6 Ingredient Dinner- Red Wine Braised Slow Cooked Short Ribs

Slow Cooked Short Ribs

It’s the beginning of fall (*sniff!) and as much as I hate the shorter days, colder nights, and rain- I do love traditional fall themed dishes.

I break out my crockpot and dutch oven sometime in mid-October (as they usually just gather dust in the summer), and start making a variety of one-pot meals.

Soups, chilis, and various meat stews galore, with plenty of fresh fall vegetables like squash and yams.

This particular evening however, I was thinking simple. I wanted to make something in my big red dutch oven:

ideally something beefy, and i thought it would be delicious to make something with short ribs.

I headed over to Whole Paycheck*  and got just 6 ingredients: 3 beef short ribs, one bottle of cheap red wine, garlic, vegetable broth, polenta, and some fresh oregano.

I preheated the oven to 350 and then started prepping my short ribs. I rubbed them generously with salt and pepper:

and let them rest. I then proceeded to chop up some fresh oregano and 5 cloves of garlic.

and then started heating up a couple tablespoons of butter in my big red pot on the stovetop.

I added the short ribs once the pot became hot and sautéed them evenly on all sides. I made sure to really brown each side of the short rib and removed them from the pot and set them in a separate plate once completed. That process took about 5-7 minutes.

After that, I then added the garlic and oregano to the pot and sautéed for another couple minutes, until the herbs and garlic softened.

Then, I dumped in a bottle of the $4.99 wine. When you are making this recipe, there’s really no need to spend beaucoup cash on a bottle of wine- inexpensive is good, as long as its something fairly balanced and bold like a merlot or cabernet.

This is the important part– you now want to wait and let the wine and herbs cook and simmer together for about 10-15 minutes or so, until the bottle of wine reduces to just under one cup of liquid. 

Once everything has reduced, add three-four cups of the vegetable broth and the ribs to the pot and let cook for another 5 minutes.

Then, take the pot, cover it and move it to the oven. Let everything slow cook for another 2 and a half hours.

Your house will start to smell delicious and when you take that pot out of the oven later, it will look like this:

I served this with polenta- I just made it according to the directions and added a little parmesan at the end to make it a little richer tasting:

Then I took a short rib and put it on a little dollop of polenta, and served it to M* and S*.

 

Both of them devoured it almost immediately! It went very well with a bottle of Cotes du Rhone that S* had brought over.

Short Ribs Braised in Red Wine 

(Recipe Serves 3)

3 short ribs

1 bottle of red wine- Cabernet or Merlot

Butter- 3 tablespoons

Oregano

5 cloves of garlic

Vegetable broth- 4 cups

salt and pepper 

Instructions

1. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees.
2. Take a heavy pot- ideally a cast iron pot or dutch oven, and start heating up the butter on the stove.
3. Coat the short ribs generously with salt and pepper, and add to the pot. Saute’ rib on all sides- about 5-7 minutes total.
4. Chop garlic and oregano in the meantime.
5. Remove ribs from pot once sauteed on all sides, and put in a plate to rest.
6. Add garlic and oregano to pot and sautee for 4-5 minutes.
7. Add a bottle of wine to the pot, and deglaze the pan. Stir the wine a few times, and then let liquid simmer until it reduces to a cup of liquid. This should take about 10-15 minutes.
8. Add the vegetable pot and ribs to the pot, cover the pot, and move to the oven.
9. Let the ribs slow cook in the oven for another 2.5 hours- check every hour and move the ribs as needed.
10. Once the time is up, remove the ribs from the pot and serve with the carb of your choice- polenta or pureed parsnips is an ideal pairing.

Enjoy with a glass of full bodied red wine such as a Syrah or Cabernet.