Braised Beef Short Ribs

Slow Cooker Recipe w/ Asian Spices

Servings: 6-8 | Prep Time: 20 mins | Cook Time: 4-8 hrs

How to make braised beef chuck short ribs Asian style with exciting spices like star anise, clove, szechuan peppercorns, and black cardamom. This dish is super simple using a 6-quart slow cooker. Flavorful, tender rib meat and yuca (cassava) root that's starchily satisfying and holds up to hours and hours of slow cooking without falling apart. Part of the fun of making this dish is finding the ingredients at the Asian market. If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, you can find all ingredients at your local 99 Ranch Market. Also delicious is this recipe with pork belly meat and taro instead of beef short ribs and yuca.

• 4.5 lbs beef chuck short ribs
• 2 TBSP vegetable oil (for searing meat)
• 1 large yuca (cassava) root, peeled,
and cut into 2” chunks
• 6-8 dried red chilies, broken in half
• 4 star anise
• 1 black cardamom
• 1 tsp Szechuan peppercorns, coarsely ground
• 2 bay leaves
• 2” galangal segment, 1/4" slices
• 2 lemongrass stalks, cut into 3” segments

Sauce
• 1 quart beef stock
• 1-1/2 C water
• 6 TBSP fish sauce
• 1/4 C cooking rice wine
• 1/3 C hoisin sauce
• 1/8 C low-sodium soy sauce
• 1/8 C Thai sweet soy sauce (see-ew)
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 1 TBSP minced garlic
• 1 TBSP minced ginger
• 1 TBSP dark molasses
• 1/4 tsp clove powder
• 1 tsp black pepper, coarsely ground

On stovetop, heat oil in large pan over medium high heat. Sear short ribs on 4 sides. You may need to do 2 batches.
Plug in slow cooker. Set on high to warm up and add short ribs when seared.
To the slow cooker, add all other dry ingredients, dispersing ingredients around. In a mixing bowl, combine all sauce ingredients then add evenly to slow cooker. Put lid on.
Cook on high for 4 hours then on low for an additional 2 hours. (If cooking all day long and you’re unavailable to change settings, set on low for 8+ hours.) Leave it alone and don't stir it. Stirring it will make the tender short ribs fall off the bone prematurely. You'll end up serving pieces of meat and pieces of bone separately, and we don't want that!
Serve braised beef chuck short ribs hot with steamed rice and veggies. Enjoy!