Instant Pot Sticky Rice Steamed Pork Ribs

Sticky rice steamed pork ribs is full of aroma and flavours. Naturally gluten-free, this is a very popular classic Chinese dish that will make you keep wanting more.

You know the feelings of satisfaction and deep comfort from a dish you loved eating growing up? The sticky rice steamed pork ribs bring me all of that fond childhood memories. Since I moved to Canada, I still cook it in my regular rotation. The magic is in the spiced rice powder used to marinate the pork ribs.

Healthy Cooking for Busy Family

In this fast-paced society, most of us have resorted to buying pre-packaged seasonings often containing additives and not-so-good ingredients in order to save time. If you have followed my blog, Facebook or Instagram, you know that I preach cooking whole foods from scratch whole-heartedly. However, being able to do that consistently is always the biggest challenge in every busy family.

When I re-created the sticky rice steamed pork ribs recipe, I wanted to achieve 3 goals:

• replace pre-packaged, processed spiced rice powder and seasonings that often contain additives, preservatives, MSG
• use accessible and easy-to-find ingredients in North America and still deliver the authentic taste
• make this an Instant Pot (pressure cooker) recipe to reduce cooking time for busy families

I am glad to say I did all I set out to do and the result is an easy and flavourful dish for dinner any day of the week!

Preparation Tips: Sticky Rice Pork Ribs

I hope the photo below gives you a good visual of the preparation steps.

3 things I want to call out here are:

• The glutinous rice should be ground into a coarse powder, using a coffee grinder. Don’t use a rice flour bought in the store, they are usually too fine.
• The ribs are to be marinated in the liquid first, then coated in the well-mixed spiced rice powder.
• Layer the potato pieces under the pork ribs. This will have the potatoes soak up all the wonderful flavours and fat cooked out of the ribs later.

More details are in the instructions below. If you make the sticky rice steamed pork ribs, snap a picture and tag me on Instagram, I will be thrilled to see it!

What Do You Need for Pot in Pot?

As this is a steamed recipe using the Instant Pot, also called the “pot in pot” method, we need 2 special tools in addition to the Instant Pot:

• Trivet with handle: a trivet is a stand to hold the cookware above the water during steaming. Using a trivet with a handle is highly recommended by me, so that you can lift the dish out of the Instant Pot easily after cooking.
• Oven safe cookware: any dish that’s oven safe is safe to use in the Instant Pot. I use a Pyrex dish.

Note that I use a 8qt Instant Pot for my family of 4. I chose 8qt over 6qt Instant Pot to maximize capacity. I am really glad for this decision, particularly for when I use the “pot in pot” method and making bone broth.

Related: More Instant Pot Recipes

• Instant Pot Beef Brisket Stew with Daikon Radish
• Instant Pot Shiitake Ginger Chicken Bone Broth (All Purpose Asian Stock)
• Instant Pot Forbidden Rice & Red Bean Congee
• Instant Pot Beets Salad (Paleo, Whole 30, Vegan)
• Sprouted Chickpea and Sweet Potato Hummus in Instant Pot {Video}
• Shredded Chipotle Beef Tacos
• Instant Pot Beef Bone Broth
• Instant Pot Osso Buco (Low-Carb, Paleo)
• Cheesy Veggie-Stuffed Meatloaf

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Instant Pot Sticky Rice Steamed Pork Ribs

Sticky rice steamed pork ribs is full of aroma and flavours. Naturally gluten-free, this is a very popular classic Chinese dish that will make you keep wanting more.

5 from 12 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Chinese

Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour

Servings: 4 people

Calories: 512kcal

Author: Yang

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup sweet glutinous rice (approximately 100 g)
• 1 1/2 lb naturally-raised pork ribs
• 1 tbsp cooking rice wine
• 2 tbsp naturally-brewed tamari soy sauce
• 1 1/4 tsp sea salt or Himalayan Salt
• 1 tbsp Chinese five spice powder
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper powder
• 3 medium potatoes

Instructions

• Cut the pork ribs into individual pieces between the bones. Soak the pork ribs in a cold water bath for 15 to 30 minutes to release as much blood from the ribs possible. You may change the water once or twice during soaking time. Drain the pork ribs and pat dry.
• Marinate the pork ribs in rice cooking wine and tamari / soy sauce.
• Grind the glutinous rice in a coffee grinder for 5 to 10 seconds, until the grains are broken down into coarse powder. Do not grind the rice into a fine powder like the rice flour you buy from grocery stores. Transfer the coarse glutinous rice powder into a bowl.
• Add the salt, Chinese five spice powder and cayenne pepper powder into the bowl, then mix well to make a spiced rice powder.
• Peel the potatos and cut them into quarters or desired size. Arrange the potato pieces to form a layer in the bottom of a pressure cooker safe dish, such as a pyrex.
• Evenly coat the ribs with the spiced rice powder, and then arrange the ribs on top of the potatos in the dish. This way the potatos will soak up all the wonderful flavours from the fat and juice cooked out the ribs later.
• Fill the Instant Pot with 2 cups of water for steaming. Place the dish of ribs and potatos on a trivet inside the Instant Pot.
• Put the Instant Pot lid on and close the pressure valve. Select the "steam" function of your Instant Pot, or manually select high pressure cooking, set the cooking time to 25 minutes.
• When the cooking is completed, let the Instant Pot naturally depressurize, or carefully release pressure by opening the valve. Use the trivet handle to lift out the dish from the Instant Pot.

Nutrition

Calories: 512kcal

Tried this recipe?Tag me @YangsNourishingKitchen on Instagram!