Braised Beef Short Ribs Recipe For a Busy Day

This braised beef short ribs recipe is a great make ahead meal. Throw everything together in the morning and let it cook low and slow until dinner.

Last week I had a town trip planned. Town trip days are a big deal because we live over an hour from town, and a town day pretty much shoots the whole day. I like to plan ahead, but Glenn often can’t…so, as happens not infrequently, he told me the night before the town day to expect another 9 people for dinner the next night. And these people weren’t going to be small appetite types. They were going to work hard outside all day, and they were going to be hungry. This is the recipe I used to feed the crowd:

(Gluten Free, Grain Free, Paleo, Dairy Free, Egg Free, Nut Free, Soy Free, Refined Sugar Free)

Braised Beef Short Ribs Recipe For a Busy Day

This braised beef short ribs recipe is a great make ahead meal. Throw everything together in the morning and let it cook low and slow until dinner.

(Gluten Free, Grain Free, Paleo, Dairy Free, Egg Free, Nut Free, Soy Free, Refined Sugar Free)

6 packs of short ribs (about 2.5-3 lbs each)
2 cans Italian diced tomatoes
2 cans tomato paste
1 cup strong coffee
1 cup molasses
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 onions (diced very fine)
8 garlic cloves (diced fine)
1 tablespoon cumin
2 tablespoons mixed Italian herbs
lots of coarse ground pepper

Mix all the tomatoes, sweeteners, and seasonings (except the pepper) with enough water to make it pour-able. (You can brown the ribs if you’d like, but the first time I made this I didn’t have time, and it still turned out great.)
Single-layer the ribs in glass baking dishes, and poured the tomato mix over them and grind a bunch of pepper over everything.
Cover the dishes tightly with foil (don’t let the foil touch the tomato-covered ribs–the acid will start to eat the foil-yuck).
Put the covered ribs in a low oven (about 180 degrees F). Bake the ribs at that temperature for around 9 hours.
About 2.5 hours before dinner, you can put into the oven about 25 baking potatoes.
About 2 hours before dinner, take the foil off the ribs, and turn the oven up to 350 degrees F for 30-40 minutes until the ribs started browning. You may have to add a bit of water before turning up the oven, but this will be variable depending on your oven convection, and how well you covered the ribs with the foil. You want the sauce around the ribs to be liquid enough to not burn, but not watery like soup.
After the top surface of the ribs brown, turn the oven down to warm until you are ready to serve the ribs.
Add a tossed salad for a complete meal.