Best Way to Cook Beef Short Ribs Quickly

Braising is the best way to cook short ribs, and this simple recipe teaches you how to get flavorful, fall-off-the-bone meat with ease.

I love a good braise, and when done properly, it yields a dish much greater than the sum of its parts. Though it takes a good amount of time, much of it is very hands off and the bulk of the work is done by your oven.

How to Make Braised Short Ribs

There are tons of different ways that you can flavor braised short ribs, but the steps to making them remain the same. To start, pat the meat dry and season with salt, pepper, and whatever other spices you want to include. Then you can proceed with browning the meat in a pot with some oil. Patting the meat dry before adding to the pot helps to get a good sear and encourage browning. One important tip with this step is to not overcrowd the pan as doing so makes it difficult to get the nice brown crust that we want.

Next, the meat gets set aside and we move on to aromatics, herbs, and whatever else you might want to include. I keep it simple with onion and thyme in the recipe below, but some other things you could add are leeks, fennel, garlic, tomato paste, carrots, celery, rosemary, mushrooms, potatoes, etc. (Lots of options, obvi.)

After the flavor agents have had some time in the pot, I add a bit of flour. This will help to thicken the liquid that we add later to result in a luscious sauce. As you can see in the photos, the sauce at the end of the braising process isn't super thick with just 1 teaspoon of flour, so feel free to use more if you prefer a thicker gravy.

Speaking of liquid, this recipe simply calls for beef stock, but some other ingredients to consider are wine, whiskey, beer, tomato sauce/purée, milk, or even cola. (I also add in a few bay leaves to the mix, but don't sweat it if you don't have any in your pantry.)

Lastly, just pop on a lid and throw it in the oven until the short ribs are nice and tender. Unless the lid to your pan is super tight fitting, a good amount of liquid will still escape from the pan (as you can see in the images in this post). If you want to keep more of the liquid around to use as a gravy to spoon over mashed potatoes, then you can put a layer of foil on top of the pot before topping with the lid to help seal in more moisture.

And voila! That's how you make braised short ribs in the oven.

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 2 hours 25 minutes

Total Time: 2 hours 30 minutes

Braising is the best way to cook short ribs, and this simple recipe teaches you how to get flavorful, fall-off-the-bone meat with ease.

Ingredients

• Vegetable oil, for searing (or other neutral oil)
• 2 pounds beef short ribs
• Kosher salt and black pepper
• 1 yellow onion, sliced
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour (See Note)
• 1 quart unsalted or low-sodium beef stock
• 3 dried bay leaves

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 350˚F.
2. Heat a thin layer of oil in a Dutch oven or other large oven-safe pot with a lid over medium-high heat. Meanwhile, pat the short ribs dry with paper towels and season all over with salt and pepper. Sear the short ribs (in batches if necessary) until browned all over, adding more oil as needed, and then transfer to a platter.
3. In the same pot, add the onion, thyme, and some salt and pepper (and more oil if the pot is dry), and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions start to soften, a few minutes. Sprinkle with the flour and cook for about 1 minute more while stirring.
4. Add the beef stock, bay leaves, and browned short ribs back to the pot, let come to a simmer, cover, and place in the oven until tender, about 2 hours. Serve.

Notes

The amount of flour used depends on how thick you want the gravy. For reference, only 1 teaspoon was used in these pictures.

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Source: https://www.thehungryhutch.com/simple-braised-short-ribs-recipe/

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