Smoked Maple Soy Ribs

Fusion BBQ for the summer win!

These smoked maple soy sauce back ribs add some mild variety when paired with some delicious smoked italian sausage or gochujang ribs or some delicious gochujang chicken wings and are, of course part of your fusion BBQ feast!

I built this marinade from a basic teriyaki-style sauce and it’s pretty simple. Soy sauce, maple syrup, brown sugar, cayenne and mirin: you probably already have everything you need for this sweet and savory delight.

3-2-1 Smoking Technique

I resisted this technique when I first learned of it, but after trying it the last couple of times, I can now attest that it makes a notable difference. The night prior, salt or rub your ribs however you wish. On the day of, once your smoker is to temp, do 3 hours open, 2 hours wrapped, 1 hour (final hour) unwrapped and sauced.

When smoking meat, obviously, allowing smoke to penetrate the meat is super important and the majority of smoke will enter in the first 2 hours of the smoke. So, the 3 first hours are when the smoke will enter the meat. This will give the meat the smokey flavour right down to the bone.

Second block, add some beer (or coke or root beer, whatever you choose) and wrap medium-tightly in foil. This second block steams and tenderizes the meat and will give it that fall-off-the-bone softness.

Finally, for the last hour, this is when you would unwrap and sauce the ribs. The sauce will develop a smokey flavour too, but the main goal on this step is to hold all the moisture in the meat and bake in that nice flavour sauce.

This same method can be done with any flavour rub or sauce, but here I’ve done it with the maple soy mix. This sounds more complicated than it is.

Remember, if I can cook it, so(y) can you!

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!

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 5 mins

Cook Time 6 hrs

Total Time 6 hrs 5 mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine American, Japanese

Servings 2 back ribs

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. 

Keyword 3-2-1 ribs, asian bbq, how to cook ribs, maple rib, maple soy ribs, rib techniques, smoked meat, smoked ribs, southern bbq, teriyaki

Membrane and Rub notes:

• Membrane: 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. 
• Make up your own rub: 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. 

And if you don’t have one, get your smoker here (affiliate links):

How did your Smoked Maple Soy Ribs turn out? Let us know when you try it by leaving a comment below!

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Enjoy food; enjoy life. – HCF