Garlic Braised Short Ribs With Red Wine

Updated Feb. 3, 2025

Garlic Braised Short Ribs With Red Wine
Craig Lee for The New York Times
Total Time
About 4½ hours
Rating
5(9,261)
Comments
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If you weren’t already sure about how easy and delicious braised short ribs can be, consider this classic and straightforward recipe an excellent gateway. The ultimate hands-off, do-ahead dinner, these are done on the stovetop in a large Dutch oven but can easily be adapted to a slow cooker if that’s your thing. When purchasing the ribs, ask for the thickest, meatiest ones available as they tend to shrink quite a bit once braised.

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Ingredients

Yield:6 servings
  • 2tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 5pounds bone-in short ribs, at least 1½ inches thick
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
  • 2large heads garlic, halved crosswise
  • 1medium onion (about 10 ounces), chopped
  • 4ribs celery (about 8 ounces, chopped
  • 2medium carrots (about 6 ounces), chopped
  • 3tablespoons tomato paste
  • 2cups dry red wine (about half a bottle)
  • 2cups beef stock or bone broth (use beef bouillon dissolved in water if unavailable; chicken stock will work in a pinch), plus more as needed
  • 4sprigs thyme
  • 1cup parsley, coarsely chopped
  • ½cup finely chopped chives
  • 1tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (6 servings)

1655 calories; 142 grams fat; 60 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 65 grams monounsaturated fat; 6 grams polyunsaturated fat; 22 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams dietary fiber; 5 grams sugars; 59 grams protein; 1570 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Heat oven to 275 degrees. Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Season short ribs on all sides with salt and pepper. Working in batches, sear short ribs on all sides until deeply and evenly browned, 6 to 8 minutes per batch. Transfer browned short ribs to a large plate and continue with remaining ribs.

  2. Step 2

    Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of remaining fat, leaving the good browned bits behind. Reduce heat to medium, and add garlic, cut side down and cook, undisturbed, until golden brown, about 1 to 2 minutes. Add onion, celery and carrots and season with salt and pepper. Toss to coat and continue to cook until vegetables are softened but not yet browned, about 5 to 10 minutes. Add tomato paste and stir to coat. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until tomato paste has started to caramelize a bit on the bottom and up the edges of the pot, about 2 to 3 minutes.

  3. Step 3

    Add red wine and, using a wooden spoon, scrape up any browned or caramelized bits. Let this simmer 2 to 3 minutes, just to take the edge off and reduce a bit. Stir in beef stock along with thyme. Using tongs, return short ribs to the pot, along with any juices that have accumulated, nestling them in there so that they are submerged (if they are just barely covered, nestle them bone side up so that all the meat is submerged, adding more beef stock or water as necessary to cover). Bring to a simmer, then cover and transfer to oven.

  4. 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.

  5. Step 5

    Using tongs, remove the ribs from the pot, taking care (for presentation purposes, really) not to let the bone slip out and transfer them to a large plate. (While you could serve the short ribs right out of this pot, the vegetables have all given up their flavor and texture and aren’t worth much now, so feel free to strain the sauce for easier eating.) Scatter parsley, chives and lemon zest over the top of the short ribs. Separate the fat from the sauce, season with salt and pepper and serve alongside.

Ratings

5 out of 5
9,261 user ratings
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Comments

Recipe reads a little more complicated than it is. Brown the meat Remove Brown garlic head Chop the mirepoix Cook til tender in meat fat Add tomato paste, stir Add wine Add Broth and thyme and pop in the oven covered.

I highly recommend cooking this one day, if not two, before reheating and serving. As with all short ribs recipes, there is a lot of fat in the gravy. A lot. I lifted off almost 2” thickness of fat after I chilled it overnight. On the second day, I was able to spoon out additional lumps of fat. The result will be a more intensely flavored gravy.

Can anyone advise how to do this with pressure cooking in the Instant Pot (or any pressure cooker, I suppose)? I just love how short ribs come out with other Instant Pot pressure cooking recipes, and I'd like to try it with this one, too (with a smaller amount of meat if necessary). I know I can use it on slow-cooker setting, but I'm curious about how to do it with pressure cooking.

This recipe is fire, but, Mark misses the whole point of the braising liquid. Follow recipe as written. Pull the ribs out, try to fish out the garlic skins, use an immersion blender (does not have to be perfect)....and......reduce, reduce, reduce.....then reduce some more. Poor Mark gave up on all that delicious sauce especially when reduce to 1/4 of the original.

The only thing I change about this recipe is the sauce at the end. Spooning what’s left over does it no justice. At about 3 hours in, I take 2 cups of the juice out of the Dutch oven and keep the juice in the fridge while the rest is still cooking. There’s a layer of fat you can skim off before making a reduction afterwards. Put shallots or garlic and a little bit of oil in a pan for a minute or two before putting the liquid back in a pan and reduce it until it’s close to coating your spoon. Add butter and thyme and let it reduce slowly until you like the way it tastes!

Could this same recipe and method be used with pork shoulder?

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