziplock bag before cooking—Thaw the day before needing (in the fridge) and cook as directed in the recipe card.
These ribs are worth making! I will be making these again soon; they are good enough to serve to company. Have a great week.
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Slow Cooker Sweet and Sour Country Style Ribs
Ingredients
- 4 lbs. country style pork ribs, (you can use less or more, will work fine)
- 10.5 oz. Campbell’s tomato soup, (do not add water)
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
- 2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce, (soy sauce works if you do no have Worcestershire sauce)
Instructions
- Add the soup, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, Worcestershire sauce to the slow cooker. Stir until combined.
- Add the ribs to the sauce and turn them in them so they are coated with the sauce.
- Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours, or on HIGH for 4 hours.
- When the cooking time is done, degrease the sauce. I do this by laying paper towels over the sauce and lift up. The grease will stick to the paper towels.
- Serve and enjoy!
How to Video
Sarah’s Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition info is auto-generated. This information is an estimate; if you are on a special diet, please use your own calculations.
Delicious and SUPER easy! I have been making ribs this way for years and its fool proof. We like to remove them after cooking and put BBQ sauce on and put ribs under broiler for few minutes to carmelize the BBQ sauce and its fool proof. We use this recipe for chicken breasts or chunked pork/cut up pork shoulder also.
Hi, I’m so excited to try this recipe! Could I use tomato paste instead of soup?
That should work with how much brown sugar is in the recipe. You may need to add a touch of water.
Can you use boneless pork chop??
Yes, those should work fine.
The sweet and sour country style ribs was sooooo good, very tender and sweet. I will make this one again! Thank you for the recipe, also looking forward to using my slow cooker more often. It is so wonderful to have dinner going while you are doing other things
Boneless or bone-in?
When I buy country style a few still have bones, but not all of them. So, yes. Bones are fine.
Am making this now. Sauce doesn’t seem to stick to ribs. How can I thicken this up?
cornstarch perhaps? dissolve in cold water before adding.
I am making this for dinner today.
Could not find the tomatosoup,but I used a can soup from Heinz. Since I live in Norway,We don’t have the same brands here. It smells delicious
Very tasty, but the meat was quite dry instead of moist. What can I do next time?
You could use pork shoulder; country ribs can be dry and probably do not have the collagen to keep the meat silky for long term cooking(braised
How about onions?
I think that’s a great idea. I will do that next time for sure.
And along with those onions, add bell pepper, carrots, pineapple and a few small red chiles.
Looks delicious