Jamie Oliver’s teriyaki pork ribs cook a rack of baby backs above a teriyaki sauce built directly in the air-fryer drawer, so the ribs render their fat into the sauce as they slow-cook, then get tipped into it to glaze sticky at a higher heat. Seven ingredients, one hour, serves two at 394 kcal. There’s no marinating, no oven and no separate sauce pan.
The recipe is from Easy Air Fryer (2024). The technique is the smartest thing in it: you mix the teriyaki sauce (sugar, soy, rice wine vinegar, ginger, garlic, cornflour and water) directly in the bottom of the air-fryer drawer, then replace the shelf and sit the ribs on top. At 160°C for 50 minutes, the ribs cook above while the sauce simmers below, catching drippings and building flavour.
The final 5-minute blast is what makes them sticky. You pull the shelf out, tip the tender ribs down into the sauce, turn to coat, then crank to 200°C. The sauce thickens and sets onto the meat in a dark, glossy glaze. It’s the two-stage cook (low and slow then hot and fast) that gives you tender inside, sticky outside, the same principle behind every good rib recipe, but done entirely inside an air fryer.
Jamie Oliver Teriyaki Pork Ribs
Course: Dinner, LunchCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy2
servings11
minutes50
minutes394
kcal1
hour1
minuteJamie Oliver’s one-drawer teriyaki ribs from Easy Air Fryer: baby backs slow-cooked above a soy, ginger and garlic sauce that builds in the drawer, then glazed sticky at high heat. Seven ingredients, no marinating. Serves two.
Ingredients
40g caster sugar
40ml low-salt soy sauce
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
2cm piece of ginger
1 clove of garlic
1 tbsp cornflour
1 higher-welfare rack of baby back ribs (600g)
olive oil
2 spring onions
Directions
- Build the sauce in the drawer:Remove the shelf from the air-fryer drawer. Add the sugar, soy sauce, vinegar and 300ml of water. Peel and finely grate in the ginger and garlic, add the cornflour and mix to combine. Replace the shelf.
- Slow-cook the ribs:Rub the rack with a little olive oil and a pinch of salt, cutting it in half if needed to fit. Place on the shelf and cook for 50 minutes at 160°C, until the meat is tender and starting to get gnarly.
- Glaze:Carefully remove the shelf with tongs, tipping the ribs into the sauce. Turn to coat, then cook for another 5 minutes at 200°C, until the sauce sets and darkens on the ribs and thickens around them.
- Serve:Slice the ribs, scatter over trimmed and finely sliced spring onions, and pour the remaining sauce into a bowl for dunking. Serve with sticky rice and seasonal greens.
FAQs
How does the sauce cook inside the air-fryer drawer?
It’s the cleverest part of the recipe. The teriyaki liquid sits in the bottom of the drawer, beneath the wire shelf the ribs rest on. As the air fryer circulates hot air at 160°C, it gently simmers the sauce while simultaneously cooking the ribs above. Fat and juices from the ribs drip down into the sauce, enriching it as it reduces.
After 50 minutes, you remove the shelf and lower the ribs into the sauce that’s been building below them. Then 5 minutes at 200°C glazes everything together. The air fryer is acting as both a slow cooker and a glazing oven in one drawer, which is why Oliver put this recipe in the book: it shows what the appliance can actually do beyond reheating chips.
What are baby back ribs?
They’re the smaller, leaner ribs cut from the top of the pig’s rib cage, near the spine. They’re more tender and cook faster than the larger, fattier spare ribs, which is why Oliver specifies them for a one-hour air-fryer cook. A 600g rack is enough for two.
Ask your butcher for a rack of baby back ribs, or look for them pre-packed in the supermarket. If you can only find spare ribs, they’ll need longer at the low temperature, perhaps 1¼ hours, to get properly tender before the glazing step.
Can I make this in an oven instead?
Yes. Place the sauce ingredients in the bottom of a deep roasting tin, set a wire rack inside and lay the ribs on top. Cover tightly with foil and cook at 160°C for 1 hour until tender, then uncover, turn the ribs into the sauce to coat, and blast at 200°C for 10-15 minutes until sticky and glazed.
The oven version takes a little longer and doesn’t concentrate the sauce quite as efficiently, since there’s more space for evaporation. For a barbecue version, his grilled chilli and lemon chicken from the BBQ book uses the same low-then-high principle on charcoal, so the technique translates across heat sources.
What does the cornflour do?
It thickens the sauce. As the teriyaki simmers for 50 minutes in the hot drawer, the cornflour gelatinises and turns the thin soy-sugar-vinegar liquid into a glossy, clingy glaze. Without it, the sauce would stay watery and run off the ribs instead of setting onto them during the final blast.
One tablespoon is all you need, mixed in at the start so it distributes evenly. It’s the same thickening trick used in Chinese stir-fry sauces, where cornflour slurry turns a thin liquid into a coating sauce. By the time the ribs are glazed, the sauce should be thick enough to dunk into.
How do I know when the ribs are ready before glazing?
Oliver says “tender and starting to get gnarly,” which means the meat should have pulled back slightly from the bone ends, the surface should be browning and drying, and a fork or knife should slide into the thickest part with no resistance. If it still feels firm, give it another 10 minutes at 160°C.
The 50-minute timing works for a 600g rack of baby backs in most air fryers, but all machines run slightly differently, which Oliver’s own note acknowledges. Check at 45 minutes and use your judgement. The ribs should be fully tender before they go into the sauce, because the 5-minute glaze at 200°C is for coating, not for cooking.
What should I serve alongside?
Oliver suggests sticky rice and zingy seasonal greens, which is the classic pairing: the plain, starchy rice soaks up the teriyaki sauce, and sharp, lightly dressed greens cut through the sweetness. Steamed pak choi, tenderstem broccoli with soy, or a quick cucumber-sesame salad all work.
For a bigger spread, these ribs pair naturally with his gochujang chicken burgers from the same Easy Air Fryer book, giving you two Asian-flavoured dishes from the same appliance. Or keep it simpler with his sriracha corn as a quick side, since the sweet-spicy corn and the sticky teriyaki speak the same flavour language.
