Directions
I love, love, love short ribs. If we’re out to dinner and short ribs are on the menu, you can pretty much guarantee that I’m going to order them. I like to make them, at least once, during the colder months. They’re a perfect hearty meal for a chilly winter night.
This year, however, every time I looked for short ribs in the grocery store, they seemed outrageously expensive. I was at Costco, and noticed that they had beautiful, boneless short ribs at a fraction of the bone-in-grocery-store price.
Having never made boneless short ribs before, I was intrigued, so I grabbed some and brought them home, eager to make them for Sunday dinner.
Then came the, “OK, so what do I do with boneless short ribs?” question. I looked online, and after finding loads of stew and goulash-type recipes, I happened across a braised boneless short rib recipe from America’s Test Kitchen. If you’re an avid reader of this blog, you know how much I trust them. Braised short ribs are my favorite way to enjoy the bone-in variety, so I figured I’d give this one a go.
So, armed with my tried and true recipe (according to the ATK team) and my discounted short ribs, I started dinner.
I cut each of the (very long) short ribs in half and seasoned them well with salt and pepper, before searing them, in batches, in a screaming hot pan on the stove.
I set the meat aside, lowered the screaming heat a bit, and added a mess of sliced onions to the pot. They cooked down for about ten minutes, and then I stirred in a tablespoon of tomato paste (Look for the tomato paste in a tube for recipes like this! It keeps indefinitely in your fridge and is available anywhere!), and a few cloves of garlic.
Once the garlic was fragrant, I poured in two cups of red wine and let the mixture simmer until the wine was reduced by half. Then, I finally added my beef back to the pot, along with some beef broth, a few carrots (I should have added more carrots. They were really good. When you make this, add more carrots.), some fresh thyme and a bay leaf.
I brought the mixture to a simmer, popped the lid on the pot, and placed it in a 300* oven, where it cooked, low and slow, for almost two-and-a-half hours.
(This is why short ribs are a Sunday dinner for us.)
When the ribs were just about done braising, I mixed together a bit of unflavored gelatin with some water.
This gelatin, according to the ATK folks, adds a richness, or “suppleness”, to the sauce. If you’re cooking bone-in short ribs, you wouldn’t need this, because the bones would do exactly what the gelatin does. Since these were boneless ribs, we needed a little help in the “supple” department.
After two and a half hours, the beef was so tender, that a fork easily pierced the meat and came right back out.
I removed the meat and the carrots from the pot, tented them with foil to keep it all warm, and got to work on the sauce. I poured the cooking liquid and vegetables through a fine-mesh strainer and into a bowl.
I let the fat rise to the top, skimmed it off, and then returned the liquid to my original pot. I brought the sauce to a boil, let it reduce for about ten minutes, and then stirred in my gelatin-water mixture.
And then, we were ready to eat.
I served the short ribs over Parmesan mashed potatoes, alongside those wonderful carrots (that I should have made more of). The boneless ribs were just as flavorful and delicious as any bone-in rib I’ve made before, and they didn’t give off nearly the amount of fat that the bone in ribs do, which makes me feel like this was a slightly healthier version to go with!
I’m heading back to Costco later this week. I should probably grab some more ribs while I’m there.
BRAISED BEEF SHORT RIBS
Adapted from America’s Test Kitchen
Braised Beef Short Ribs
- 3 1/2 lbs. boneless short ribs, trimmed of excess fat
- kosher salt and pepper
- 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
- 2 large onions, peeled, halved and sliced
- 1 Tbsp. tomato paste
- 6 cloves garlic, peeled but kept whole
- 2 cups red wine (I used a Cabernet Sauvignon)
- 1 cup beef broth
- 4 large carrots (or more), peeled and cut into 3 inch chunks
- 4 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 bay leaf
- 1/4 cup cold water
- 1/2 tsp. unflavored powdered gelatin
- Adjust the oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat your oven to 300*F.
- Pat the beef dry with paper towels and sprinkle, generously, with 2 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon pepper. Heat 1 Tablespoon of the oil in a large heavy Dutch oven or pot over medium-high heat until the oil is smoking. Add half of the beef and cook, without moving the meat, for 4-6 minutes. Turn the beef over and continue to cook on the second side until well browned, another 4-6 minutes. Transfer the beef to a plate and set aside. Repeat with remaining oil and meat.
- Reduce the heat to medium and add the sliced onions to the pot. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft and cooked down substantially, about 12-15 minutes. (If the onions begin to darken too quickly, add 1 to 2 tablespoons water to the pan.)
- Add the tomato paste to the onions, stir continuously, and cook until the paste browns a bit, about 2 minutes.
- Add the garlic, and stir until it’s aromatic, about 30 seconds.
- Increase the heat to medium-high, add the wine, and simmer, scraping the browned bits from the bottom of the pan, until the wine is reduced by half, about 8-10 minutes.
- Add the broth, carrots, thyme, and bay leaf. Add the beef and any accumulated juices to the pot. Cover, and bring to a simmer.
- Transfer the pot to the oven and cook, using tongs to turn the meat twice during cooking, until a fork slips easily in and out of the meat, about 2 to 2 1/2 hours.
- Place the water in a small bowl and sprinkle the gelatin on top. Let it stand for at least 5 minutes.
- Using tongs, remove the meat and carrots from the liquid to a serving platter and tent with foil to keep warm.
- Strain the cooking liquid through a mesh strainer into a bowl. Press on the solids to extract all of the liquid. Allow the liquid to settle for a few minutes, allowing the fat to rise to the top. Skim off the fat, and add the liquid back to the cooking pot.
- Bring to a simmer over medium heat, and reduce the liquid down to 1 cup, about 5 to 10 minutes.
- Remove from the heat and stir in the gelatin mixture. Season with salt and pepper.
- Pour the sauce over the meat and serve.
- ENJOY!
10 Comments Hide Comments
Deeeeeelish!! Just made this for dinner and it was a hit!! Thanks!!
What if you don’t have gelatin? Can you sub for something else?
The gelatin is there to help thicken the sauce. So maybe stir in a slurry of cornstarch and water at the end of the cooking time to thicken the sauce a bit.
Could I use pork instead of beef?
Very good flavor but meat was stringy. What did I do wrong?
Could have, unfortunately, just been a bad batch of short ribs. I’ve had some that are stringier than others. I’m sorry!
Really good! But I would have waited an hour to put the carrots in. Short ribs – fall apart tender!
I going to make short ribs but I don’t have any broth,wine,beer,beef cubes. But I have potatoes, carrots,onions,garlic powder, paprika,chili powder and salt and pepper. So how can I make my ribs with these ingredients? I can’t get to the store. Please help! Thanks so much.
My suggestion…wait to make them until you can get some wine and broth to braise them in. You’ll be hard pressed to find a short rib recipe that doesn’t include wine. I’d pop them in the freezer, and order a pizza in the meantime. 😉
I love wine but it’s not necessary: a little bit of water will do, and don’t forget that the onions will release quite a bit of liquid. If you feel a little bit of alcohol helps to degrease the cooking oil and beef fat (it does), a shot of brandy is good, too.
These recipes are not “writ in stone”. If you have short ribs and vegetables, it’s hard to go wrong unless you try to cook them at too high a temperature, which will dry out the meat and make it tough or, if you cook it long enough, stringy. Low and slow is the way to go.