Red Wine Braised Short Ribs

These beef short ribs turn out incredibly tender. They are first smoked to take in some of that incredible flavor, and then finished in a flavorful wine and broth mixture. This recipe is a must try.

Short ribs, also known as plate ribs, come from the mid section of beef ribs 6 - 8. These ribs are a littl fattier than some of the other cuts of beef ribs which helps them turn out very tender. Soemtimes they are tough to find outside of a butcher shop. You can find them in a 3 bone section or they are also sold with each rib seperated as well. If you can buy them not seperated I would suggest doing that as it will help retain moisture. I think most everyone has had an experience with a recipe that does not go as planned for some reason. This happened to me on my first go around with short ribs. The first time I tried making these I used a combination of rubs and really over seasoned them. I also did not pay enough attention to helping them retain moisture by spritzing or wrapping and they came out as salty bricks. It is the only meal to this day that I did not finish and just threw out. It took me about half a year before I came back and tried them again with a different method and I am glad I did because I really liked the flavor in these. Not only are the ribs flavorful on their own but the braising mixture at the end of the cook has tons of flavor and can be thickened up and used as a sauce to go over the meal as well.

Cooking Basics

There is not too much prep work involved in beef ribs. The most important thing you will want to do is to remove all of the fat and silver skin from the top of the ribs. This will allow the seasoning and the smoke to penetrate the meat and help make them much more tender. An optional step you can also do it you wish is to remove the membrane on the bottom of the ribs. Some people do and some people don’t. I leave it because I have never found short ribs that had any meat below the bone so it seems like a waste of time to me.

Once these steps are completed you will want to apply rub to your ribs. I usualy use a Pit Boss Prime Beef rub but really any rub you would use on steak or brisket would work. If you dont have one on hand you can always go with equal parts salt, pepper, and garlic powder and they will be delicious. When applying the rub we want a good amount but we are not looking to completely cover them with rub. You want to be able to see the meat through the rub to make sure we dont lose the amazing natural flavor of the ribs.

Once the ribs are prepped we are ready to fire up the pit. You will want to cook these low and slow at 225 degrees. If you are smoking them I would suggest either mesquite or oak wood. If you are using a grill make sure you are using indirect heat when cooking the ribs to allow them to come up to temperature slowly.

You will want to leave the ribs on the smoker until they get to an internal temperature of 165 or so. This usually takes 3 - 4 hours. Leave them completley alone for the first couple hours to allow the bark to start to form. After that I suggest spritzing them evey half hour or so with apple cider vinegar. This does not really impart any flavor on the ribs so dont worry if you don’t like vinegar. While you wait for them to get up to teperture mix the ingredients listed in the recipe for the braising liquid so you have it ready. Once the ribs have reached the internal temperature you are looking for you will want to take them off the smoker and put them into an aluminum pan along with the braising liquid and top with a few pads of butter.

Once this is prepared you will need to seal the aluminum pan with foil and place it back on the smoker until the internal temperature of the ribs reaches abotu 203 degrees and the meat is probe tender, which means you can slide the thermometer in with no resistance. When this happens we will take the ribs off the smoker and take the braising liquid out of the pan and then recover with aluminum foil and allow to rest fo at least a half hour before eating. In that time if you choose to do so you can thicken up the braising liquid and use it as part of the meal.

Final Thoughts

• I really liked the flavor of the ribs cooked this way. They were really tender and had a lot of flavor. One thing I did notice is you dont eat them like you would pork ribs. I say this because there is a membrane on top of the bone below the meat that is super tough and chewy. You want to make sure to avoid that when eating the ribs.
• I went with this cooking method because I wanted to ensure I didnt have dried out ribs. The only problem with wrapping and braising the ribs is that you lose most of the bark you had created while smoking. I would like to attmept cooking these again some time without wrapping to see how they compare. Doing more research I think it would be helpful to get the 3 ribs together instead of seperated. I also hear dry brining helps with moisture. This is done by applying some kosher salt to the ribs the night before and leaving them out in the fridge overnight before cooking. If anyone has their own amazing recipe for short ribs I would love to hear about it. Please leave a comment on this post or any of the social media outlets.

Recipe