Triple Happiness Asian Spice Ribs Smoked With Green Tea

This recipe is three times as delicious because it features a green tea-teriyaki marinade, a green tea Asian spice rub, and they are smoked using green tea to impart a unique finish along with a final glaze. Banzai!

For this Instructable you will need a a couple racks of ribs, a BBQ smoker, some charcoal, a way to start your charcoal (I use my gas BBQ), wood chips and loose green tea leaves for smoking, a bucket, and some boiling water.

For the marinade you will need a mixing bowl, a measuring cup, a whisk, a few Ziplok bags, some paper towel, brewed green tea, orange juice, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, vegetable oil, brown sugar, grated ginger, Asian chili sauce, fresh garlic, and kaffir lime leaves (optional).

For the spice rub you will need a small bowl and measuring spoons, salt, garlic powder, powdered ginger, green tea leaves, brown sugar, black pepper, black sesame seeds, Chinese five spice powder, and lemonade crystals.

For the glaze you will need a small bowl, a basting brush, hoisin sauce, orange marmalade, Asian chili sauce, powdered ginger, and Chinese five spice powder

Step 1: Make the Marinade.

Ingredients
3 cups brewed green tea, cooled
2 cups orange juice
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
1/2 cup cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon grated ginger
1 teaspoon Asian chili sauce
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
4 kaffir lime leaves (optional)

Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and whisk to blend.

Step 2: Pour Marinade Over the Ribs

Cut the ribs into plate-sized portions that will fit into your Ziplok bags. Place the ribs in bags and pour the marinade over the meat. Squeeze out any excess air and seal the bags making sure that there are no leaks. Place the bags in the fridge and marinade for at least 12 hours, 24 if possible. The longer the ribs have to marinade, the more tender and tastier they will be!

After the ribs have marinaded as long as possible, pull out the meat and dry them off with paper towel, removing any excess marinade

Step 3: Make the Spice Rub.

Ingredients
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon powdered ginger
1 tablespoon green tea leaves, ground
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon black sesame seeds
1 teaspoon Chinese five spice powder
1 teaspoon lemonade crystals

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir until mixed. Rub mixture one both sides of ribs. Place ribs on a plate, cover with cling film, and refrigerate overnight.

Step 4: Start Your Charcoal

If you have a fancy charcoal chimney starter, use that and get your charcoal blazing. If you are like me and don't have a fancy starter, you can always get your charcoal blazing using your gas grill. All you need to do is dump your charcoal in a BBQ pan (one that has holes), light the grill, and wait until the charcoal is grey and ashed over and ready to go. I found that 10 minutes on High worked just great.

Step 5: Soak Wood Chips and Tea

Dump about 4 cups of wood chips (I use cherry, but you can use whatever you like) and 1 cup of green tea leaves into a small bucket. Just barely cover the chips with cold water and let sit for 30 minutes before you start the smoker.

Step 6: Prepare Your Smoker

Dump the hot charcoal in the bottom pan of your smoker. Sprinkle a generous amount of the damp wood chip / green tea combo onto the hot coals. Throw one handful of dry chips and tea on to get some smoke going immediately.

Step 7: Position the Drip Pan

Put your smoker's drip pan into place above the coals, but directly underneath where the meat rack will go. Boil a kettle of water and pour the water into the drip pan and add 1/2 cup of green tea leaves. Obviously, the tea will steep and slowly evaporate, keeping the ribs nice and moist while adding more delicious Asian flavour.

Step 8: Maintain Your Groove to Achieve Delicousness!

Put the meat racks in place, put the ribs in the smoker, and close everything up. Keep a careful eye on the temperature and smoke making sure to add more charcoal and wood chips/tea to keep everything going at a nice, smokey, low temperature. Also make sure that your drip pan does not go dry. If it does just add more boiling water and green tea. If your drip pan is dry, it might mean that your temperature is too hot and you should take it easy on the charcoal. If you are doing things right, your temperature should never go over 250 degrees and it will take you anywhere from 3 to 6 hours until the ribs are done. I like using a fan to keep my coals at the temperature I want and to blow the smoke away from any open windows. When the ribs are done, take them out of the smoker, and prepare the finishing glaze...

Step 9: Brush on Glaze and Eat!

Ingredients
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon orange marmalade
1 teaspoon Asian chili sauce
1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger
1/2 teaspoon Chinese five spice powder

Combine ingredients in a small bowl and mix. With a basting brush, brush the glaze on both sides of the smoked ribs and serve immediately. Itadakimasu!