The two most popular ways to cook beef short ribs are braising and grilling. My favorite way, though, is to cook short ribs in a slow cooker. Slow cooking has a couple of very important advantages over the other two cooking methods – it’s simple and requires very little hands-on time. I would say it’s practically effortless. Getting similar results from grilled or even braised short ribs is not nearly as easy. And the best part is that these slow cooker beef short ribs are succulent and exceptionally tender – the meat literally falls off the bone – and they taste really, really well because of the amazing, gravy-like sauce they cook in!
Some recipes suggest placing all of the ingredients into a slow cooker and let it do the job. Now, this is effortless! It sounds very tempting but a few minutes spent on browning the meat to get that delightful flavor and deep brown color seems well worth the time. One way to brown short ribs is to season them with salt and pepper and dredge in flour before browning. Another one is to season and brown first, then add the flour to thicken the sauce. I use the latter because it seems that this way you brown the meat and not the flour that covers the beef. The flour will be browned later when making a roux.
I like browning beef in my vintage copper pan which is anything but non-stick and gives me a lot of brown bits stuck to the bottom. It’s what I want! They help making a really flavorful sauce or gravy after de-glazing the pan with beef broth or red wine. To get the best out of browning, I like using rendered bacon fat. If you don’t have it on hand, plain butter will suffice.
Ingredients
- 3 lbs beef short ribs (cut into 2-3-inch pieces crosswise, fat trimmed off)
- 4 bacon strips
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
- 2 Tbsp butter
- 1 yellow onion (large, diced or sliced)
- 4 garlic cloves (pressed)
- 2 cups beef broth
- 2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1 Tbsp honey (or brown sugar)
- 2 Tbsp dark soy sauce
Instructions
- In a large skillet, fry the bacon strips until most of the fat has rendered out. Remove the bacon and reserve for other uses, or snack on it.
- Season the ribs with salt and pepper and brown over medium-high heat on all sides, about 4 minutes per side, until deep golden brown. If they brown too fast, reduce heat to medium-high.
- Transfer short ribs to a slow cooker. For three pounds of beef short ribs a 4-quart slow cooker would be sufficient but you can go as high as 6 quarts.
- In the same skillet, saute the onion over medium-high heat, until golden brown. Add the garlic and cook for another 20 seconds.
- Once the garlic is fragrant, add the butter to the skillet and let it melt. Add the flour and stir well. Keep cooking, continuously stirring, until the flour is brown and has a nutty flavor.
- Add the beef broth and stir well. Add the vinegar, honey and dark soy sauce. Using a wooden spoon, keep stirring and scraping the bottom of the pan to scrape off all the tasty brown bits.
- Taste the sauce and adjust as needed. It should taste just right. If you want more sweetness, add more honey.
- Once the sauce starts to bubble, transfer it to the slow cooker. The sauce should cover the ribs at least 3/4 way.
- Cook on low for 6-7 hours, or 3-4 hours on high. You can cook longer but more fat will be rendered out and the meat won't taste as succulent.
- Stir well, but be careful to not break the meat pieces. Serve hot over mashed potatoes, pasta, etc.
Notes
Nutrition
Yvonne
Recipe looks delicious and I am giving it a try today. I placed the short ribs meat side up. Is this preferred method?
victor
I try to keep mine immersed as much as I can so it doesn’t matter that way. If not, move them around/gently stir a couple of times along that way to ensure even cooking.
Linda
Ribs I assume it’s bone in short ribs when I went to the butcher and got 3 pounds it only came out to four short ribs. Is this correct?
victor
Hi Linda, my apologies for the late response. What you described sounds correct, those can be quite massive. For this recipe, you can ask the butcher to saw them across in a 2-3 places, smaller pieces will be easier to manage and eat. How did they turn out?
Kelly
Excited to try! I noticed in the recipe it doesn’t say how to prepare the onion, but I think I’m going to go with sliced when I do it 🙂
victor
Kelly, diced or sliced will work, it’s up to your personal preference.
Big JB
I love the Aroma an I made sauce just right not too bad on the sauce. Family loved it. I used chicken broth cause I thought I had beef broth, with the honey it kinda made it sweeter. Thank you
Natalia Gonzalez
Unbelievable delish!!!! My hubby was literally licking the plate! Its hes new fav!
Karen
So delicious! I made this for the first time a few weeks ago. I woke up the next morning thinking about how good it was. Making it again for tonight. Can’t wait!
Blanca
Quick question, Is that cilantro or parsley sprinkled on top?
victor
Yes, sprinkle on top.
Crystal
Hi there I have made this millions of times( it’s a huge hit in my house!!!) And was just wondering what is the serving size that goes with the nutrition listed underneath thank you😊
victor
Hi Crystal, glad to hear that you liked my recipe and thank you for your feedback and the rating. The serving size is about half a rib, which is quite big as you know.
Colleen
I made this and doubled the recipe. The sauce taste like too much vinegar. Will this dissipate as it cooks?
victor
Colleen, I’ve experimented with the amount of red wine vinegar until I got the right taste, so it will be fine. That’s right, initially, the sauce tastes like there is a bit too much acidity but once it’s done cooking it will taste just right, with a subtle tang.
L
Any options for using onion but removing it at the end due to a picky eater?
victor
If you want to completely and easily remove the onion after cooking, I would brown it separately and tie in a cheesecloth bag called a sachet d’épices in French cooking. Only instead of spices you will have onion in it. Alternatively, cut the onion in quarters, then fish the pieces out after cooking. The sachet sounds like a more sound approach. Finally, you can just use onion powder.
Mendel
When i added the 2 cups of broth, It turned more into a really thick gravy instead of sause. How can I avoid that.
victor
Keep in mind that the meat and the onion will release quite a bit of water so the gravy will thin out. But if you want a thin sauce to begin with, just add 3 cups of both or reduce flour to 3 Tbsp.
David Gottardi
I’d like to try this recipe as it looks amazing. But I’m on gluten restricted diet. So can something be substituted for the flour?
– David G
victor
Thank you David. You can substitute flour for cornstarch. Use 5 tablespoon of cornstarch. Dilute it in a little bit of cold water and add it at the end of preparing the sauce (just before adding the sauce to the slow cooker).
PattiH
Delicious and easy rib recipe, as others have stated. They practically flew out of the slow cooker – family gobbled them up. I’ve tried many crock pot short rib recipes over the years and this one has a great depth of flavor without using tomato paste or celery. I ended up chopping up the cooked bacon slices into large-ish pieces and adding them to the dish. I don’t think it was a bad call. I also used half beef broth, half dry red wine. Thanks for the recipe! It’s a keeper.
victor
Glad to hear you that you liked my beef short rib recipe. And you are very welcome!
Julie
Absolutely delish!!! And easy to make!
Arianne Garraghty
Hi, Thank you for the beautiful delicous recipe, It is nice to find gems like this one on food websites. I love baking bread and hot chutneys for my father in in the freezing winter months and ice cream in the summer months.
victor
You are very welcome. I love baking bread too. I recently started a new blog – Taste of Artisan – where I blog about all homemade artisan foods.
Tina
Melt-in-your-mouth tender and delicious beef short ribs. A+++ Very easy to make too.
LJ
I attempted this recipe yesterday, I doubled the amount as we had guests, and served the ribs with mashed potatoes. They were an instant hit. The only problem was that I ran out of them way to quickly, ha-ha. Keep your awesome recipes coming, I love them.
victor
LOL… I always feel terrible when I run out of something that people come to really like…