Smoked Maple Soy Ribs
Use this sauce on baby back ribs, back ribs, beef ribs, chicken thighs... delicious sweet and savory for anything going into the smoker!
Equipment
- Smoker and your favorite smoking wood
Ingredients
Sauce
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- ½ tbsp mirin cooking wine
- ½ tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp grated ginger
- 1 tsp garlic powder
Rub (night prior)
- 2 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp onion powder
- ½ tsp ginger powder
Instructions
Night prior:
- Mix all rub ingredients together. Add, substitute or subtract any ingredients you may also like to add. This is a very basic rub and can easily be modified to whatever you have in the pantry! Salt is the only non-optional component.
- If membrane is present on the inside of the ribs, remove.
- Apply rub evenly to all ribs, both sides. Cover and place in fridge overnight (minimum 2 hours). From here you will see moisture begin to come out of the meat. This means the salt is penetrating the meat and that's a good thing.
Day of:
- Preheat smoker to 205-225°F
- If in a multi-rack smoker, the heaviest smoke will collect in the top racks, while the lower racks are closer to the element are will be marginally hotter. Since we want the most smoke in the first phase, place closest to top shelf as possible.
- Smoke directly for 3 hours, unwrapped, adding your favorite wood chips or pellets each hour, or whenever needed (mine is cherry!)Try to minimize opening the door or lid in order to preserve smoke capture.
- After 3 hours, using beer or coke, wrap each rib section as tightly as possible in aluminum foil, with 2-3 tbsp of liquid per wrap. This stage can be done in either in the smoker or in the oven, but since the smoker is already preheated and on, I prefer smoker. Leave cooking in wrap for 2 hours.
- After 2 hours in the wrap, remove wrap and apply sauce. Smoke for 1 more hour. This will bake the sauce into the meat.
- After the total of 6 hours (3, 2, 1), you're good to go! Remove and rest for minimum 5-8 minutes before cutting and serving.
Notes
Hints:
Don't forget to the remove the membrane! It's not the end of the world if you don't but it creates this chewy layer on the inside of your ribs and while the smoking process does tender it up a little, it's just better to do it right.
Rub whatever you want! Add, substitute or subtract any ingredients you may also like to add. The above rub is a very basic rub and can easily be modified to whatever you have in the pantry! Salt is the only true must-have/non-optional component in the rub.