So yeah… I’m kinda obsessed with beef short ribs. Just a teensy bit. I mean seriously you have the following recipes JUST using short ribs:
Braised Beef Short Ribs – Ossu Buco Style which was followed up by Sliders. Next we made a to die for Pizza with them and then the slow baked ones that OMG deserve a cult following!
I can’t help it! I absolutely LOVE these things! No let me rephrase… WE love these things. No wait, one more time.. WE + YOU Love these things as you email me or post on twitter or facebook asking for other ways to make these. New flavor profiles.
Well here you go! I came up with this recipe a little over a week ago in honor of Cinco de Mayo. It’s funny as growing up, I HATED Mexican food. It was HOT. It was SPICY. It has CHUNKS OF TOMATOES AND ONIONS.. yeah I pretty much thought I was going to die. And OMG beans.. that are smashed and ‘fried’?? What’s up with that. All I know is I wanted no parts of that stuff. The closest we came to eating Mexican was Taco night which consisted of ground beef with a taco seasoning packet and the toppings. My toppings? Lettuce, cheese and sour cream. Dear God if you put guacamole in front of me I would have hurled. Seriously, I’m surprised my face didn’t permanently stay squinched up! LOL
It wasn’t until Chi Chi’s came to the Pittsburgh area did I have my eyes opened up to other types of Mexican food. They weren’t all hot or spicy. They all didn’t have chunks of crap nor that green guac stuff. Seriously I fell MADLY IN LOVE with Chi Chi’s Seafood Enchiladas and their Corn Cake. Dear God that stuff had to have crack in it as they were both addictive!
A few years later I met one of my now best friends who’s family is from Mexico. They exposed me to true authentic Mexican food. And yeah it was HOT but it wasn’t that OMG I’m gonna die and fart fire hot but a hot seasoning that just made the food almost come to life. It was through her and her family that I began to truly appreciate Mexican food and fall in love with it.
Now it’s funny as my bff’s Mom, Rosie, is all of 5′ nothing, teeny thing but if ever I’m in a knife fight I want her on my side! This woman could make a Navy Seal cry! LOL Her daughter and I have been friends 18+ years and to this day if I ask Rosie for her Mexican Lasagna recipe I get swore at in Spanish. I’m gonna get it from her one of these days. You folks don’t understand. This dish is EPIC!
So back to Cinco de Mayo… I wanted to make something that isn’t truly authentic Mexican but more Americanized-Mexican if you will. I had all the ingredients on hand and decided to give it a whirl. I threw this in, that in and tasted, tasted, tasted as I made the sauce. Now I had put the meat in the dish and made the sauce but it was missing something. It needed… something. So into my pantry I went. I thought about blackbeans but opted not only because I wasn’t sure how they would hold up being baked for almost 3 hours. Then I spied green chilis. Now to me they are hot but tolerable. If you wanted you could most certainly use jalapenos but try not to get the ones in vinegar as that may make this dish too pungent.
As these baked the smells were amazing! You could smell spice and hot but it was so inviting. As I pulled these out of the oven my jaw dropped. They were the most gorgeous color ever! It was a burnt orange color with chars of browns. Then when I topped it with the bright green cilantro.
The pictures just don’t quite do the dish justice. Now to serve these you could put them on Spanish rice, on a slider bun, in a burrito or Mexican pizza or do as I did below.
I warmed up a tortilla, topped with refried and black beans, cheddar, meat and sauce. Seriously this was perfect!
This is such an easy dish to make that pretty much does all the work for you. 
Mexican Baked Boneless Beef Short Ribs
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Ingredients
- 4 pounds boneless beef short ribs
- 2 servings of Homemade Enchilada Sauce or about 28 ounces
- 2 tablespoon FanFriggenTastic Fajita Seasoning
- 2 small cans diced green chilis
- 1/2–1 teaspoon cayenne
- 2 tablespoon Lime Juice (about the juice of a fresh lime)
- 1 cup loosely chopped cilantro
- 2 tablespoon water
- 2 tablespoon cornstarch
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 300F with a rack in the middle.
- Season the short ribs all over with 1 tablespoon Fajita seasoning, then arrange in a 13 by 9-inch baking dish (it will be a tight squeeze).
- Combine the enchilada sauce, remaining fajita seasoning, lime juice, cayenne and 1/2 cup of the cilantro in a small bowl and stir until smooth.
- Pour 1/3 of the sauce over the short ribs.
- Using tongs, flip the ribs over and spoon another 1/3 of the sauce over top.
- Reserve the remaining sauce to spoon over the cooked ribs.
- Pour the green chilis over top of the ribs dispersing evenly.
- Cover the pan with aluminum foil and roast for 2-1/2 hours.
- Remove the foil and, if the cooking liquid is covering the meat, use a large spoon or ladle to remove some of the liquid so that the tops are exposed. (Note: the meat will look unappetizing at this stage; don’t worry, it will look much better once it’s done!)
- Cook for 30 minutes more, until the meat is tender and browned.
- Transfer the short ribs to a serving platter.
- 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 (and the green chilis) into a medium sauce pan leaving the fat greasy part behind.
- Add in about 1/4 cup of the remaining enchilada sauce and bring to a boil.
- Make a slurry of the cornstarch and water and whisk into the liquid to thicken.
- Slather over top of the ribs and garnish with remaining cilantro.
Notes
I served mine on warm tortillas, cheddar cheese, some black beans, refried beans and topped it with the meat and sauce. Mmmm!
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