How to cook Pork Ribs in air fryer

Little can go wrong when air frying any kind of fresh pork ribs in the air fryer, but know the BBQ sauce is what makes these ribs a real success.

Cook any store-bought raw pork rib slices or a rack at a low of 170°F/75°C, for a minimum of 3 hours, with an option to push to four. Cover ribs in yellow mustard, and season in garlic and paprika. Cook uncovered for an hour; double wrap in parchment paper, and cook for a further 2 hours.

What started as a little experiment to air fry pork ribs at a low heat for as long as three hours, turned out to be the best thing I have cooked in an air fryer.

Real winner here was this basic homemade BBQ sauce, of which simmering in pork meat and fat for three hours really enhanced the flavour. In fact, it unexpectedly resulted in a Chinese-style BBQ sauce, which I must try with air fried pork chops sometime.

Because this sauce obviously worked out great with air fried pork, next project would be something like country-style ribs made of boneless pork shoulder.

Don't bother attempting to make barbeque chicken in this identical BBQ sauce recipe; I tried it with air fried chicken wings, and the result was a bust. The sauce is vital for pork-based air fried portions, because a blend of pork meat/fat is what makes the sauce so great - and a long 3 hour cooking time helps a lot to.

How long you air fry pork ribs must be a minimum of 3 hours like I did it, which resulted in near fall-off-the-bone pork rib slices.

I set the temperature to a very low of 170°F/75°C, which is the reason why the ribs didn't dry out, and instead fell off the bone.

Begin air frying ribs uncovered with seasoning for one hour. After an hour, double wrap the pork rib slices into individual parcels, and air fry for a further 2 hours.

Be sure to unravel each parcel once in a while - how many times you see fit - to brush on a portion of the BBQ sauce which has been watered-down to brush on the ribs periodically - then firmly wrap each parcel back up to continue air frying until full cooking time is up.

Ribs when cooked, will appear in a dark red colour, with a barbeque sauce coating, with a the watery sauce providing a stunning glaze when brushed on for the final time.

Tesco British Pork Rib Slices, 700g split between 6 slices, were used in this demonstration - although a whole rib rack can be used if it fits inside your air fryer.

Do eat the ribs immediately, and serve with a garnish of finely chopped spring onion and sesame seeds if you like.

If you need to reheat these homemade air fried pork rib slices later, do so by wrapping them in parchment paper again, and reheat at 355°F/180°C for 30 minute.

NOTE: On this occasion, my attempt to create a Texas-style BBQ pork rib didn't quite work out - probably due to lack of ground salt and pepper - but I think the additional salt and pepper did contribute towards an incredible Chinese-like BBQ sauce.

Air fry Pork Ribs Long & Slow

How long to cook pork ribs - be it rib slices or a small rack - in an air fryer, would be a minimum of 3 hours, pushing on 4 hours if you have the time.

Don't be afraid of drying out the ribs in an air fryer because this is truly how you make genuine tasting barbeque ribs, without a barbeque. Where you would smoke ribs on the barbeque, here its a lot less hassle with the air fryer doing all the work.

Drying out pork ribs slices is hard to do on a really low heat, whilst all slices are wrapped firmly in parchment paper.

Air frying ribs can be intimidating, but it shouldn't be because this was my first time too, and I had all those doubts going through my head over the course of the 3 hours.

Be sure to season the pork ribs on all sides covering every spot with yellow mustard - while making sure to cover all raw spots in mustard - to provide some kind of protection from the direct heat. You will then air fry the ribs uncovered for just one hour; before covering them up to air fry for a further two hours.

Cook ribs long and slow to produce fall off the bone ribs, or at least ribs that come easily off the bone with a little chew.

Prepare Pork Ribs

Before doing anything else, it would be a good idea to make sure your rack of ribs will fit in your air fryer basket, and if it doesn't, cut it in half. Whilst we're air frying rib slices, be sure to find the position of the 5-6 slices beforehand.

• STEP 1: Rub mustard into all sides of rib slices - I'll be using Dijon mustard but any yellow mustard will do
• STEP 2: Shake mix of spices onto mustard - Make sure all yellow mustard spots are covered with your homemade seasoning mixture, of which mine consisted of Hot Paprika, Garlic Power and freshly ground Black Pepper only

• STEP 3: Shake ground Salt & Pepper over the top - To help produce a Texas-style crust, add freshly ground sea salt and black pepper over the top of the ribs
• STEP 4: Preheat air fry for 5 minutes - Set PREHEAT temperature to a low of 170°F/75°C, which is what we'll use to air fry the ribs for the first full hour

CHECKLIST: What you should have after following these steps, is a mustard covered pork rack or individual slices, which are covered in a mix of seasoning, along with freshly ground salt and back pepper sprinkled generously over the top of the ribs.

How to air fry Pork Ribs

Cooking pork ribs in an air fryer at a low heat for several hours can't go wrong, though its vital you brown off the ribs uncovered for an hour; before wrapping them in parchment paper - or foil if that's all you have - to air fry for the final 2 hours.

• STEP 1: Set temp to 170°F/75°C and time to 1 hour - Place rib slices into pre-heated air fryer and cook for one full hour on top of parchment paper lining
• STEP 2: Remove ribs and wrap into individual parchment paper parcels - Make sure to wrap the ribs individually by rolling them over and folding over ends, with the crease-side facing down in the air fryer basket

• STEP 3: Return parchment paper-wrapped rib slices to air fryer - Air fry at a higher temperature this time of 210°F/100°C, for a full 2 hours.
• STEP 4: Remove rib slices out of air fryer - Rest rib slices for 5 minutes. before carefully unravelling the parchment paper

NOTE: Due to most air fryers having a 1 hour/60 minute maximum time for safety reasons, you may have to personally reset the timer every hour if there's a maximum time limit on your air fryer model.

How to make Quick & Easy BBQ sauce

Before air frying what are now my favourite way to make BBQ pork ribs, you will need to make the BBQ sauce in advance, so the little ingredients can get to know one another, as the sauce sits in your fridge ready to be brushed on the ribs in an hours time.

• STEP 1: Pour 150g of Honey into dish - Take a small mixing bowl and pour in 150g of your favourite store-bought honey out of a jar or bottle
• STEP 2: In the same dish, pour in 150g of any BBQ table sauce - With a 50/50 split between the Honey and Barbeque sauce, mix both together thoroughly

• STEP 3: Add a small tablespoon seasoning mix - Sprinkle in hot/smoked paprika, garlic power and back pepper to the mix, and stir thoroughly into sauce
• STEP 4: Pour quarter of mixture into second dish - Water-down this quarter of barbeque sauce, which will be used to dab/brush over the ribs to keep moist (store both original and thinned version in two dishes, whilst sat in the fridge ready for basting later)

NOTE: Take a third of your homemade Honey and Barbeque sauce mixture, add to a separate dish, and add a little water, to well, water down. During the duration of the air frying time, baste this watery BBQ sauce over the ribs to help keep them most.

Paper vs. foil wrap option

Whilst its perfectly acceptable to air fry these pork ribs wrapped in foil and parchment paper for a full 3 hours, with an option to push for four hours, I believe parchment paper is the best option of the two.

Soon before air frying these juicy, always fall-off-the-bone barbeque rib slices, I learnt about wrapping the ribs in parchment paper... and boy doesn't it make a difference.

So you see, when slow cooking ribs in foil this will essentially steam the ribs which does allow for super tender ribs.

On the other hand, parchment paper-wrapped homemade BBQ ribs instead allow a little more heat in to create what could be a Texas-style crust. Which is a light crusty outer shell, with a tender pork centre.

On this occasion, I failed to produce a crusty coating, although the fall off the bone pork was second to none in terms of texture and flavour.

Mind you, the barbeque sauce recipe was the real stand out, and I encourage you to copy it, exactly has I have.

Summary

What was suppose to be easy barbeque ribs you can replicate at home, actually ended up being one of the best things I've done in the air fryer.

Largely due to pork ribs being nice as they are, but what really made them a winner was this basic but extremely tasty... what I would call a Chinese-style barbeque sauce. Despite utilizing a cheap honey with a very basic barbeque sauce - plus a little seasoning - that's all it took to produce an incredible BBQ sauce for ribs.

I will add though, the sauce was infused in pork meat and fat over the course of three hours, thus the pork fat did change the taste of this basic sauce drastically.

I know this because I attempted to make BBQ chicken wings in this same BBQ sauce recipe, and yet the taste and texture was well off, and tasted nothing like when air frying the sauce on pork ribs for three hours.

And that's how long you must air fry these pork ribs for, three hours - for three and half to four hours if you like - at a very low temperature of 170°F/75°C.

Air fryers will often allow for 1 hour interval cooking times only, thus the additional hours will have to be added, one hour at a time.

Begin by rubbing the pork ribs slices/rack in mustards so plenty of seasoning which can consist of garlic to hot/smoked paprika can be added, with an effort to cover all yellow mustard spots.

You will then air fry these ribs uncovered in a parchment paper-lined air fryer basket for one hour, before wrapping a whole rib rack or similar to these individual rib slices in parcels - to air fry for a further two hours.

In the meantime, you will want to unravel each parcel one in a while to dab/brush on a watery mix of your honey barbeque sauce, which is done so to help keep the ribs nice and moist over the course of cooking.

Share this article: