Boneless Short Ribs with Red Wine Sauce are incredibly tender, flavorful, and oven-braised to perfection in a delicious red wine sauce. It’s a wonderfully comforting weekend dinner for an entire family and the sauce is absolutely amazing with the meat and any side dish. This simple short ribs recipe starts on the stove top and is finished in the oven for just a few hours.
Boneless Short Ribs Recipe with Red Wine Sauce
From time to time, we need to treat ourselves to the joy of a five-star quality dinner in the comfort of our own home! Sometimes you just don’t want to leave home and go to a restaurant, plus, I find it to be much more affordable (and even more delicious) to cook those meals at home.
There are so many dishes you can easily make at home that you’d pay good money for at a fancy restaurant. Much like this five-star worthy meal, it’s not nearly as complicated as you may think and it tastes absolutely fantastic! In fact, this is one of the easier meals you can make at home.
Don’t let the time scare you! Most of the time is just letting the meat slowly cook in the oven. What you have to do is simply sear the meat, them make the sauce in the same pan, and then slowly braise it in the red wine sauce until it’s fork tender. It doesn’t get much easier than this, trust me!
The real stand-out element of this recipe is the sophisticated, savory, and incredibly flavorful red wine sauce. This sauce has pretty simple ingredients but with a few little flavor infusing tricks, you will want to drink it with a straw!
How To Cook Boneless Short Ribs
Ingredients You Need:
For the Short Ribs:
- Boneless Short Ribs – Yes, you read it right, these are boneless short ribs! Be sure to use good quality short ribs, otherwise you risk large fat layers running through the meat.
- Olive Oil – Extra virgin works best here.
- Salt – coarse kosher salt or sea salt is best
- Black Pepper – Freshly ground yields the best flavor and aroma.
For Red Wine Sauce:
- Olive Oil
- Shallots – The delicate sweetness in shallots make them ideal for this balanced sauce.
- Garlic – it’s best to use fresh garlic and smash and mince it yourself, not pre-minced.
- Flour – All-purpose flour will thicken the sauce perfectly. (Use gluten free all purpose flour if needed.)
- Red Wine – Do not use a sweet red wine! A dry, rich, and full bodied red wine like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, or Zinfandel work well for this sauce.
- Apple Cider Vinegar – This ingredient adds both sweetness and a light tang to this complex flavor palette.
- Beef Stock – For the best flavor, use your own Homemade Beef Stock when available!
- Tomato Paste – This adds a richness to the sauce that can’t be substituted.
- Herbs – Bay leaves, dried thyme, and dried oregano compliment the meat and the sauce beautifully.
- Salt
- Black Pepper
Gluten Free Notes:
This boneless short ribs dinner can easily be made gluten free by using gluten free all-purpose flour in the sauce. Remaining ingredients should already be gluten free but double check the labels on the packaging.
Directions:
Prep the ingredients: Prior to cooking, you’ll need to prepare your short ribs by letting them rest on your countertop for approximately 30 minutes. During this time, slice the shallots, mince the garlic, and measure remaining ingredients.
Sear the meat: pat the beef dry with a paper towel and season generously on all sides. Preheat the pan first, add some oil, and sear the short ribs in batches in a large pan over medium-high heat.
Set the seared meat in a large 9×13 casserole baking dish and preheat the oven to 325°F.
Prepare the sauce: add a bit more oil to the same pan you cooked the meat in and sauté the shallots. Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant. Sprinkle the shallots and garlic with flour.
Pour in the red wine while stirring and scraping the bottom of the pot. Stir in the apple cider vinegar, beef stock, tomato paste, and seasonings. Bring to a simmer for a few minutes until the sauce thickens.
Cooking short ribs in the oven: Pour the sauce evenly over the beef in the casserole dish. Cover the dish with foil and cook in the oven for about an hour and a half. Take the foil off and cook another hour. Allow the meat to rest in the baking dish for about 15 minutes before enjoying.
Frequently Asked Questions:
What are boneless short ribs?
Well, the name is actually quite misleading because these are not ribs at all! They don’t usually even come from the rib area. Boneless short ribs are chuck beef that comes from the shoulder area, which is above the ribs. Some short ribs with the bone-in come from this area as well, but close to the rib, and include the first through the fifth rib bones.
Boneless short ribs come from the area above and are cut into a specific shape to mimic the bone-in short rib. Boneless short ribs are usually pretty meaty, and are thick cuts of beef. They also typically come with a very nice marbleizing of fat. Some may have a fat cap on top, which you should cut off when preparing the meat if it’s there.
The Best Method of Cooking Boneless Short Ribs
Essentially, you would cook boneless short ribs the same way you would cook the bone-in ones. The best way to cook short ribs is to braise them. Braising will not only cook them to the beautiful tenderness you know and love, but also is an incredibly flavorful technique.
Braising is a method of slowly cooking food using wet and dry heat. This technique starts off with searing the meat first at high temperature, and then slow-cooking in the oven with liquid. When it’s slower cooking, the meat really absorbs all of the flavors in the sauce you cook it in and slowly renders the fat into the tissue.
Tip: You can use a Dutch oven to braise boneless short ribs from sear to bake, or a cast iron skillet to sear them and then, transfer the meat into a 9×13 casserole dish.
Serving Suggestions
Mashed Potatoes are always the best option to serve with short ribs! If you want a little lighter side, you can go with Mashed Cauliflower. You can also serve it with macaroni or bowtie pasta. That pasta is great to hold the sauce.
As far as vegetables, choose any of your favorite vegetables like green beans, carrots, asparagus, mushrooms, zucchini, and anything else your heart desires.
Storing Instructions:
You can store your leftovers in the Dutch oven or the casserole dish you cooked the short ribs in. Make sure to refrigerate your leftovers. If you choose to store it in the casserole dish or Dutch oven, make sure to cover the top airtight with plastic wrap or other food storage wrap. Property stored, leftover short ribs will be good for 3-4 days.
Boneless Short Ribs In Red Wine Sauce
Boneless Short Ribs
Ingredients
- 4-4.5 lbs boneless short ribs
- 2-3 tbsp olive oil
- coarse or sea salt
- black pepper
Red Wine Sauce:
- 1-2 tbsp olive oil
- 2-3 shallots
- 6 garlic cloves
- 1/4 cup all purpose flour
- 3 cups red wine
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 1/2 cups beef stock
- 1/4 cup tomato paste
- 4 tsp brown sugar
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- coarse or sea salt
- black pepper
Instructions
Before cooking:
- Take short ribs out of the refrigerator and out of the package. Let them rest and warm up on the cutting board, on the counter, for about 30 minutes before cooking.
- Slice shallots and set the aside. Peel, smash, and mince garlic and set it aside as well. Measure remaining ingredients for the sauce and set aside.
- Pat the beef dry with a paper towel and season generously with salt and pepper on all sides.
Sear short ribs:
- Preheat a large pan over medium-high heat and add oil. Sear the meat in batches so they are not overcrowded. Sear them on all 4 sides until golden brown.
- Take the meat out and set it in a large 9×13 casserole baking dish.
- Preheat the oven to 325°.
Red wine sauce:
- Using the same pan where you seared the meat, add a little more oil if needed and add sliced shallots. Sauté until softened and starts to brown.
- Add minced garlic, stir, and sauté until fragrant.
- Sprinkle flour over onions and garlic and mix until they're coated.
- Pour in the wine slowly while slowly stirring and scraping the bottom of the pot. Stir in apple cider vinegar, beef stock, tomato paste, and seasoning.
- Mix in seasonings and let it come to simmer. Simmer for a few minutes until sauce starts to thicken.
- Pour the sauce over the beef in the casserole dish and make sure it's nestled well.
- Cover the dish with the aluminum foil and cook in the oven for 1 1/2 hours.
- Take the aluminum foil off and flip the short ribs. Cook for another hour.
- Take the dish out of the oven and let it rest about 15 minutes before serving.
Nutrition
Erin says
Can I do this in a Dutch oven?
LyubaB says
Hi Erin,
Yes, you can make this in a Dutch oven. I hope you enjoy the recipe!
Leone says
Great recipe. Thank you for sharing. It could have had a little longer in the oven but the flavour was wonderful..
LyubaB says
So glad you liked it!
Lisa F. says
Wonderful results! Served this for Christmas dinner and everyone loved it. I did cook it an additional 1 hour covered, so 2 1/2 hours covered, then 1 hour uncovered. Lovely!!
LyubaB says
I am so glad you liked it!
Ada Baez says
How can this same recipe be done in an instant pot?
LyubaB says
I actually have a instant pot version you can find the recipe here https://www.willcookforsmiles.com/instant-pot-short-ribs/
Shar says
This recipe was quick, easy, and had great flavor. The only thing is that It actually took me 6 hours to bake for it to be super tender. The 2 and a half hours was not enough time.
Norm says
On the braised short ribs, after removing foil and flipping do I put foil on for last hour?
LyubaB says
Hi Norm, No once you remove the foil you want to cook it for the last hour without it. Hope this helps.