Sweet and Sticky Cola Ribs

A twist from the classic 'Chinese Coca Cola chicken wings', made with baby back ribs. Sweet, sticky and slightly spicy - these Coca Cola ribs will really hit the spot.

Braised coca cola chicken wings was a very common thing growing up, we drink cola why not eat it too. Seriously though, what kid didn't love sweet and sticky chicken wings made with coke? I'm sure at the time it was weird, but I didn't care - loved it and still do.

I opted to bake these coca cola ribs, instead of grilling them because our humidex sky rocketed this week and hanging out outside with a sweaty butt didn't seem very appealing to me but you can definitely slap this onto a bbq or a smoker and it would actually make it even more flavorful!

INGREDIENTS

For these coca cola ribs, most of these ingredients can be found at your a local grocery store except maybe for the fish sauce which can be found at a Asian grocery store.

I don't recommend buying fish sauce online solely because we have no way of knowing how it will be packaged and what condition it will arrive in - and if that bottle spills or breaks, the stink will be gross. We don't want to go there.

You can substitute the fish sauce with soy sauce in a pinch.

Hot sauce is optional. We used Sabal Olek, and to be honest it wasn't super duper spicy. If you enjoy a spicier rib or have a preference of hot sauce - switch up the hot sauce.

For this recipe, we used our Coffee Dry Rub. You can use our rub, or swap it with something you have or enjoy at home. 🙂

PUTTING IT TOGETHER

Removing the Silver Skin Membrane - Always Do It, Seriously.

All ribs come with a membrane against the bone. It's called a silver skin, and it can be tricky to remove but there is a neat trick that makes it easier to remove, so there's no excuse not to do it! 😛

Why would you remove it? Usually for 2 reasons:

• Texture - it makes the ribs softer and less chewy since the skin has a bit of a give. Personally this doesn't bug me, in fact I actually love a bit of a chew/give with ribs.
• Flavour - This is my main reason for removing it. The skin acts as a impenetrable shield for flavour. It literally feels like a thin sheet of rubber. When you remove it, the meat gets exposed and the rub and sauces can actually penetrate the meat!

How do you do it?

1. Flip the ribs on the back so the bone is facing up.
2. Grab a small knife and try to cut a piece of the skin off the meat. Aim for the corners or sides.
   
3. The skin is slippery, so grabbing it with your bare hand and ripping will usually cause frustration and you probably won't rip much off as well. A trick I learned was to use paper towel! Use a piece of paper towel to grip onto the skin and then pull the skin off.
   

Preparing the Coca Cola Ribs

1. Once the skin has been removed, use some oil and lightly coat the ribs.
2. Add the dry rub on liberally. (We used our 'All Purpose Coffee Rub')
   
3. Once the rub is on - Foil it! We will essentially be steaming this bad boy in it's own juices.
   

Ready, Set, Bake!

1. Pre-heat the oven to 250F (121C). We want to bake this low and slow for soft and tender ribs.
2. The rack of ribs we used was huge, so we didn't have a proper rack for it so we had to improvise. If you have a oven safe pan with a rack big enough - Awesome, use it! Otherwise, you can use foil balls on a cookie sheet as an alternative method.
   
3. Once the foil balls or rack is setup, put the ribs on top and put it in the oven. Set a timer for it for 2 hours and 45 minutes to 3 hours. Our ribs will have a different thickness, so adjust the time accordingly. You may need to put it for an extra 15 minutes or reduce it by 15 minutes. You will know the ribs are done when they are soft and jiggly - borderline falling apart.

Sauce It!

1. In a food processor, blitz the garlic, shallots and ginger. (If you're a keener, you can grate it! I find grating gives a much smoother sauce but it's a little bit more work)
   
2. Set the stove to medium low heat
3. In a frying pan or wok, add in 2-3 tablespoon of oil and wait for it to get hot.
4. Add in the garlic/ginger/shallot mixture and brown it. Keep stirring, garlic burns quickly - especially near the edges of the pan.
   
5. When it has browned, add in the rest of the sauce ingredients and cook it for 15-20 minutes until it has reduced and has slightly thickened.
   Note: Ketchup, coke and all that jazz splatters like it's nobody's business, so be careful with the splattery hot sugar molten lava.
   
6. When the sauce has slightly thickened, turn off the heat and wait for the ribs to finish cooking in the oven.

The Grand Finale!

1. Once the ribs have finished cooking, remove it from the foil. (Don't throw out the juices! That stuff is gold! We added it to the sauce!)
2. Slather the sauce (on the front and back) on the ribs
   
3. Set the oven to broil and bake it for 5 minutes each side.
4. Slather on more sauce and repeat the process of putting it in the oven for 5 minutes to caramelize.
   (We did this about 2-3 times since we like our coca cola ribs sticky and messy, but be careful how often you broil it - you don't want to over cook the ribs and dry them out.)
5. Enjoy! 🙂

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Recipe Card

Sweet and Sticky Cola Ribs

A twist from the classic ‘Chinese Coca Cola chicken wings’, made with baby back ribs. Sweet, sticky and slightly spicy – these Coca Cola ribs will really hit the spot.

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Course: Main

Cuisine: American, Asian

Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 3 hours hours

Total Time: 3 hours hours 20 minutes minutes

4 Servings

5 from 8 votes

Made with ♡ by Joyce

Joyce's Recipe Notes

• Ketchup, coke and all the sugary condiments splatters like it’s nobody’s business, so be careful when you're stirring the splattery sauce.
• Hot sauce is optional. We used Sabal Olek, and to be honest it wasn’t super duper spicy. If you enjoy a spicier rib or have a preference of hot sauce – switch up the hot sauce.
• You will get a more flavourful rib if you remove the silver skin membrane. (Instructions on how to remove it is in the blog post)
• All Purpose Coffee Dry Rub  - https://pupswithchopsticks.com/all-purpose-coffee-dry-rub/

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Ingredients

 

0.51x2x4x

• ▢ 3 lbs baby back ribs (full rack)
• ▢ oil (canola, peanut or vegetable)
• ▢ All Purpose Coffee Dry Rub

Coca Cola Sauce

• ▢ 1 355ml can coca cola
• ▢ 1 x 1 cm ginger
• ▢ 2 cloves garlic
• ▢ 3 small shallots (or 1 small onion)
• ▢ 1 tablespoon Chinese cooking wine (or dry sherry, or white wine)
• ▢ ½ teaspoon fish sauce (or soy sauce)
• ▢ 2 tablespoons ketchup
• ▢ 1 tablespoon mustard
• ▢ 2 tablespoon of sambel olek (or any hot sauce of your choice)

Instructions

 

Preparing the Ribs

• Remove the silver skin membrane on the ribs. (Instructions are in the blog post)
• Once the skin has been removed, use some oil and lightly coat the ribs.
• Add the dry rub on liberally. (We used our ‘All Purpose Coffee Rub‘)
• Once the rub is on – Foil it! We will essentially be steaming this bad boy in it’s own juices.

Ready, Set, Bake!

• Pre-heat the oven to 250F (121C). We want to bake this low and slow for soft and tender ribs.
• Put the foiled ribs on a oven safe pan with a rack. If you don't have a big enough rack and pan, you can use foil balls on a cookie sheet as an alternative method.
• Put it in the oven. Set a timer for it for 2 hours and 45 minutes to 3 hours. Our ribs will have a different thickness, so adjust the time accordingly. You may need to put it for an extra 15 minutes or reduce it by 15 minutes. You will know the ribs are done when they are soft and jiggle – borderline falling apart.

Sauce It!

• In a food processor, blitz the garlic, shallots and ginger. (If you’re a keener, you can grate it! I find grating gives a much smoother sauce but it’s a little bit more work)
• Set the stove to medium low heat
• In a frying pan or wok, add in 2-3 tablespoon of oil and wait for it to get hot.
• Add in the garlic/ginger/shallot mixture and brown it. Keep stirring, garlic burns quickly – especially near the edges of the pan.
• When it has browned, add in the rest of the sauce ingredients and cook it for 15-20 minutes until it has reduced and has slightly thickened.
• When the sauce has slightly thickened, turn off the heat and wait for the ribs to finish cooking in the oven.

The Grande Finale!

• Once the ribs have finished cooking, remove it from the foil. (Don’t throw out the juices! That stuff is gold! Add it to the sauce!)
• Slather the sauce (on the front and back) on the ribs
• Set the oven to broil and bake it for 5 minutes each side.
• Slather on more sauce and repeat the process of putting it in the oven for 5 minutes to caramelize.(We did this about 2-3 times since we like our ribs sticky and messy, but be careful how often you broil it – you don’t want to over cook the ribs and dry them out.)
• Enjoy!

Nutrition

Serving: 1Serving | Calories: 611kcal | Carbohydrates: 16g | Protein: 62g | Fat: 34g | Sodium: 1936mg | Sugar: 11g

*Nutritional information is calculated using online tools and is an estimate*

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