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.
Simple Braised Short Ribs
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
- Heat the oven to 350˚F.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Sounds great going to try over camp firepit on a trypod
Can you cook it in a roasting pan with veggies an foil?
Yes, you can sear the short ribs in a skillet and then braise them in a roasting pan covered with foil.
Can I also cook it in an slow cooker?
Yes, you can cook it in a slow cooker instead of the oven (after searing the meat and such). I’m not sure of how long it will take (I’m not very familiar with slow cookers), but just let it go until tender.
Do I put in oven at 350 for 2 hrs ?
Yes, that’s correct.
I didn’t have beef stock so i used chicken stock and a splash of Worcestershire. Wish me luck!
How did it turn out?
Yes you can. Just be sure to sear the meat first and make your braising liquid as well. Then put everything in the slow cooker to cook accordingly by the amount of meat you have and time you wish yo cook it. I’d suggest at least 3hours.
How long do u braise them ?
Until tender, about 2 hours.
I forgot the flour what do I do
If you want a thicker sauce at the end of cooking, take out the short ribs, mix the flour with an equal amount of butter, add it to the cooking liquid, bring it up to a boil on the stove and cook until thickened.
You can also add instant mashed potatoes to the mix to thicken it to gravy consistency 😉
if you are going to do that be sure to cook the roux for a minute or so otherwise it’ll taste floury
I also put potatoes and carrots in the roasting pan and slow cooked in the oven everyone raved about it!
This was delicious, but took many hours, not two. Not sure how short ribs would ever cook in 2 hours
Glad they turned out well. Two hours was how long it took when I made this recipe.
Can i add in the wine with the beef stock ?
Yes, you can add in some red wine if you wish.
Thank you for the receipe
Hi. Sooo silly question but can you make this in a 4qt slow cooker? I’m new to cooking obviously haha!
I believe so. I would recommend still searing the short ribs in a skillet first and then adding everything to the slow cooker to braise until the meat is tender. (I’m not sure how long it will take.)
I am a complete noob and followed your recipe exactly except I added potato and carrots and everyone LOVED it!! It’s now going into the regular rotation., thanks!!
You’re welcome!
Yummy recipe
I am pretty new to Dutch oven cooking
This was easy and yummy
I doubled the beef and added (2) baseball sized vine-ripened garden fresh tomatoes to the onion and thyme step of your recipe. This is an awesome addition to double the beef for larger ohanas.
Fool proof and delicious! Thank you for this simple recipe. I impressed the heck out of my fiancée and her friends with it.
To prove how foolproof, I accidentally bought twice as much beef as the recipe calls for and didn’t double the broth. So I added a little more flour for the roux, about a cup of wine and water total, and it still came out amazing. We will definitely be making this again. It might even stand in for turkey this Thanksgiving!
Glad you enjoyed the recipe!
Awesome recipe and easy to follow! My husband accidentally brought me this cut of short rib instead of the other way it’s cut for Korean ribs so I was intimated by the large meat but it cooked nice and tender! I put in celery, onion, and carrot in the pot and ate it with a side of garlic mashed potato. My sauce was thin probably from the extra veggies but it was still so good! I cooked it an extra 30 mins in my oven until the bone came off easily. They are like individual sized pot roasts. Thanks so much for making this easy recipe for a first timer like me 🙂
Can I cook them for longer than 2 hours? If so should I lower the temperature of the oven?
Thanks
I suppose you could, but I haven’t played around with cooking them for longer. Any other commenters tried a different time and temp?
Made this tonight and it was fantastic
Thanks for your recipe
I also made the sauce thicker
Made this today.
This was my first time cooking short ribs. I chose your recipe because it had fewer ingredients.
My husband says I need to put a patent on it.
Absolutely wonderful!!
Thank you.
Glad you and your husband enjoyed them!
Great recipe. I added a jar of red chili sauce.
Perfecto!!