Hearty Dinner: Braised Short Ribs

It is STILL winter where I live, so a comfort food dinner is in store!

I’m preparing braised short ribs, some simple baked potatoes and a tossed salad. It requires prepping a few hours ahead of dinnertime, but after the prep, you just place the pot in an oven and walk away. Then when it’s dinner time, you have very little work ahead of you.

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Braised short ribs

Baked Potatoes (loaded)

Tossed Salad

Crusty Bread

Braised Beef Short Ribs

(Adapted from Southern Food and Fun)

For the ribs:

4 lbs beef short ribs

2 tsp salt

2 tsp pepper

2 tsp dried herbs – mixture of: rosemary, thyme, and oregano

For the sauce:

2 ½ cups chopped onion

3 stalks of chopped celery

¾ cup chopped carrots

4 cloves chopped garlic

1 ½ tsp black pepper

½ tsp salt

1 ½ cups good dry red wine

1 ½ cups beef stock

3 bay leaves

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Season one side of ribs with half the salt, pepper and herbs and place in hot grease in small batches, careful not to overcrowd. Brown well on all sides and when you flip them, season the other side with remaining salt, pepper and herbs (ration out so that you cover all the ribs). Remove ribs with a slotted spoon and place on a plate while you brown the rest.

Pour off all but 2 tablespoons fat and add the vegetables, stirring over medium heat until they begin to color and are soft, about ten minutes.

Add the wine and stock and bring to a boil.

Return the ribs to the pot along with any accumulated juices and add the bay leaves. Cover the pot and bake in oven until the meat is fork-tender and pulls easily from the bone (if using bone-in), usually about 2-3 hours depending on how many ribs you are cooking.

When the meat is done, rest in a covered pan for 20 minutes before serving. Serve by gently tugging the chunks of meat away from the bone.

Skim the fat off of the veggies and broth.

Then shred the meat (separating the fat from the meat) and then add the meat to the broth. Cook over medium heat another 15 minutes or so until the juice cooks down. (See optional step below)

These would be great served with mashed potatoes or rice as well!

OPTIONAL STEP — Refrigerate overnight. While short ribs can be served immediately, they are a very fatty cut, which makes the dish very greasy. It’s great to let the ribs sit in the sauce and cool to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate them overnight. At this point, you can scrape away the hardened layer of fat from the top before reheating. They will also improve in flavor and tenderness while resting overnight. Just reheat, by covering and warming over low heat on the stove for roughly 15 to 20 minutes.

Blue Cheese Dressing

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup milk

1/4 cup sour cream

Dash of Worcestershire sauce

1/3 cup blue cheese crumbles

Salt and pepper

Toss all ingredients in a food processor and pour over the lettuce you prefer!