One Pot Cabernet Braised Beef Short Ribs Recipe

One Pot Cabernet Braised Beef Short Ribs are slow cooked in the oven until they’re fall-apart tender. Aromatics and fresh herbs add flavor, and along with red wine, create a savory, delicious sauce.

An Ideal Comfort Food Recipe

This short rib recipe is the ideal dish for a date night, dinner party or any other special occasion. The beef ribs are fork tender, the sauce is delightfully savory and the dish has a beautiful, deep color that pops on a plate.

But, don’t let a beautiful presentation fool you. This recipe, at its heart, is comfort food at its best. A hearty beef dish served over a bed of creamy mashed potatoes.

A Perfect Combination of Short Ribs and Braising Sauce

Searing the Short Ribs

First of all, the short ribs. They’re slowly braised in the oven which creates incredibly tender meat.

Braising is a cooking method that works well with tough cuts of meat, like a chuck roast or in this case, short ribs. You first sear the meat in a small amount of fat to bring color and flavor to your ribs. I do this in a dutch oven and once I have a golden brown sear, I take them out on put them to the side.

Preparing the Braising Sauce

Next, comes the braising sauce, which is essentially the cooking liquid for the remainder of recipe. In this case, I used a red wine sauce.

Slow Cooking the Short Ribs

The braising liquid I developed is a combination of cabernet sauvignon wine, beef stock, aromatic vegetables and fresh herbs. This is combined in the dutch oven. The browned short ribs are then put back into that dutch oven, covered and allowed to slow cook for a few hours in the oven.

Slow cooking allows the connective tissues in the ribs to disintegrate, which creates that fork tenderness. And, the braising liquid creates a delicious, savory sauce that you use over the ribs and mashed potatoes.

My favorite way to serve these short ribs is over creamy, smashed red potatoes topped with that amazing sauce. You might think this is a time consuming dish to make, but there’s little hands-on time (about 20 minutes). The oven does most of the work for you.

Do I Need to Use an Expensive Bottle of Wine?

The wine does add some depth of flavor, so I tend to stay away from a really cheap bottle of wine. But, you certainly don’t have to break the bank in terms of cost.

Really, any decent bottle of dry red wine (in this case I use a cabernet sauvignon) that’s a reasonable cost will work just fine. If I have any questions, I utilize the people who work at my local liquor store. They typically have a lot of knowledge of wine pairings and wine to use for cooking.

And, let’s be honest, you won’t use the entire bottle of wine for this recipe. So, you may as well have a nice bottle of wine to enjoy with your dinner.

Reheating Leftovers

If you have leftovers (and that’s a big if!), you definitely want to save them for later. For the best results, I put the leftover ribs, sauce (and potatoes if there are some left) in individual, microwave-safe containers. You can keep in the fridge for 3-4 days.

When you’re ready to reheat, take out of the fridge and microwave for about two minutes, or until hot. If the sauce is a little thick, you can add some beef stock to thin it out. If you don’t have beef stock, you can use chicken stock, or as a last resort, a little bit of water.

Tips and Tricks

• To insure a good sear on the short ribs, give the pan time to preheat and wait to add the butter until the pan is fully heated. This prevents the butter from burning.
• I love to serve these over skin on yukon gold or red smashed potatoes or garlic mashed potatoes.
• If you’re unable to find boneless short ribs, substitute bone-in ribs. If using bone-in beef short ribs, make sure they are thick cut, not the thin Asian-style ribs. The Asian-style ribs are more likely to dry out during the long braising time.
• There is no need to peel the carrots, just scrub them well. Their purpose is to flavor the sauce and will be discarded after their liquid is pressed into the sauce.

Ingredients Needed to Make Cabernet Braised Beef Short Ribs

Full Instructions can be found below in the printable recipe card

• Olive oil
• Butter
• Boneless beef short ribs
• Salt
• Black pepper
• Onion
• Celery
• Carrots
• Fresh garlic
• Fresh rosemary
• Fresh thyme
• Tomato paste
• Cabernet sauvignon wine
• Beef stock
• Flour
• Mashed potatoes

How to Make Cabernet Braised Beef Short Ribs

• Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
• Heat olive oil and butter over medium-high heat in a large dutch oven.
• Sprinkle short ribs with salt and pepper.
• Once oil is hot, sear meat on all sides.
• Remove from pan and transfer ribs to a large plate.
• Decrease heat to medium low.
• Add onion, carrots, celery, garlic, rosemary and thyme to pan.
• Saute until onion starts to soften.
• Stir in tomato paste, until all the veggies are coated.
• Add wine to the pan, increase heat to medium and bring to a boil.
• Add beef stock to pan and bring to a simmer.
• Return short ribs to pan.
• Cover pan and bake in preheated oven for three hours.
• Let remaining butter soften in a small bowl.
• Add flour to butter and mash with a fork until well combined.
• After 3 hours, remove short ribs from the oven.
• Remove short ribs from pan and cover with foil to keep warm.
• Place a strainer in bowl to catch the sauce.
• Pour sauce and vegetables into the strainer.
• Press the vegetables with the back of a spoon to release their liquid.
• Pour strained liquid back into the pot.
• Add in additional beef stock.
• Stir in remaining salt and pepper.
• Bring liquid to a bubble on the stove top.
• Whisk in butter/flour mixture until smooth.
• Continue cooking until sauce has thickened.
• Serve short ribs over mashed potatoes and top with some of the sauce.

More Delicious One Pot Comfort Food Meals

• Lamb, Sweet Potato and Mushroom Stew
• Easy Weeknight Lasagna Toss
• Italian Style Braised Short Ribs
• Beef and Sweet Potato Noodles
• Sicilian Meatloaf

ENJOY!