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Crock Pot Pork and Sauerkraut is a traditional German recipe made by my mom. This pork ribs and sauerkraut recipe has fall apart tender meat, and is so comforting! This slow cooker pork and sauerkraut recipe has great flavor, and is a nice family meal!
Crock Pot Pork and Sauerkraut
Growing up with my mom was a trip around the world! She made recipes from many different cultures. I definitely got my love of cooking anything and everything from her! German inspired recipes were a favorite at our house.
Pork and sauerkraut made in the crock pot is a very common dish, and there are many versions floating around.
This is an inherently simple meal, so no need to buy any fancy ingredients. Caraway seeds are the most exotic ingredient (though they are not exotic) in this pork ribs and sauerkraut.
If this recipe veers a bit from the very traditional recipe, you can blame that on mom having lived in other parts of the world besides Germany! She took her influences and made recipes taste better!
One Pro Tip: Please don’t skip browning the pork ribs! The browning gives the meat such a wonderful depth of flavor.
I tested this recipe twice without browning the meat. It was just okay, and my hubby and I agreed that it was missing something. It doesn’t take that long to brown the Country Style Ribs, so I hope you will not skip this step!
Classic Slow Cooker Beef Stew
Slow Cooker Turkey Chili
Slow Cooker Chicken and Dumplings
Crock Pot Creamy Chicken Breasts
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Crock Pot Pork and Sauerkraut
Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp Olive Oil
- 3 lbs Country Style Boneless Ribs
- 1 tsp Kosher Salt
- ½ tsp Pepper
- 1 Yellow Onion, thick sliced
- 3 cloves Garlic, pressed or finely minced
- 1 Apple, diced large
- 1 (24 oz) jar Good German Sauerkraut
- 1 Tbsp Caraway Seeds
- ½ cup Apple Juice
Instructions
- Heat a 12" skillet over med-high heat. When hot, add the olive oil, then all of the ribs. Let them brown on one side for 4 minutes or long enough to get some color. Salt and pepper the ribs.
- Flip the ribs over and do the same on that side.
- Add the ribs and juices from the skillet to a 6 qt or larger slow cooker.
- Add the sliced onion and the garlic over the top of the ribs.
- Sprinkle the caraway seeds over the ribs/onion.
- Drain 1/2 of the sauerkraut juice and set aside. Dump the sauerkraut and remaining juice over the meat/onions.
- Add the apple and then the apple juice.
- Cook on Low for 8 hours or High for 4 hours, or until the ribs are fall apart tender.
- Taste for salt and tartness. Use the remaining sauerkraut liquid only if you want the results to be more tart in flavor.
- Serve hot.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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made this recently and it was amazing!! making it again currently, a few days later because it’s soooo good! only thing i didn’t add was the caraway seeds and apples, as i didn’t have any.
Oh my goodness! I have made pork and sauerkraut off and on for years. More off than on because it never hit all the marks of being really good. It’s always been just ok. Well, hallelujah! This one is a keeper. Absolutely the best !!!. I followed the recipe exactly and it didn’t need anything else to make it delicious. Yum!!!! Thank you for taking the time to share this recipe.
I’ve been making this crockpot country ribs and kraut since I was introduced to it in 2008 at an American Legion Post in a small town that I frequent! Very small differences like I use rub on the ribs when I brown them, it’s called Iroquois County Pork Producers Salt, which pretty much covers the seasoning part of the deal as it has salt, black pepper, a little garlic, brown sugar and paprika. Then I add a little more black pepper BUT no more salt!. Then this last batch I followed everything else in your recipe and the finished product was FANTASTIC!!!! Nice job Sandy, my culinary skills only make it so far before I need to turn to a more skilled person such as yourself. I look forward to trying out more of your recipes as I stumble around in my kitchen!!!! Thank you!!!!!
This is so great! I had searched all over to find a recipe reminiscent of slow-cooked ribs with sauerkraut and caraway seeds that was a hallmark of my youth my mom used to make. This pretty much nails my memory of that dish, despite the addition of the apple and apple juice, which was not in the version we had, but adds a wonderful layer of flavor here. We’re Polish and I can’t speak to the provenance of the recipe that was used when I was a kid, but this certainly does align with Eastern European roots as well as German/Western European ones. I’ve cooked this twice now using ~ 5lbs of bone-in ribs cooked on low at 8-10 hours and no other modifications.
Also, just to respond to Gail’s note on using bagged sauerkraut vs. canned – any probiotics either has will be killed off in the cooking process so it doesn’t really matter what type you use, from that standpoint.
If you want the health benefits of the sauerkraut use bagged found in the refrigerator section rather than canned as the canning process kills the probiotics. What a great recipe to use fresh sauerkraut with! Thank you for sharing!
I bought the ingredients just now and will make this tomorrow. It’s just me but I intend to share with my neighbors. Can’t wait to try this!
Thank you for sharing.
My wife served this recipe to me soon after married, 42 yrs! It is my favorite. I love this so much. It is a hardy dish with tons of flavor and easy to make.