Truly the best way to make boneless, fork-tender, fall-apart beef short ribs. These will melt in your mouth and become a family favorite.
TKW Family Love
Yummy. Great right out of the oven. Shred leftovers for great taco meat. I did the boneless from Costco and they were very tender following the directions.
Grab Your Ingredients
Now I’ve made this with bone-in and while bone-in has a deeper flavor I find them a pain in the butt as I want all meat, not just bone. Plus they are the same price (which I still don’t quite understand).
- Boneless Beef Short Ribs – if you only have bone-in, you can use those but they have to be the English cut *see below for differences
- BBQ Sauce – I used my bacon BBQ sauce but any tangy BBQ sauce would work.
- Liquid smoke – I use this to give it a smoky taste. You can omit it if you want
- Seasonings
- Ketchup
Flanken and English Short Rib Cuts
I use boneless English Short Ribs in this recipe as they are meatier and fatter.
Chef’s Explanation
English Short Ribs
The English style cut is where the short rib is cut between the ribs leaving a thick piece of meat sitting on top of one piece of the rib bone. So in the images below, my ribs are English-style cut where the piece of meat is cut off of the bone.
Flanken Short Ribs
The Flanken cut is the thin cut of a short rib that is cut across the bones at about a 1/2″ thickness. In this piece of meat, you’ll see meat, bone, meat, bone, meat, and so forth. This is a very popular cut in Korean BBQ. I am not a fan of these as when I make short ribs, I want more meat than bone.
How To Make Slow-Baked Boneless Beef Short Ribs
I make in the oven but if you look at my site, you’ll see that I have several recipes where you can make short ribs in the Instant Pot. While I love the IP, there’s just something about a slow bake and this recipe.
- Mix the ketchup, liquid smoke, brown sugar, minced onion, garlic powder, and BBQ sauce and cook until thick and bubbly.
- Season the ribs and place them into a large baking dish.
- Add some of the sauce, cover, and roast for 2 1/2 hours.
- Remove the foil, flip, add more sauce, and cook uncovered for another 30 minutes or until the meat is cooked through.
When I make these all I’ll do is put them in a pan, cover them with some BBQ sauce, cover with foil, and slow bake. This is one of those dishes I’ll throw in the oven and tend to chores or maybe take a much-needed nap.
Slow Cooker Instructions
Many of you asked if you can make this in a slow cooker. Yes, you can! It’s pretty straightforward.
- Make the sauce as-is.
- For the beef short ribs, let them come to room temperature then season with salt and pepper. Put them in a heated skillet to pan-sear on all sides (about 2-4 minutes per side).
- Place in the slow cooker, pour the sauce over top, and then cook on low for 7-8 hours or until the meat is fork-tender.
- To thicken up the sauce, remove the meat (carefully) and then strain picking up in step 5 below.
Slow Baked Boneless Beef Short Ribs
Truly the best way to make boneless, fork-tender, fall-apart beef short ribs. These will melt in your mouth with a luscious gravy that just begs for creamy mashed potatoes!
- Prep Time: 3
- Cook Time: 3 hours
- Total Time: 3 hours 30 minutes
- Yield: 4-6 servings
- Category: Slow Baked
- Method: oven
- Cuisine: Beef
Ingredients
- 4 pounds of boneless beef short ribs
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 cups of ketchup
- 2 teaspoons liquid smoke
- 1/2–2/3 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup onion, minced
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 3/4 cup Bacon BBQ Sauce or any BBQ sauce
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons water
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 300F with a rack in the middle. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, add the ketchup, liquid smoke, brown sugar, minced onion, garlic powder, and BBQ Sauce and mix until combined. Cook until thick and bubbly; stirring occasionally. ~10 minutes.
- Season the short ribs all over with salt and pepper. Place in a 13×9″ glass baking dish. This will be a tight squeeze. Pour about 1/2 cup over the short ribs.
- Using tongs, flip the ribs over and spoon another 1/2 cup of the sauce over top. Reserve the remaining BBQ sauce to spoon over the cooked ribs. Cover the pan with foil and roast for 2 1/2 hours.
- Remove the foil and gently flip the short ribs. Spoon more of the sauce over top. Cook for 30 minutes more (uncovered), until the meat is tender and browned. Check the ribs every 10-15 minutes to ensure that they are coated with sauce and that the pan does not go dry. Transfer the short ribs to a serving platter. Baste the short ribs with some of the reserved BBQ sauce.
- At this point, you can discard the cooking liquid or you can pour it into a fat strainer to allow it to separate. (This is what I did). Pour the juices into a medium saucepan leaving the fat greasy part behind. Add in about 1/4 cup BBQ sauce and bring to a boil. Make a slurry of the cornstarch and water and whisk into the liquid to thicken. Use this to thicken the sauce as a dipping sauce/gravy.
Notes
See the post for Crock Pot instructions.
*Note: While this recipe does have most of the ingredients that you use to make a basic BBQ sauce, it’s missing some key elements which is why I also add BBQ sauce. You can certainly use all BBQ sauce in place of the ketchup and other ingredients but it’s just not the same. Many have found that using all BBQ sauce makes this too bbq-y.
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