Instant Pot Honey Spare Ribs is literally fall-off-the-bone tender. These spare ribs are so flavorful and delicious, and it’s the easiest and quickest ribs made right in your pressure cooker. It‘s another great, easy, and family-approved recipe for a weekday dinner.
Looking for a new way to use an Instant Pot at home? Last time when I shared the Instant Pot Sticky Asian Ribs recipe, many of you made it and shared the picture of your delicious ribs on social media. Now I’m inspired by you and today we’re making Instant Pot Honey Spare Ribs (圧力鍋で作るハニースペアリブ)! These sweet and savory flavors work great on the ribs! You’ll be surprised how quickly you can make these spare ribs with the Instant Pot!
Watch How to Make Instant Pot Honey Spare Ribs
Instant Pot Honey Spare Ribs – Literally fall-off-the-bone tender!
Making Fall-Off-The-Bone Tender Spare Ribs on a Weekday!
I used to cook this Honey Spare Ribs over the stove and enjoyed watching and smelling the food as they were being cooked. The slow cooking and interaction in the kitchen has such a therapeutic effect, and it’s definitely one of my favorite times. However, I no longer have the luxury of time to spend an afternoon in the kitchen anymore. I found myself cooking less and less of my favorite dishes that require long simmering.
Then the electric pressure cooker came to my life. Since then it has utterly changed the whole dynamic of my weekday cooking. Craving a bone-in meat dish on a hectic Tuesday is now made possible!
I still spend some time searing the meat (I don’t want to miss out on the extra delicious flavors), but once that’s done, I just let the Instant Pot cook my meat and leave the kitchen.
Pressure cooking has definitely made this recipe a whole lot simpler. Since everything is done in one-pot, cleaning up is a breeze too. I know you and I are probably sharing the same busy lifestyle, so I hope the Instant Pot recipes on Just One Cookbook come in handy when you wish to cook up better meals for the family.
Spare Ribs vs. Back Ribs
There are basically 2 kinds of pork ribs. Some of you may wonder what’s the difference between spare ribs and back ribs.
Spare ribs – we’re using these ribs today
- Most commonly found in supermarkets.
- Thicker, meatier, and flatter ribs (easier to brown).
- 11 ribs and weighs 2 to 3 pounds; can feed 2-3 people.
- Tough, but incredibly succulent and flavorful.
- Good for slow-cooking, barbecuing or braising.
Back ribs / Baby back ribs
- Little less common and more expensive than spare ribs.
- Leaner and smaller.
- 8 ribs and weighs 1 to 2 pounds; can feed 1-2 people.
- Tender and lean but less flavorful than spareribs.
- Good for grilling, broiling, or barbecuing.
In this recipe, we use tastier spare ribs. Pressure-cooking helps tenderize the meat without spending a long time braising on the stovetop. Ask the butcher to cut the spare ribs into 1 to 1.5-inch pieces. As we eat spare ribs with chopsticks, they should be smaller pieces.
Make Gluten-Free Recipes with Kikkoman® Gluten-Free Tamari Soy Sauce
If your family or friend follows a gluten-free diet, you can now enjoy the same food with Kikkoman® Gluten-Free Tamari Soy Sauce! Kikkoman®’s soy sauce is known for an appealing aroma and rich color that stimulate the appetite. Their soy sauce works great when you add heat to it. You can purchase it on Amazon or from large grocery stores.
You can find more gluten-free recipes here on Just One Cookbook.
Not on a gluten-free diet? Feel free to use regular soy sauce (I often use Kikkoman® Organic Soy Sauce). The flavor is pretty much the same, so there is no need to adjust the amount.
In addition to soy sauce, we’ll only need the regular staples – sake, mirin, sugar, rice vinegar, and honey – for the sauce. It is sweet, salty, savory with a touch of tang.
For a family meal, I like to serve the Instant Pot Honey Spare Ribs with rice and sides of greens and soup. Sometimes with fried rice and a fresh colorful Asian coleslaw.
Japanese Ingredient Substitution: If you want to look for substitutes for Japanese condiments and ingredients, click here.
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Instant Pot Honey Spare Ribs
Video
Ingredients
- 3 lbs spare ribs (full rack; ask the butcher to cut into 1-inch cubes as we eat spare ribs with chopsticks and they cook faster)
- 1 tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- ½ onion (4 oz, 113 g)
- 1 tsp ginger (grated, with juice; from a 1-inch, 2.5-cm knob)
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 Tbsp neutral oil
- 4 Tbsp sake (for deglazing; or substitute dry sherry or Chinese rice wine)
For the Seasonings
- 4 Tbsp mirin
- 3 Tbsp sugar (you can adjust the amount; after I tried different amount of sugar, my family all agreed 3 Tbsp yields the best result)
- 1 Tbsp rice vinegar (unseasoned)
- 4 Tbsp soy sauce (I use Kikkoman Gluten-Free Tamari Soy Sauce)
- 4 Tbsp honey
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients.
- Pat dry 3 lbs spare ribs with paper towels and season with 1 tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.
- Finely mince ½ onion.
- Grate the ginger and measure 1 tsp ginger (grated, with juice). Mince 1 clove garlic (or use a garlic press).
- Press the Sauté button on your Instant Pot and heat 1 Tbsp neutral oil.
- Sear the spare ribs on both sides until nicely charred. Sear in batches and don't overcrowd the cooking surface. Don’t touch the meat until it has a nice char; it will release by itself once the surface achieves a golden-brown crust. So don’t worry about the meat sticking to the bottom of the pot.
- Once seared, transfer the meat to a plate or bowl. Continue with the remaining spare ribs.
- If there is a significant amount of oil left on the pot, discard by wiping it off with a sheet of paper towel. It really depends on the spare ribs. I had to use this trick for some spare ribs, while I didn’t see much oil left for this batch of spare ribs.
- Add the minced onion and coat with the oil. Then, add 4 Tbsp sake to deglaze the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon. Make sure to deglaze completely so the IP doesn’t give you a "Burn" message. If the alcohol evaporates too quickly, just add a splash of sake again.
- Continuously add the grated ginger and minced garlic and stir to mix.
- Add the spare ribs, 4 Tbsp mirin, 3 Tbsp sugar, and 1 Tbsp rice vinegar (unseasoned).
- Add in 4 Tbsp soy sauce and 4 Tbsp honey and mix all together one last time.
- Press Cancel to stop the Sauté menu. Close the lid and press the Manual or Pressure Cook menu. Then set to High pressure for 20 minutes. If your pieces are bigger than 1 inch, increase the cooking time to 25–30 minutes. Make sure the steam release handle points at Sealing and not Venting. The float valve goes up when pressurized.
- While pressure cooking, you can prepare blanched vegetables and steamed rice.
- When it’s finished cooking, the Instant Pot will switch automatically to the Keep Warm mode. Let the pressure release naturally for 30 minutes. If the valve hasn’t dropped yet, then quick release the air (be careful and cover your fingers with a kitchen towel).
- Open the lid and gently stir the ingredients. Serve the spare ribs with steamed vegetables and rice.
To Store
- Keep in the airtight container and store for 3–4 days in the refrigerator.
Equipment
- Instant Pot
I just made this for dinner tonight. I followed your recipe except for subbing palm sugar for sugar. I pressured cook for 25 mins since I had some pieces of meat that were bigger than 1”. I scooped out all the spareribs when done and added some parboiled Korean glass noodles (Japchae noodles) and cooked till transparent and then added the spareribs back. It was amazing. Thank you for the recipe.
Hi May! Wow! It sounds delicious with glass noodles!
Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe and sharing your cooking experience with us!🙂
Made this for tonight’s dinner. My first instapot recipe too! These instructions were so easy to follow. Thank you. My 2yo LOVED it.
Hi Susanna!
Aww. Your 2 years old LOVED this one!? We are so happy to hear that!😊
Thank you very much for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback.
And congratulation on your first successful Instanpot dish!👏🏻
Dear Nami,
If I am making 500g of pork ribs, do I need to reduce the seasonings?
Thanks
Hi William,
For the taste, it will be better to reduce the seasonings.
However, if you are using an Instant Pot or any other pressure cooker, it usually needs at least 1 cup (8 oz) of liquid in the pot for it to come to pressure. Nami’s recipe (for 1.4 kg meat) is just a little over 1 cup of seasonings, so it can’t reduce anymore.
Thanks for the wonderful recipe! I just got my first Instant Pot and your recipe was the very first thing I tried and it came out delicious!
Hi Loretta!
Congratulations on your first Instant Pot!
We are so happy to hear Honey Spare Ribs turned out great, and you enjoyed it!
Here are more Instant pot recipes for you! https://www.justonecookbook.com/tags/pressure-cooker/
Enjoy!💕
This is delicious! I used the same method to made chicken thighs. It was perfect and everyone enjoyed it!
Hi Susan,
Thank you so much for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback. We’re so glad to hear you enjoyed this recipe in the chicken version!
Thank you for sharing your cooking experience with us!
thank you so much for this recipe…I made it yesterday in the slow cooker ( I don’t have an instant pot) and It was delicious!!
I am from Italy and just subscribed to your blog…
I love japanese cooking and would really like to eat It every day..
you are gonna be my teacher!
Arigato!
Lucia
Hi Lucia,
Thank you so much for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback.
We are so glad to hear you enjoyed the dish! 🙂 Thank you very much for your support from Italy!
Hi,
Can you provide more specific directions on how it was made in slow cooker? I don’t have IP. And cooking it over the stove for 3hrs isn’t an option for me either unfortunately. Thanks!
Hi Soo,
For the slow cooker, we recommend cooking for 7~8 hours on low or 3~4 hours on high.
We hope this helps!
Can i use the all rib? I mean without cutting in 1inch? I dont have the right knife to cut that.
Thank you! I love your recipes!
Hi Marina! Yeah, you can. As we eat spare ribs and rice with chopsticks, I prefer to use small chunks. They will cook faster too. Ask the butcher to cut into 1 inch cubes, as I also don’t have such knife at home. 🙂
I made this last night and everyone in the family loved it. I cooked it with bigger rib pieces and the meat fell off the bone.
I made it to eat with potato so the sauce was wasted – I won’t make this mistake again… next time rice as you recommend in the reciepe.
Hi Nicole! Thank you so much for trying this recipe! I’m so happy to hear your family enjoyed this dish. Thank you for your kind feedback! 🙂
Followed this recipe exactly and it turned out awful. The quantity of liquid was much too few, I had my doubts but I wanted to trust in the recipe. Will not make this again.
Hi Miel! Thank you for trying this recipe. I’m sorry yours didn’t come out well. I’ve seen the successful result of my readers’ try through Instagram and their messages, so I really want to know what happened to yours. I myself make this often too. Did you use a pressure cooker to make this? You can see the liquid amount in my video too. Please let me know if I could help in any way. Thank you for your feedback!
Hello! I’ve religiously followed many of your recipes and theyve turned out great (I’m a huge fan of your beef curry recipe) and assume this is possibly a fluke on my part – I made use of an instant pot and followed everything exactly – looked quite similar to your photos. I may not try this recipe again but will still definitely give the others a chance!
Thank you so much for trying many of my recipes, Miel! Please don’t hesitate to reach out if there is anything I could help. I want to make sure the recipe works for everyone and they have a good meal at the end after spending time and effort. 🙂
My husband and I absolutely love these ribs – making these for the third time tonight! They are so tender and flavorful. Please make more Instant Pot recipes! 🙂
Hi Shirley! Yay! I’m glad you two enjoy this recipe and thanks for trying it! Yes, I’ll be making more IP recipes. If you have any specific ingredient or Japanese food you like to cook, let me know. 🙂
This is a terrific recipe and made tasty, tender rib pieces.
I used my 8 quart Instanpot and 5 lbs of spare ribs so I would have extras to nibble on for lunch during the week.
Thanks!
Hi Bkhuna! Thank you so much for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback! Great to hear you made a big batch ahead so you get to eat healthy meal at home! 🙂
Hi Nami, just want to share with you and other readers that our local Costco sells ribs cut Asian style- good deal to boot! its usually 2.49 per pound
Hi Ann! AWESOME! Thanks so much for letting us know!
What is the best way to cook these if you don’t have a pressure cooker or Instant Pot?
Hi Loretta! Slow cooking for 3-4 hours in the pot over the stovetop. Increase the sauce as it will evaporate as you cook. 🙂
How about using boneless shortribs
Hi John! Sure you can do that. 🙂
Amazing recipe! If I want to thicken the sauce, should I add cornflour at the beginning or end?
Hi Jason! You can make a slurry sauce (in Japan we usually use potato starch and water – but corn starch can be used), and gradually add in as you whisk. You can also reduce by simmering for a longer time, without a slurry sauce. 🙂
Hello again Nami-San,
What is your suggestion if I don’t have instant pot? How long do I need to cook the ribs on stove?
Thank you
Hi Novi! You can cook over the stovetop for 3-4 hours. Increase the sauce since the liquid will evaporate as you cook. 🙂
Made this last night, the whole meal, the rib meat was flavorful and very tender. The sauce was great over the rice and bok choy
Hi Dave! Thanks so much for trying this recipe already! I’m so happy you enjoyed it. Thank you for your kind feedback. 🙂