The Pioneer Woman Beef Short Ribs
Short ribs are heaven. Short rib sandwiches are almost too good for this earth.
My unbridled love for short ribs is no secret. I've written love sonnets about them here before. Short ribs are amazing and beautiful and magical, and while I don't make them very often, I love them a little more each time I do. For those of you who don't know about short ribs, they're pretty much like the most tender, flavorful pot roast you could ever imagine, and they come on a nice, handy little stick. Okay, bone. You get the idea.
I've got a couple of other short rib recipes on my site. There's Short Ribs with Wine and Cream, and there's Braised Short Ribs with Polenta, and there's Short Ribs in Tomato Sauce, and trying to decide which one I like better is like choosing between three of my children. I love short ribs any way I can get 'em.
Last week I had a package of short ribs in the fridge, and I decided to go the sandwich route.
It turned out to be one of the most profoundly wise decisions of my life.
Short ribs! The answer to all of life's confusion. But a little bit of a warning: these suckers ain't cheap. Buy them at a supermarket (not a specialty store!) and buy 'em on sale!
First, preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Then get everything prepped: Mince up 3 to 4 cloves of garlic…
Then peel some carrots, cut them into thin matchsticks…
And dice them up.
Next, dice up some onion!
I love onion and carrot together. And I know celery is supposed to always be a part of this mix…but I'll be darned if I'm not totally ambivalent about celery. I can take it or leave it. Especially when I don't have any celery in my refrigerator.
I like to denigrate things I can't have.
Salt and pepper the short ribs all over…
Then heat some olive oil in a heavy pot over high heat…
And throw in the short ribs.
Use tongs to turn them so that they're largely seared on all sides (a hot pan is essential)…
Then, when they're nice and seared, remove them to a plate…
And turn down the heat just a bit to medium-high.
Throw in the onions, carrots, and garlic…
And stir them around to cook them for just a couple of minutes.
Now, in the 45 years that I've been alive on this earth, I've learned that nothing brings out the deliciousness of short ribs more than a good amount of red, red wine. So pour in about a cup or so! You won't be sorry.
I also like to add beef stock or beef broth. Just gives the whole thing a little more savoriness.
I didn't realize until just now that "savoriness" is a word! No red squiggly line appeared! I just discovered a word that no one ever knew about before, ever!
I invented Post-Its!
(Name that movie.)
Now, what you wanna do is let this bubble up and cook for a minute or so.
Then: the big moment. Nestle the seared short ribs right into the liquid!
Then just put the lid on the pot and stick it in the oven for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. I set it for 3, but around 2 1/2 hours in, I decided to check it.
Oh…my…goodness. First of all, they look amazing. Second of all, they look amazing. Third of all, you can not FATHOM how good my house smelled at this point. Beef simmering in red wine and broth. Fourth of all, they look amazing.
I stuck a fork in one of them and thought they just needed a tiny bit longer, so I put the lid back on and stuck them back in the oven for 20 minutes.
When I pulled them out, I spooned the veggies and liquid all over the top.
Now, at this point, you can just move forward with the shredding and the making of the sandwich.
However, I prefer, if I have time, to refrigerate it to get a lot of the fat off the top. So I let the short ribs cool considerably, then just stuck the lid on the pot and stuck the whole dang thing in the fridge overnight.
For lunch the next day, I pulled the pot out of the fridge. You'll see that all the fat has risen to the top and hardened. Now, if you'd rather not have the fat covering the meat and veggies, you can remove the beef and veggies with a slotted spoon before you refrigerate them. (Just store them separately in the fridge.) That way it's much easier to get the fat off the top.
I didn't do that, because I just wanted to stick it in the fridge and not mess with it.
So I just picked around everything and got most of the fat off, leaving a little bit (which never bothers me.)
Is any of this making sense?
I sure hope so.
Then I just heated it up on the stovetop until the liquid and meat were nice and hot! After that, the meat just needed to be taken off the bones and shredded.
The meat should literally fall off the bones. You can just get rid of these, or you can use them to make stock, or you can give them to your unapologetically carnivorous dogs.
You'll also notice, as you take the meat off the bones, that there is a tough piece of tissue that you can easily separate from the meat. Just get rid of this, too. (Or again: dogs.)
Keep shredding until you have big chunks of short rib meat. (I like to leave mostly chunks rather than completely shredding it.) And that liquid—you can not believe how amazing it is! Getting most of the fat out of there just leaves the pure, adulterated liquid. It is a dadgum miracle.
Now, you can do whatever size of sandwiches you want! Use little dinner rolls, regular deli rolls, slices of French bread…but I decided to use a crusty baguette. It was one of those brown-and-serve numbers, so I stuck it in the oven for a few minutes so it was nice and crusty on the outside, soft on the inside.
Then I sliced it down the middle…
Grabbed the meat…
And laid it right on!
I didn't want to lose any of the flavor of the cooking liquid, so I spooned the onions/carrots all over the top along with some of the juice.
Then the lid went on…
And I sliced it into individual sandwiches.
Oh. And if you want to have a little extra fun?
Lay a wedge of Brie on top and stick it under the broiler for a minute.
I apologize to all mankind and the universe for what I have done.
I put these on a plate to take a pretty picture, but the honest truth is that Marlboro Man and I had already stood at that cutting board a little while before and scarfed down half of them. These were all that were left!
They're really that good. If you want to make a sandwich you'll never, ever forget, buy some short ribs and whip this one up.
It'll make a permanent imprint on your soul.
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Source: https://www.thepioneerwoman.com/food-cooking/recipes/a11468/short-rib-sandwiches/