Spike BBQ Sauce With This Soda For Baby Back Ribs With 10x The Flavor

Baby back ribs may be a complete mess to eat, but their flavor is entirely worth it. With a smoky BBQ flavor and tender, pull-apart texture, baby back ribs will always hit the spot. While a classic BBQ sauce may be enough to make this cut of pork delicious, there are ways to spice it up to make the ribs even better. Slathering on maple syrup is one way to give baby back ribs more flavor, but there's a can of soda that will really make your pork pop. Next time you're cooking baby back ribs, add Dr Pepper to your BBQ sauce for the ultimate sweet and savory flavor.

Soda and pork may seem like an odd pairing, but the two ingredients go very well together. Dr Pepper is acidic, which means it acts as a tenderizer for the meat while also adding a subtly sweet and tangy taste. Dr Pepper has 23 flavors, which reportedly includes notes such as cherry, almond, caramel, and molasses to name a few. These complex flavors make a great addition to sauces and meat marinades, giving them more complexity. Not only does this soda pair deliciously with pork, but it even makes for tasty game day chicken wings. You can practically add Dr Pepper to all your meat sauces and marinades.

To create the zesty BBQ sauce for your baby back ribs, all you need is a can of Dr Pepper. Add the soda to the pan along with the rest of your sauce ingredients, or with the premade BBQ sauce if you're using store-bought. For a homemade recipe, use flavors like ketchup, molasses, red wine vinegar, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, and seasonings of your choice to create a BBQ sauce that's rich, savory, acidic, and the perfect amount of sweet. 

If you're smoking or grilling the ribs, you'll slather the BBQ sauce mixture onto your pork toward the end of the cooking process, as usual. That said, you can also use Dr Pepper another way by making these ribs in the oven and then finishing them off on the grill. This method requires you to soak your meat in Dr Pepper rather than add it to the sauce, for which you'll need about four cans of this soda. Pop your rib rack onto a roasting pan, pour the soda in, bake in the oven, and then slather on the BBQ sauce before grilling the meat for the final part of the cook. 

Whether you're making baby back ribs with homemade BBQ sauce or using a store-bought option, Dr Pepper will add some complexity to either. It's a good hack to try if you're looking to switch things up at your next cookout. Just make sure you have plenty of napkins on hand for these sticky ribs.