Red-Cooked Beef Short Ribs
- Total Time
- 4½ hours
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
Yield:4 to 6 servings
- 2tablespoons neutral oil, like canola
- 5pounds bone-in short ribs, at least 1½ inches thick
- 1(3-inch) piece fresh ginger, peeled and cut into thick slices
- 2cinnamon sticks
- 8dried Chinese chiles
- 4pieces dried orange peel (or fresh orange peel with no pith, well toasted)
- 3tablespoons Sichuan peppercorns, toasted, then crushed or ground (about 2 tablespoons)
- 2tablespoons whole black peppercorns
- 2whole star anise
- 1cup Shaoxing rice wine
- 1½cups low-sodium soy sauce
- ½cup dark soy sauce
- 1packed cup light or dark brown sugar
- 1tablespoon molasses
- 3cups chicken stock
- 3cups braising liquid from the ribs
- 2medium white onions, peeled and thinly sliced
- ¼cup tomato paste
- ¼cup doubanjiang
- ⅓cup low-sodium soy sauce
- ½cup Shaoxing rice wine
- 1(1-inch) piece fresh ginger, peeled and cut into thick slices
- 5garlic cloves, roughly chopped
- 1teaspoon five-spice powder
- 3tablespoons cornstarch
- Bibb lettuce leaves
- Thai basil, chopped cilantro and sliced scallions
- Sliced cucumbers
- Cooked white rice
For the Ribs
For the Sauce
For Serving
Preparation
- Step 1
Heat oven to 300 degrees. Prepare the ribs: Heat oil in a large lidded Dutch oven over medium-high. Working in batches, sear short ribs on all sides until deeply and evenly browned, about 10 minutes per batch. Transfer browned short ribs to a large plate, and continue with remaining ribs.
- Step 2
Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of remaining fat, leaving the good browned bits behind. Reduce heat to medium. Add ginger, cinnamon, chiles, orange peel, Sichuan peppercorns, black peppercorns and star anise, and stir to get them coated in the fat. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the ginger has started to soften.
- Step 3
Add the rice wine, soy sauces, sugar and molasses, then the chicken stock, and stir to combine. Using tongs, return short ribs to the pot, along with any juices that have accumulated, nestling them into the braising liquid bone-side up, so the meat is submerged. Bring to a simmer, then cover and transfer to oven.
- Step 4
Cook, undisturbed, until short ribs are meltingly tender and falling off the bone (you should be able to shred the meat with a fork), 3½ to 4 hours.
- Step 5
Using tongs, remove the ribs from the pot and put them on a warm platter. Wrap tightly with aluminum foil and a couple of dish towels to keep them warm while you make the sauce.
- Step 6
Prepare the sauce: Strain 3 cups of the braising liquid from the Dutch oven into another pot, discarding remaining braising liquid and solids. Set it over medium-high heat, and add the onions, tomato paste, doubanjiang, soy sauce, rice wine, ginger, garlic and five-spice powder; stir to combine. Bring to a boil, then cook, undisturbed, for 15 minutes, until reduced and thickened.
- Step 7
Strain the sauce through a colander back into the Dutch oven you used to cook the ribs, and place the pot over medium-high heat. Make a slurry of the cornstarch and 3 tablespoons water, then whisk it into the sauce to thicken, 1 to 2 minutes. You’re looking for something thick and glossy, like a demi-glace.
- Step 8
Unwrap the ribs, daub them liberally with the sauce and serve with Bibb lettuce leaves, Thai basil, cilantro, scallions, cucumbers, rice and the remaining sauce.
Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
Anne
Can you do this in an InstantPot? I use mine for other short rib dishes.
Kelly
What do you folks think about doing this with a chuck roast, or maybe pork ribs? Beef short ribs are both hard to find and very expensive in our area.
Jim
The picture shows five short ribs. Since the recipe says to buy five pounds, are those ribs a pound each? If so, should I assume, then, that the ribs I buy will shrink to that size? (They usually come at least twice that long.) Or should I have the butcher cut the ribs to, say, two-inch sizes?
Max
Can this be done in an instant pot?
Carol
Don't use the photo for accurate representation of the recipe. Food stylists take liberties to make the picture inspirational more than exactly accurate to the recipe amounts. P.S. I used to work for a well known food magazine and cookbook publisher. ;-)
Barb
We cooked this over the weekend. It made the whole house smell fabulous! The bad news: the meat and sauce ended up being way too salty for my family's tastes. I would make this again, but I'd definitely reduce the amount of soy sauce and increase the chicken stock (while keeping the amount of liquid at 6 cups/48 ounces). I'd also taste the braising liquid before adding more soy sauce when making the sauce for serving the ribs.
Rob
Half cup brown sugar Half vermouth half mirin rice wine
Ruth
I made this in my instant pot - browned the meat in there and then proceeded through step 5. I used high pressure for 50 minutes and then let it vent on it's own. This recipe is a commitment - lots of steps and ingredients. I used white pepper instead of the sichuan pepper and red chili flakes instead of the dried chinese chilis. It came out lip numbingly hot but oh so good. The sauce is delicious. Thanks for expanding my food horizons!!
David
It's a braise, so I'd imagine that like any braising you'd do in an InstantPot, this would work. (I don't own one and can't speak from experience, just a supposition) As for other proteins to use instead of ribs, anything that's good for braising should work (or at least be worth a try). Pork shoulder treated this way and ending up with red cooked pulled pork sounds pretty good to me.
Jeffrey Kleinberg
I made this with a beef neck roast and then pulled the meat to make lettuce wraps. Amazing. I needed some acid though. Something pickled.
Fay
If you’re allergic to onions and garlic, you’re probably also allergic to garlic powder and shallots. Why not just leave them out? I’m sure this would be delicious without them - it’s got plenty of other flavors. Nothing but other alliums will have a similar flavor and any of those could be risky if you have an allergy.
Bruce Char
I used an instant pot to do this recipe. More or less unchanged except for running it in the pot under pressure for 1 1/2 hours (release after 10 minutes when time is up) rather than simmering on the stove top for 3 hours. Used boneless short ribs. The beef was fork-pullable tender. A hit with our family.
Dan
Turned out pretty well, but too salty for my taste. Next time use a little less soy sauce and more stock and wine. Definitely serve with rice and something pickled to cut the salt and richness. Also, this was a lot of work and ingredients for not that many ribs, and I ended up with an insane amount of extra sauce. Next time use twice as much meat (8-10 lb.) but the same amount of sauce ingredients. 1 lb. ribs per person is about right, so this way would feed a crowd or leave leftovers.
Cassius
Alot of the extravagant ingredients aren't necessary to make the dish delicious! Bean paste and Chinese chilies can be omited. You can just use some extra 5 spice powder instead of star anise(5 spice powder is alot of star anise anyways) Great recipe 👌
coffeespoon
Great recipe. Substituted low-sodium soy sauce amount with half full-strength soy sauce and half water - worked great. Also did 50 minutes in Instant Pot with natural release as suggested by another person, which also worked well.
Add sauce back to dutch oven?
I can’t figure out why the sauce needs to go back into the Dutch oven. Seems like I can daub in the second pot, no?
Dory
Made with 4.5 lb pork shoulder cut into 2” chunks, and cooked in instant pot. Browned meat and did Steps 2 and 3 with instant pot in sauté mode, and then cooked high pressure for 30 min (cook time based on a Serious Eats recipe for pork shoulder). Pork was vey tender, but kept it in chunks rather than shredding. Cooked sauce stove top and drizzled over pork. Quick-pickled the cuc’s for some acidity. Turned out amazing! Lots of leftover sauce, which is great on rice and even on fried chicken!
Deborah G.
This dish is ridiculously delicious! Super high effort but super high reward. Unless your grocer has one full aisle dedicated to Asian ingredients, you’ll need to make a trip to an Asian market to procure all the ingredients. The reward is so complex. Will make again with Chuck roast and shred the meat before coating with the sauce. Any suggestions for how to use leftovers?
Corey
These are really delicious, and my guests were wow’d! BUT they are seriously labour intensive. I braised the ribs the night before in the IP. And did the sauce the next day, pouring over the ribs reheated in a warm oven (and rehydrated with a bit of the braising liquid). If you want a truly magnificent dish make this but don’t expect to have a lot of time for prepping other dishes.
stevethecoach
MUST use low-sodium soy sauce or it will be way too salty as I unfortuantely found out - still flavorful though ,)
Marguerite
Holy moly, this is THE short rib recipe to end all short rib recipes. The small Asian market in my mid-sized Montana town was out of doubanjiang. I replaced it with a bit of the chunky bits from the bottom of a jar of Fly By Jing’s chili crisp oil. And I skipped the corn starch - after reducing the sauce down by half, it was more than thick enough. Tomato paste has a whole lot of pectin in it. The corn starch really wasn’t necessary. So glad I made 1.5x the recipe. I’ll eat this for days on end.
Kymmore
Made it with pot-roast in the slow cooker for the same amount of time (4hrs). Substitutes: Juniper berries for the Sichuan peppercorns. Lemon peel for the orange peel. While the meat rested and I made the sauce. I took Eggplant, thinly sliced, lightly cooked, placed the meat (broken up) inside the middle of the slice, and rolled them up, seam side down. Spooned a little of the sauce over the top.
Curt
so many ingredients. I ran out of ramekins!
Susan
I was lucky enough to snag a reservation to Best Quality Daughter this weekend. There were 5 of us and so we ordered this dish as well as few others. We were served one huge beef rib rather than the smaller ones listed in the recipe which was quite impressive as well absolutely delicious. The meat practically fell off of the bone. There was enough meat and accompanying lettuce, Thai basil and sliced scallions to take home. Our waitstaff recommended the pickled vegetables which were perfect.
CWN
This was fantastic. Based on other people's comments, I did cut the soy sauce down by half to make sure it wasn't too salty. Other than that, I followed the recipe exactly. It for sure is a full afternoon project, but worth it.
Pascal Noth
We made this for friends. Followed the recipe exactly and it was plenty of food for 6 people or 4 as we were plus 2 lunch leftovers for me :)). Add plenty of stock, sort of a cup or two too many and you can leave in the oven for about an hour longer, we did about 4.5-5 hours and it was fantastic! Add a lot of parsley, Thai basil, cilantro to the salad. Our guests hardly touched the rice...
Charlotte K
I made these yesterday for Sunday lunch. I didn't make the sauce, simply served the result of the spiced braise with some steamed broccoli. My normal braises lean French so this was a delicious change in flavors and complemented the beef very well. I am old to remember when short ribs were cheap family weeknight fare. Alas no more, they have definitely moved up the price scale to be an occasional treat (and I can't remember the last time I had eaten them before yesterday).
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