Country Style Pork Ribs in the Ninja Foodi is a perfect choice for a 360 meal, and guess what??? No extra accessories needed! 

Can you believe it? No extra accessories needed! YAY! 

Don't get me wrong, I love all the great accessories for the Ninja Foodi and I think a few of them are important, but it's also nice to be able to cook a complete dinner with just what comes with the Ninja Foodi and this recipe for Country Style Pork Ribs does just that. 

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The only things you need besides the ingredients are the inner pot and the basket! Super easy and super delicious. 

What are Country Style Pork Ribs? 

If you haven't had or cooked country style pork ribs before, you aren't the only one! I've seen them a million times at the grocery store, but move on past them and usually get a pork tenderloin, a pork roast, a pork shoulder, or even St. Louis style pork ribs. Why? I have no idea. 

I feel like I've been missing out, though. They are so delicious and so easy to cook, but they aren't actually ribs. 

The country style pork rib is usually cut from the blade end of the shoulder or the shoulder itself. You can find them boneless or with the bone, but the bone is usually from the scapula, according to what I've read. If you have ever tried to get concise information on various types of meats on the internet, you understand my pain right now. I really wish I had been a butcher in a previous life, because this stuff gets confusing!

No worries, though. These types of ribs are usually clearly labeled as "country style" pork ribs and there is no mistaking how they look. 

You can use either boneless country style pork ribs or the kind that have the bone in them for this recipe and you don't have to change your timing at all. 

The way I think of Country Style Pork ribs is all the greatness of the pork shoulder, but without all the time it takes to cook one. They are cut into nice size strips and are nicely marbled. This makes them perfect for pressure cooking and 360 meals! 

WHAT ARE 360 MEALS? 

I get this question a lot, so I just wanted to briefly explain what the term "360 meal" is referring to. 

360 meals are complete meals, usually with a meat protein, a vegetable, and a starch of some kind. They are cooked at the same time in the Ninja Foodi (or the IP Duo Crisp), but each component of the meal cooks separately. 

By using a combination of pot-in-pot (PIP) layered cooking and choosing appropriate ingredients, we can achieve these easy and delicious 360 meals where all the components are ready at the same time! 

No more having to keep the meat warm while you cook the veggies! I love them, I really love them! 

360 meals are definitely customizable, but will require some thought when choosing appropriate substitutions. For example, I have a BBQ Chicken Dinner 360 meal that uses cabbage as the vegetable and, while you could substitute kale, you wouldn’t want to use spinach. 

In that recipe, the meal is pressure cooked for 10 minutes and, in that time, the spinach would turn to mush, but the kale can handle it. 

You could also change the chicken to another type of meat without changing anything else as long as that meat cooks in the same amount of time. 

I can’t wait to share more 360 meals with you and I’m super excited about this Asian Steak 360 meal! Everytime I create a new one, I do a happy dance because they are some of the easier meals for people to make! 

They aren't always easy to create, though; so, when you want to try your hand at your own 360 meals, always keep in mind that you want to pick foods that cook at about the same time or manage your sizes so that you force them to cook in similar times. 

For example, you can leave vegetables larger for meats that take longer to cook or cut the meat smaller to cook in the time it takes for the vegetable to be done. Don't forget to take advantage of all the functions of the Ninja Foodi because you don't always need to use pressure cooking to create wonderful 360 meals! 

Can I use a different cut of meat in this 360 meal? 

Yes, of course! Like I mentioned earlier, just choose cuts of meats that will take about the same time to cook. Some examples that I think will work great as a substitute for country style pork ribs are: 

Beef Short Ribs: Even though beef short ribs take a little longer to cook usually, I think you will find they work just fine if you put them under the broiler at the end for a few minutes. 

Chuck Roast: You can use chuck roast and the way to get it cooked properly in a short time is by managing the size of the meat. Cut the chuck roast into 2-3" cubes, season and sear them and then proceed with  the recipe. 

Chicken Thighs: You can certainly use fresh or frozen chicken thighs in this recipe and make a few adjustments. If the thighs are frozen, you can probably follow the recipe exactly as written and they will be fine. Chicken thighs are very forgiving and, even if they overcook, they do not dry out like a chicken breast. 

In my experience, chicken thighs (frozen or thawed) usually take somewhere between 7-12 minutes to cook. This means you can also approach this recipe differently by reducing the pressure cook time to meet the cooking requirements of the chicken. I would keep the potatoes unwrapped and would probably still wrap the veggies in foil. 

Chicken Breasts: I just have to be real honest here and say that I haven't had great luck with pressure cooking a chicken breast and while you can certainly do it, until I figure out a better way, I am hesitant to give suggestions. 

What types of Vegetables will work best in this 360 meal? 

I chose frozen vegetables that were in large pieces AND I protected them by wrapping them in 3 layers of foil. This did the trick and I think it would work for large pieces of fresh vegetables as well. Just keep them in as big of pieces as you can. 

I also used a fresh carrot and that worked perfectly. 

Although I haven't tried it, I think fresh string beans would work as long as they were wrapped in foil. 

Onions would work great, so would rutabaga or any other hard vegetable. 

Mushrooms are another good choice because they do really well under pressure. 

Can I make this Country Style Pork Rib 360 meal Low Carb? 

Certainly! That is one of the best things about these 360 meals, none of the ingredients are dependant on the other ones for cooking time, so you can skip or replace the carb portion of them. 

In this recipe, I would omit the potatoes and use cubed rutabaga instead. I wouldn't even worry about wrapping the rutabaga in foil, just cut it into about 2"-3" cubes and throw it in. At the end, you can either mash them up or AC with the ribs. 

If you are using the BBQ sauce and rub, substitute the sugars for your sugar substitute of choice. 

How to make the Carolina Style BBQ Sauce

I used the Ninja Foodi Cold & Hot Blender to make the sauce, but you can use the inner pot of the Ninja Foodi PC & AC or the stove. Simply mix the ingredients together and cook for about 15 minutes over a low heat. It will thicken as it sits and is best served room temperature. 

Carolina BBQ Sauce 

Ingredients

• ⅓ cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 Tablespoon water
• ⅓ cup yellow mustard
• ¼ cup white sugar
• 1 ½ Tbsps of brown sugar
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp pepper
• ⅛ tsp cayenne
• 1 Tbsp chili powder

Instructions

Whisk ingredients together and cook over medium heat for about 15 minutes.

How to make Country Style Pork Ribs in the Ninja Foodi

The Carolina Style BBQ sauce and the seasoning rub that I used on these country style pork ribs were both so wonderful. I hope you give them a try! If they just aren't your cup of tea, then, by all means, use whatever seasonings you want, even a simple salt and pepper will work. 

Mix up the rub for the pork. This recipe makes enough rub for about 6 pounds of country style pork ribs, so you can either store the remaining rub in a sealed bag for later or just mix up ½ of a batch. 

Place 8 ounces of water or beer into the inner pot of the Ninja Foodi.

Rub the pork ribs generously with the rub and arrange the pork ribs around the sides of the basket. It is perfectly fine that they are stacked on each other. You want the middle open for the potatoes.

I like to drizzle the potatoes with olive oil and sprinkle with salt, but that is completely optional. Wrap each potato in foil or if using larger potatoes, skip the foil. Add the potatoes to the middle of basket. 

Keep your vegetables frozen until you are ready to use them. We need every advantage we can find to not have them turn out mushy. I picked a vegetable blend that had large pieces and I also added 1 extra carrot that I cut into thirds, because I'm not a fan of frozen carrots. You want to make flat pouch that will fit all the vegetables, but not stick up too far in the basket. Use 3 layers of regular foil or 2 of heavy duty foil and that does a good job to protect them from overcooking. I also sneak a couple tablespoons of butter into the packet, but don't tell anyone! It's delicious and I love butter. 

I'm pretty funny about vegetables and I was very pleased with these. IF you want your vegetables on the firm side, then don't add them now. Either cook them separately or add them after 15-20 minutes of pressure cooking. You will want to do at least a 5 minute natural release if you break the pressure cooking time up into two stages. 

The foil packet might stick up a little over the top of the inner pot and that is just fine. Move it towards the front of the Ninja Foodi so it doesn't impede the pin or the valve and everything will be just fine. 

Put the pressure lid on turn the valve to seal. Set the pressure on high for 22 minutes. When the time is up, allow the pot to natural release for 5 minutes and then manually release the remaining pressure. 

Remove the lid and foil packets. Arrange the country style ribs in a single layer (or as close as you can get) and brush them with the BBQ sauce. Air Crisp on 400°F/204°C for about 5 minutes. 

Unwrap the potatoes and vegetables. Plate and Serve! 

ABOUT THE RECIPE AUTHOR, LOUISE LONG

Louise is a full-time recipe creator and food blogger @ The Salted Pepper. She has over 30 years of experience with cooking and recipe development. She owned a restaurant for several years and was a full-time RN until retiring to blog full-time.

Louise has several very active Facebook groups that help people with the basics of cooking and getting the most out of the Ninja Foodi.

Ninja Foodi 101

Ninja Foodi Fresh & Healthy Meals

Simply Cooking with Louise

Seeing the need for easy, delicious, and high quality recipes, she is focusing all of her efforts creating recipes specifically for the Ninja Foodi. Her recipes are easy for the home cook to follow and provide step-by-step instructions.

Louise is also a YouTube creator and you can find most of her recipes in video format on The Salted Pepper YouTube channel.

She is very responsive to messages and eager to help in any way she can.

I WOULD LOVE TO SEE WHAT YOU ARE COOKING UP IN YOUR NINJA FOODI! TAG ME @THESALTEDPEPPER ON YOUR FAVORITE SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM WHEN YOU MAKE A DISH!

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