Serves 2
6 to 7 hours on low or 4 to 5 hours on high
BEFORE YOU BEGIN
Look for country-style pork ribs with lots of fat and dark meat, and stay away from ribs that look overly lean with pale meat, as they will taste very dry after the extended cooking time. Don't shred the pork too fine in step 2; it will break up more as it is combined with the sauce. Serve on soft buns with pickle chips.
1
INSTRUCTIONS
Combine broth and bacon in slow cooker. Combine sugar, paprika, chili powder, ½ teaspoon salt, and ½ teaspoon pepper in bowl. Pat ribs dry with paper towels and rub with spice mixture. Nestle ribs into slow cooker, cover, and cook until pork is tender, 6 to 7 hours on low or 4 to 5 hours on high.
2
Transfer ribs to cutting board, let cool slightly, then shred into bite-size pieces using 2 forks; discard fat.
3
Discard bacon. Transfer cooking liquid to fat separator and let sit for 5 minutes. Whisk ½ cup defatted liquid and barbecue sauce together in serving bowl. Toss pork with ½ cup sauce in now-empty slow cooker and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve, passing remaining sauce separately.
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS
To revamp this dish for two, we ditched the usual pork shoulder in favor of boneless country-style ribs, which are easy to purchase in smaller quantities; plus, the cut has plenty of marbling, which keeps the meat tender. Bottled barbecue sauce ensured that our recipe was effortless, since we didn't have to bother assembling umpteen ingredients for a simple sauce. To guarantee that our pork offered the big flavor of authentic recipes, we applied a dry spice rub made from brown sugar, paprika, and chili powder. Two slices of bacon, tossed into the slow cooker whole, infused the pork with smoky flavor. Adding the leftover braising liquid to the barbecue sauce enhanced its flavor and contributed meaty depth and richness
