Slow Cooker Thai Ribs

Over the past few years I have been doing lots of experimenting with my crock pot in attempt to learn how to use it. My favorite cookbooks for the slow cooker are the Southern Living Slow Cooker Cookbooks. I've made several recipes from both books including, tortilla soup, garlic-rosemary chicken, Italian pot roast, Cranberry pork roast, Asian pork loin, Saucy apples n' pears, maple glazed pears and cheesy spinach artichoke dip. They were all successes and I admit, I have a lot more recipes flagged to try! Allrecipes.com also has some good recipes, my favorite barbecued brisket recipe is from the site. Yesterday I decided to make ribs in the slow cooker. I didn't feel like traditional barbecue ribs so I decided to make the Thai Style Ribs listed as an editor's favorite recipe. The house smelled so good while they were cooking. The ribs came out very tender and had a really nice flavor. I usually make my barbecued ribs in the oven but now I can't wait to try them in the slow cooker after how well this recipe worked. I served the ribs with Jasmine rice and steamed Asian vegetables. Sorry no picture, but we ate late last night.

Thai-Style Ribs
3 1/2 pounds pork baby back ribs, cut in half (I had small pork ribs from Whole Foods that had already been separated from the rack)
1 11.5 oz can Welches frozen orange-pineapple-apple juice concentrated, thawed and undiluted
3/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup fresh minced cilantro
2 tablespoons fresh ginger
1 garlic clove, pressed
2 teaspoons sugar
Garnish: fresh cilantro sprigs

Place ribs in large shallow dish or zip-top freezer bag. Combine juice concentrate and next 6 ingredients in a small bowl with wire whisk. Reserve 3/4 cup mixture in refrigerator for dipping. Pour remaining mixture evenly over ribs; cover to seal and chill 8 hours, turning occasionally.

Remove ribs from marinade, discarding marinade. Place 1 rack of ribs in bottom of slow cooker, stand remaining rib racks on their sides around edges of slow cooker. Cover and cook on High 1 hour. Reduce heat to low and cook 5 hours.

Microwave reserved 3/4 cup sauce in 1 cup glass measure at High 1 to 1 1/2 minutes or until thoroughly heated, stirring once. Serve with ribs. Garnish, if desired. Makes 2-4 servings.