If you’re tired of barbecue sauce and meats with overly sweet sauces, then you’ve clicked on the right ribs recipe.
These are elegant, tender, and have just the right touch of sweetness. If you want to stay away from recipes that depend on lots of really sugary sauces…but want a recipe that’s more fresh and interesting than classic French-style ribs with red wine…make beer-braised ribs!
(If French-style braised in red wine does sound good to you, this recipe is amazing, just don’t shred the beef).
Don’t worry if you don’t like beer. You won’t really taste it, it just does a really great job of getting the meat to the right tenderness.
If you want to make ahead and freeze, take them out of the freezer the night before and let them thaw so they don’t need to be rewarmed for so long.
What kind to use? I like short ribs, which are a different cut than spare ribs. They’re thicker and more cube-like in shape. Some butchers call these English ribs, they’re just cut smaller than a typical English rib.
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 3 lbs short ribs
- Salt and pepper, for sprinkling
- 1 onion, sliced
- 3 garlic cloves, crushed
- ¼ cup flour
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- 1 (12 ounce) bottle beer
- 2 tablespoons molasses
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 3 cups beef stock, or to cover
- Preheat oven to 350ºF.
- Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Sprinkle ribs with salt and pepper. When oil is hot, add ribs and sear on all sides. Remove and set aside.
- Add onion and garlic and saute until soft. Stir in flour and cook for a couple minutes. Stir in brown sugar and paprika and cook for another couple minutes. Add beer and bring to a boil. Stir in molasses and mustard.
- Return ribs to the pot. Cover with beef stock.
- Cover pan and bake for 2 – 2 ½ hours. Check towards the end to make sure there’s enough liquid in the pan. The sauce will get thick during this time. Add a bit more water or beef stock if you’ll be rewarming.
- Serve warm with sauce. (Note that if you cook this at the lower temperature suggested in the introduction, the sauce won’t thicken as much. You can remove the ribs and cook the sauce on the stovetop to thicken it further at the end.)
|