Slow Cooker Beef Short Ribs
Speed - 93%
Simplicity - 95%
Tastiness - 100%
96%
Amazing!
This short rib recipe has a kick to it and is sure to please everyone from your young child to your hard working spouse. These short ribs are tender, moist, and oh so delicious!
Ingredients
- 3 pounds Beef Short Ribs Boneless
- 1/2 cup Flour
- 1/2 teaspoon Black Pepper
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 1 teaspoon Chili Powder
- 1 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
- 1 cup Yellow Onion chopped
- 1/4 cup Butter
- 1 cup Beef Broth fresh or homemade
- 3/4 cup Light Brown Sugar
- 1/2 cup brown porter
- 3/4 cup Red Wine Vinegar
- 2 tablespoons Ketchup
- 1/4 cup Chili Sauce
- 2 tablespoons garlic minced
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
Instructions
- Lightly grease your slow cooker
- Grab a Ziploc bag and place the flour, pepper, salt, cayenne pepper, and chili powder in it
- Grab your short ribs and place them into the Ziploc bag and shake until well coated
- Place your butter in a sauté pan and heat over medium high
- Once the butter is melted, add your short ribs and brown them on all sides
- Once browned, place the short ribs into the slow cooker
- Add your remaining ingredients to the same sauté pan and allow to come to a boil
- Boil for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally
- Pour the sauce mixture over top of the short ribs and place the lid on your slow cooker
- Cook on LOW 8 hours
- Serve
Short ribs are a hearty and wonderful meat, that when cooked correctly, fall apart and melt in your mouth. This recipe is the perfect Sunday evening meal for the entire family. In fact, you can make this recipe for a family dinner or even as a celebration dish when you have a bunch of guests over.
Since these short ribs are made in the slow cooker, you do not have to worry about them being overcooked or undercooked. The short ribs come out perfectly every time. In fact, you will be amazed at how easily the beef pulls away when you touch your fork to it.
The only problem with this slow cooker recipe is that you will want to EAT IT ALL! And that may not be too much of a problem, huh? Okay, it is and I always over indulge when I make this recipe. I admit it.
When it comes to this recipe, there are some tips and tricks to help you adjust it to meet the needs of your family. First, the recipe does call for boneless beef short ribs, but they can sometimes be hard to locate, especially if your local grocery store does not carry them. To overcome this issue of the boneless short ribs, simply use bone-in. You will prepare everything the exact same way, but you may need more than three pounds, since the bone does account for some of the weight. I used bones in the photos you see here.
If you do choose to go with bone-in, you can remove the bone before you place the beef ribs in the slow cooker. I choose to leave them on because they do add additional flavor and your beef will peel right off of them once done.
This dish is a bit spicy, so you may want to adjust the recipe a bit and omit the cayenne pepper and chili powder. If you do not want to add chili sauce, omit it and replace with more ketchup. Therefore, instead of two tablespoons of ketchup, you would have a total of 1/4 cup of ketchup plus two tablespoons.
When you boil the mixture on the stove, keep an eye on it as you do not want it to boil over, but more importantly, you do not want it to thicken up too much or stick to the bottom of the pan. I do recommend that you taste the sauce mixture before you add it to the slow cooker to ensure you like the way it tastes. If you need to adjust the taste, do so before you allow the mixture to boil.
For the beer in this recipe, I've used a sweet brown ale instead of the porter as recommended in the recipe. It's all I had on hand! But there are many similarities between brown ales and porters. In fact, porters are quite diverse! When choosing a porter, pick something on the sweeter, chocolatey side, rather than a dry roasty one. Some rib recipes taste awesome with a bit of coffee flavor, but the sweetness of a thick brown ale or porter will help to balance the tartness of the red wine vinegar here.
While reducing the liquid mixture, you can brown your ribs on all sides. Here they are looking golden and delicious!
Next, this is not a complete meal on its own and is only the protein portion of a main dish. If you want to make it a complete meal, you could serve the short ribs over mashed potatoes or egg noodles. If you want a simple dish, you could add two cups of chopped potatoes to the slow cooker and allow them to cook with the short ribs. Your choice of potato does not make a difference, but I prefer golden potatoes.
No matter what you choose to do, you and your family will LOVE this delicious, mouthwatering dish. The slow cooker I used for this recipe was the Proctor Silex Slow Cooker in black. It's insanely cheap (less than $20), and worked great for these ribs!
- Crock-Pot Oval Manual
- Brand: Crock-Pot
Material: Stoneware
Capacity: 4 Quart
Colors: Black/Red/Silver
Price: - Tested
Reviewed
Recommended - Rank: #1
- Proctor Silex
- Brand: Proctor Silex
Material: Stoneware
Capacity: 4 Quart
Colors: Black
Price: - Tested
Reviewed
Recommended - Rank: #2
- Hamilton Beach Stay Or Go
- Brand: Hamilton Beach
Material: Stoneware
Capacity: 4 Quart
Colors: Silver
Price: - Tested
Reviewed
Recommended - Rank: #3
If you're making a bigger amount of ribs, like for a whole family, you may want a larger size slow cooker. A six quart slow cooker (which is the standard size) would be a great place to start.
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