When it comes to meat dishes, they are not my jam. I always struggle with how to make them flavourful and not dry. What can I say, I’m a baker. However, on occasion, ya girl creates a recipe and it actually comes out good. I bought some country-style boneless pork ribs and had no idea what to do with them. Usually, they are put on the grill or smoked but I was not about that life. I had to go looking for inspiration.
As a cookbook enthusiast, I decided to look through my various cookbooks to get some ideas. My go to, Jubilee by Toni Tipton Martin, has a recipe for Oven-Baked Ribs with Cola Barbecue Sauce that I thought would be perfect. I looked over the recipe and thought, “Cool, I can do this.” Come to find out, I could not do it. I was missing mad ingredients so I did what I do best, adapt.
I’m still without smell and taste so I hoped everything would come together without it being nasty. The recipe below is made from things that I have in my pantry the majority of the time. (One day, I’ll do a pantry checklist if y’all want it. Let me know in the comments!) The meat came out sweet, according to the fam, but tasty nonetheless. I’ll talk about things I would change after the recipe. Let's get to it!
Things I would Change and Notes
I would add more spice. Apparently this came out sweet and I wanted a mix of spicy and sweet.
It would have been nice to have the marinade become more of a sauce. You can reduce the marinade to make it thicker. You’ll probably need to add some corn starch as well.
For the Cola, I used Pepsi, which added to the sweetness since it’s made with real sugar. I would have used Coke if I had some. It has more bubbles and adds better flavor in my opinion.
The butter flavored Crisco is good to use in a pinch but real butter is better. I didn’t have butter (blasphemy I know).
The pork ribs are quite fatty so you might want to trim them. The fat does add some flavor though.
I should have checked the ribs before 30 minutes. They were slightly overcooked, temperature wise but, they were still juicy and flavorful.
Feel free to change up the juice or even use real fruit or pepper jelly to finish the dish.
You can serve this dish with mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, or french fries.
This recipe is an easy go to dish that will be in constant rotation in our house. I hope it is the same in yours. Let me know what variations you make and if you enjoy it, feel free to share!
Until next time,
Xoxo~Christilisa