How To Make Sous Vide Ribs (Step By Step)

Learn how to perfectly cook tender and juicy pork ribs using the sous vide method. Follow our step by step guide for BBQ pork ribs with or without a barbecue sauce.

Ingredients for Juicy Pork Spare Ribs

• Pork Spare Ribs
• BBQ Spice Rub of your choice (We like a Blackening Seasoning Blend.)
• Liquid Smoke
• Ketchup
• White Vinegar
• Water
• Yellow Mustard
• Onion Powder
• Brown Sugar
• Worcestershire Sauce

Sous Vide Cooking

My family was recently invited over to dinner at the neighbors where my lovely friends introduced me to the process of sous vide when they made the juiciest teriyaki chicken for us to eat.

So I did what I normally do, and I ordered a sous vide machine pretty much the next day. That’s how I roll, and I just can’t help it being a food scientist major in college. Since then, I’ve been texting my friend daily with questions and comments and pictures of my meals, all being made with sous vide cooking.

If you’re not familiar with this process, then let me explain. Sous Vide literally means “under pressure” in French. The food is cooked in a water bath with a vacuum sealed package. The process cooks the food in a very precise manner with very consistent results.

As my friend keeps telling me, as long as you know what time and temperature to cook a particular food, then you can be creative with the ingredients that you put in the bag and the way you finish it before serving.

Sous Vide Pork Ribs

One of the first proteins I conquered using the sous vide was pork spare ribs. I find that pork ribs can be tricky to get tender, so I was looking for a way to get fall off the bone pork, and I am so excited to tell you that sous vide is the way to go.

I particularly like the flavor of barbecued pork ribs which is how Mom always made them growing up. My dad was a hog farmer so we always had plenty of pork in the freezer, and to this day, I still get a pig butchered every year.

For this dish, I used pork spare ribs which is what I always have in the freezer. The spare ribs I used are not a super thick rib and there isn’t a ton of meat on each bone which is good to note. If you are using a cut that is thicker or meatier, you would want to use a different time and temperature combination.

Two Step Cooking Process

Sous Vide BBQ pork ribs are best with a two step cooking process.

The first step is cooking them in the water bath at 165 degrees F for 12 hours. Then at that point, you have a couple options.

If you want to eat right away, finish these in the oven to get them nice and sticky, just how I prefer to eat ribs. However, if you want to serve these later, store them in the refrigerator for up to five days before finishing them in oven.

How to sous vide pork ribs?

Step by Step Instructions

1. Remove membrane (strip of white fat) from the back of the ribs; discard. Sprinkle all sides of pork ribs generously with a barbecue spice rub. Let marinate in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight.
2. Place seasoned pork ribs and liquid smoke in a vacuum sealer plastic bag or in a freezer zip-lock baggie. (If using a zip-lock bag, use the water displacement method to remove the air from the bag. Remove the air accordingly.)
3. Prepare the sous vide by setting the temperature to 165 degrees F.
4. Place ribs in the water, and be sure the meat is completely submerged.
5. Cook BBQ pork ribs for 12 hours in the sous vide machine.
6. Once done cooking, place the bag of pork ribs immediately into a bowl with ice (ice bath) until completely chilled.
7. To finish pork ribs, remove from the plastic bag, and pat dry with paper towels.
8. Arrange the pork ribs on an aluminum foil-lined sheet pan or large baking sheet pan, and season both sides again with another layer of seasoning.
9. For a plain, dry rubbed pork rib recipe, finish the pork ribs in a 300 degree F oven for approximately 40 minutes or until they have a layer of crusty bark.
10. For a sauced BBQ pork rib recipe, bake the pork ribs in the same method at 300 degrees F for 20 minutes, and then prepare the homemade BBQ sauce (whisk together ketchup, water, yellow mustard, plain vinegar, onion powder and Worcestershire sauce in a large bowl). Baste the ribs in the sauce at the 20 minutes mark, and continue adding layers of BBQ sauce every 5 minutes for approximately 20-25 additional minutes of until the ribs are sticky.

Storage Instructions

Let leftovers cool completely. Transfer to an airtight container, and store in the refrigerator for 3-5 days.

For the full ingredient amounts and recipe steps for how to sous vide pork ribs, scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of this post.

Recipe FAQs

• Here’s a quick synopsis of the sous vide rib process. Season and marinate, cook in water bath, ice bath, pat dry, season again, bake, baste, eat.
• If you don’t like a saucy pork rib recipe, then omit the homemade barbecue sauce, and instead, cook the ribs with the dry seasoning until you get a nice dry crust (called bark).
• Be sure that you have a good vacuum seal. To achieve this either use a vacuum sealer like this one or use the water displacement method.
• The ice bath helps the fat to get reabsorbed back into the meat fibers to make them extra tender. I don’t recommend skipping this step.
• After the ice bath, you have the option to refrigerate the pork spare ribs for up to 5 days before finishing in the oven to consume.

Recipe Variations

• Use any variety of rib rub, blackening seasoning or barbecue seasoning blend, or make your own spice rub by mixing together brown sugar, garlic powder or onion powder, salt, black pepper, paprika and cayenne pepper.
• To make it even easier, use premade BBQ sauce from the store. No judgement here.
• Love onion, add a few slices with the ribs in the zip-lock bag before you sous vide.
• If desired, finish these in a smoker or on a grill instead of the oven method.
• Looking for a sous vide recipe for beef short ribs? Try these 2-ingredient beef short ribs.
• Want to sous vide some chicken thighs? Here is our sous vide Cajun chicken thigh recipe.

Can you sous vide ribs too long?

Yes, there is an happy medium in cook time in the sous vide process. While sous vide cooking helps to maintain the juiciness and tenderness of the meat, leaving the ribs in the sous vide machine for an excessive amount of time can result in a mushy texture. The recommended cooking time for sous vide pork ribs is 12 hours at 165 degrees F for a normal thickness of ribs.

Should I smoke ribs before or after sous vide?

If you want to get the smoke flavor that goes so well with ribs, be sure to do that after you’ve cooked the ribs in the sous vide machine. Let the meat become fall off the bone first, and then go in to add major flavors later.

Side Dish Recipes

Looking for some side dish options to go with your pork spare ribs? Here are some of our favorite side dish recipes.

• Classic Macaroni Salad
• Broccoli Corn Bread Bake
• Dutch Green Bean Casserole
• Parsley and Parmesan Potatoes
• Sweet Potato Salad

Kitchen Utensils Needed for Making Sous Vide Pork Ribs

• Sous Vide Machine
• Sous Vide Water Container Kit
• Vacuum Sealer or Freezer Bags
• Large Sheet Pan
• Basting Brush