This Smoked Coca Cola BBQ Ribs Recipe may be some of my best ribs to date! I love to use Coca-Cola in my brines, so it was about time to try it out on ribs, right? Nothing beats ribs when tailgating or at a summertime bbq!
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Now smoked bbq ribs are a favorite of mine! I took my Rib Brine and combined it with my Coca-Cola Brine. There were no leftovers and the kids fought over the ribs at dinner. I am going to have to make these for the next fight night!
Project Smoke (Steven Raichlen Barbecue Bible Cookbooks)
Classic Cooking With Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola Brine Recipe Ingredients:
- Coca-Cola– You can change this up with any dark soca, Diet Coke, Root Beer, Dr. Pepper, or Coke Zero. The soda flavor will slightly alter the taste, but it will work.
- Worcestershire Sauce
- Brown Sugar
- Minced Garlic
- Salt
- Ice
SMOKED BBQ RIBS INGREDIENTS:
How To Make Coca-Cola BBQ Ribs Brine:
In a container large enough to hold the brine and the ribs in.
I used boneless pork shoulder-style ribs to make these ribs, I prefer to use thicker boneless ribs when I brine for flavor and tenderness. I had about 4lbs of ribs that I made this with.
Pour in your Coca-Cola, I start with two or three cans and then mix in the dry brine ingredients.
Give your brine mixture a stir with a whisk and then drop in your ribs. My ribs were frozen so I put them in frozen to thaw in the fridge in the brine. I really find this tenderizes and flavors the meat more.
Add in more Coca-Cola till the meat is completely submerged.
Store in the fridge for at least 12 hours to allow the brine to flavor and tenderize the rib meat.
If you are doing a long brine, go out and mix up the brine a couple of times to make sure everything gets coated well.
If your ribs were frozen, allow them to thaw by food safety standards.
The day you are ready to smoke, remove the ribs from the brine and layout on a plate for all the meat to warm up a bit.
How To Make Smoked Coca-Cola BBQ Ribs:
Fire up your smoker to a smoke setting, or if you are cooking right away to a low 225 setting.
I made this on my Pit Boss Pro 1100 using Mesquite pellets. Now I picked mine up from Lowes, but Walmart and Amazon carry other Pit Boss options or Pit Boss website themselves.
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Place the ribs on the top rack of your smoker and allow them to smoke on the smoke setting.
You can pour a can of Coca-Cola into a glass and mop your ribs as they smoke and then later on when you turn the heat up. If you don’t have a meat mop I recommend these ones -> here on Amazon.
I smoked mine for an hour then moved and turned the smoker up to 200 degrees.
The kids were getting hungry so I turned it up to 250 for another hour, you can keep smoking at 200 degrees you will just smoke longer.
In a container mix together the bbq sauce ingredients, make sure the container is large enough to add ribs to as well.
Use a whisk to mix everything together until smooth.
Remove your ribs from the smoker and put in into the container of the sauce and shake it really well to coat the ribs in the sauce.
Place back on the smoker and allow to cook another 30 minutes, I did flip the ribs at about 15 minutes. This was to make sure both sides had a chance for the sauce to caramelize and thicken.
Use a thermometer to make sure that they are cooked to food safety temperatures to being done. Pork has to be cooked to 145 degrees, many chose to do ribs to 190 degrees. Mine are tender enough I pulled them at 150, the brine makes a difference int he ribs.
Serve and enjoy!!
What To Serve With Smoked Coca-Cola BBQ Ribs:
- Smoked Potato Salad
- Krusteaz Corn Bread
- Smoked Deviled Egg Macaroni Salad
- Baked Potatoes Smoked
- Cheese Stuffed Portabella
- Smoked Loaded Baked Beans
- Smoked Macaroni and Cheese
- Grilled Corn on the Cob
Recipes Using A Coca-Cola Brine:
While there is no limit to what you can make with a Coca-Cola Brine, below are my favorites. You can swap out Coca-Cola for any dark soda; this is just my go-to flavor.
- Boneless BBQ Ribs
- Cornish Game Hens
- Chicken Legs
- Chicken Thighs
- Coca-Cola Smoked Turkey
- Pork Shoulder Roast
- Chicken Leg Quarters
- Chicken Wings
- Pork Shoulder
How to store leftover Smoked Ribs
Store in an air-tight container like a Rubbermaid container or a Ziploc bag in a fridge. You can add extra sauce to them before storing them. Keep them for up to four days.
How To Reheat Leftover Smoked Ribs
You can reheat smoked bbq ribs in an oven by turning it to 250 degrees or do the same with your smoker. You can add more sauce, or a bit of liquid, Coca-Cola works great. Do this in a pan and then cover it with foil. Cook to a temperature not time to an internal temperature of 145 degrees.
You can also reheat them in the microwave.
Smoked Coca Cola BBQ Ribs Recipe
Ingredients
Coca-Cola Brine Ingredients
- 5 Cans Coca-Cola
- 2 Tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
- 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
- 4 Tablespoon Minced Garlic
- 4 Tablespoon Salt
- Ice
Smoked BBQ Ribs Ingredients
- 4 Pounds Boneless Pork Ribs
- 2 Cups BBQ SAUCE
- ¼ Cup Brown Sugar
- 1 Tablespoon Ketchup
- 1 Tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
- 5 Ounce Coca Cola
Instructions
How To Make Coca-Cola Ribs Brine
- In a container large enough to hold the brine and the ribs in.
- I used boneless pork shoulder-style ribs to make these ribs, I used about 4lbs of ribs.
- Pour in your Coca-Cola, I start with two or three cans and then mix in the dry brine ingredients.
- Give your brine mixture a stir with a whisk and then drop-in your ribs. My ribs were frozen so I put them in frozen to thaw in the fridge in the brine.
- Add in more Coca-Cola till the meat is completely submerged.
- Store in the fridge for at least 12 hours to allow the brine to flavor and tenderize the rib meat.
- If you are doing a long brine, go out and mix up the brine a couple of times to make sure everything gets coated well.
- If your ribs were frozen make sure to allow them to thaw by food safety standards.
- The day you are ready to smoke remove the ribs from the brine and layout on a plate to all the meat to warm up a bit.
How To Make Smoked Coca Cola BBQ Ribs
- Fire up your smoker to a smoke setting, or if you are cooking right away to a low 225 setting.
- I made this on my Pit Boss Pro 1100 using Mesquite pellets. Now I picked mine up Lowes, but Walmart and Amazon carry other Pit Boss options or Pit Boss website themselves.
- Place the ribs on the top rack of your smoker and allow to smoke on the smoke setting.
- You can pour a can of Coca-Cola into a glass and mop your ribs as they smoke and then later on when you turn the heat up.
- I smoked mine for an hour then moved turned the smoker up to 200 degrees.
- You can turn up to 250 degrees for about an houror you can keep smoking at 200 degrees you will just smoke longer.
- In a container mix together the bbq sauce ingredients, make sure the container is large enough to add ribs to as well.
- Use a whisk to mix everything together until smooth.
- Remove your ribs from the smoker and put in into the container of the sauce and shake it really well to coat the ribs in the sauce.
- Place back on the smoker and allow to cook another 30 minutes, I did flip the ribs at about 15 minutes to make sure both sides had a chance for the sauce to caramelize and thicken.
- Use a thermometer to make sure that they are cooked to food safety temperatures to being done.
- Serve and enjoy!!
Nutrition
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