This easy orange beef short ribs recipe makes some tender and flavorful ribs with just a hint of sweetness and zing from the oranges. And, as always, simple ingredients are best and make this recipe paleo, gluten-free, dairy free, soy free, sugar free, AIP, and all the other frees.
Have Korean style short ribs in your freezer instead? Try this recipe!
Unfortunately, life can sometimes get in the way of food.
You know what I mean? You get so busy that you forget to eat, let alone cook. And then dinnertime rolls around and your stomach is a gaping hold of dark emptiness. You’ve put in a long day already and you’re longing for the mercy of sleep, but you have to deal with the inconvenience of being hungry.
My last stint on the range was a bit like that. Food on the range can be a bit of a problem because you don’t have a lot of time for complicated cooking and you need easy-to-clean, super high calorie meals (I know, it’s weird. Lots of calories are a goal, not a problem). There’s a grill and one hotly contested cast iron frying pan that usually everyone needs to cook dinner with. The best option I’ve found is food you can reheat or grill quickly.
Unfortunately, I didn’t think about that when planning last stint’s menu. Our third day in was “one for the books,” as crew boss Anthony put it. A lot of things went wrong at the same time. It happens sometimes: we’re in wild mountain country with 300 head of cows to keep together and a couple of horses. No cell service. Usually no vehicles. A two-hour ride to trailer-accessible roads, then another hour of driving out. When things go wrong, it’s up to the crew to figure it out.
Luckily, we’ve never had a accident serious accident, but things go wrong. Cows get too spread out to manage or they burrow in thick brush where you and your horse can’t get to them, horses blow up and start bucking, rain pours or sunlight beats down. The funny thing is, we all still love it up there even though it can be hard. We’re part of that landscape. 
I snapped this photo during my last few days on the range. It is quiet moments like this that make it all worth it. And yes, nestled into that sagebrush you’ll find 300 head of cows and thick stands of wild grasses for them to enjoy. But long story short, we arrived in camp on a moonless night at around 11:15, completely numb with exhaustion. There wasn’t a lot of the usual cheerful back-and-forth while cooking dinner. I hadn’t eaten in nine hours. My fellow crew members looked haggard; they were just as burned out. At that moment I regretted my meal plan, delicious as it had sounded back at the ranch: grilled pizza with all kinds of toppings that still needed to be chopped up and cooked.
I finally sat down to dinner just before midnight. By then, I stared at my plate and realized I wasn’t even hungry anymore. I had entered that point of hunger where your stomach stops hurting and just sits there slowly eating itself. I chewed robotically for a while, but in my dry, cottony-feeling mouth, the pizza had no taste at all.
It was about then that I decided to be more prepared for my next day on the range. With leftovers. Maybe even leftovers that have to be reheated in the highly-sought-after frying pan. This beef short ribs recipe would do the trick, especially peeled off the bone and stir-fried quickly with a bit of precooked rice and some broccoli (I develop rare and short-lived vegetable cravings on the range. Inexplicable). Beef short ribs are full of great fats and nutrients, and that’s what you need up there.
I think, though, that you need beef short ribs no matter where you are. They may be full of fats, but they’re the good fats. Which, if you’re on a grass fed beef cooking blog, I assume you know. Unless if you’re a vegan who stumbled here by accident, probably because I mentioned broccoli in this post and it showed up in google under search results for broccoli recipes. In which case, I am very sorry.
But either way, back to your problem: like me, you’re too busy to eat or cook, but at the end of the day you want fast food, but not fast food. The good news is that though this Orange Beef Short Ribs Recipe does take a bit of planning (you gotta start the ribs a few hours in advance), they only take about 15 minutes to put into the roaster. About the same time it would take you to drive to McDonald’s. But since you’re on a grass fed beef cooking blog, I don’t imagine you’re the type to run to McDonald’s anyway. Unthinkable.
Orange Beef Short Ribs Recipe
This easy orange beef short ribs recipe makes some tender and flavorful ribs with just a hint of sweetness and zing from the oranges. And, as always, simple ingredients are best and make this recipe paleo, gluten-free, dairy free, soy free, sugar free, AIP, and all the other frees.
- 4 lbs beef short ribs
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons coarse rock salt
- 2 tablespoons coarse ground black pepper
- about 1 cup 100% orange juice (with pulp (fresh squeezed is best!))
- about 2 cups water (depends on pan size, see instructions)
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 1 tablespoon blackstrap molasses
- 1 tablespoon ginger
- 3 cloves fresh garlic (chopped)
- 1 large sprig fresh rosemary (washed with leaves stripped and chopped)
- 1 whole fresh orange (washed, peeled, and broken into slices. Cut each slice in half. )
- You can use either a roaster, a crock pot, or a dutch oven for this, but there will be slightly different cooking methods involved. Bear with me here.
- Before you start, thaw the ribs completely and remove from packaging. Rinse quickly with cold water, then pat dry with paper towels. This just removes any bone fragments that may have been left in cutting.
FOR ROASTER:
- Place the short ribs fat cap side up in the bottom of the roaster. Sprinkle in the olive oil. Sprinkle on the salt and pepper. Rub over ribs to coat completely.
- Turn roaster to 350 degrees F and roast for about 15 minutes, until ribs are beginning to brown.
- Reduce heat to around 200 degrees F, then add orange juice. Add water until ribs are about 1/3 covered. Sprinkle ginger, garlic cloves, balsamic vinegar, and molasses in. Sprinkle the rosemary sliced oranges over the ribs.
- Cover and cook for 4-8 hours at 200 degrees F. Check the water level occasionally and add more as necessary to maintain it at around 1/3. The longer you cook, the more tender the ribs become!
FOR CROCK POT:
- Rub ribs with salt and pepper until coated, then either place in an oiled baking dish or oiled cast iron frying pan large enough to fit them (you can do two batches). Bake in the oven at 400 degrees F for about fifteen minutes, until beginning to brown, OR pan fry on medium-high for a few minutes per side until just browned (not cooked through). Alternatively, you can also grill the seasoned ribs on high heat until just browned on the outside (omit the olive oil if using this option).
- Transfer to crock pot and turn heat to around 200 degrees F. Add orange juice. Add water until ribs are about 1/3 covered. Sprinkle ginger, garlic cloves, balsamic vinegar, and molasses in. Sprinkle the rosemary and sliced oranges over the ribs.
- Cover and cook for 4-8 hours at 200 degrees F. Check the water level occasionally and add more as necessary to maintain it at around 1/3. The longer you cook, the more tender the ribs become!
FOR DUTCH OVEN:
- Oil the bottom of the dutch oven, then rub ribs with salt and pepper and place dutch oven in preheated 400 degree oven. Cook uncovered for about 15 minutes until beginning to brown.
- Reduce heat to around 200 degrees F, then add orange juice. Add water until ribs are about 1/3 covered. Sprinkle ginger, garlic cloves, balsamic vinegar, and molasses in. Sprinkle the rosemary and sliced oranges over the ribs.
- Cover and cook for 4-8 hours at 200 degrees F. Check the water level occasionally and add more as necessary to maintain it at around 1/3. The longer you cook, the more tender the ribs become!
SUBSTITUTIONS
- Balsamic vinegar and molasses can be substituted for coconut aminos and 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar. It will make slightly different, more Asian-tasting ribs. In this case, leave out the rosemary because that would not complement that flavor.
- Do not substitute Korean Style Short Ribs for regular short ribs in this recipe. They are too thin and would completely fall apart when subjected to long cooking times.
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Hi Linnaea,
Sounds awesome – will have to try this! Knowing me, I’ll likely use more garlic as in this house there’s no such thing as too much of that. Rosemary is right out in the garden this time of year. You’re right – NO trips to McDonalds. It’s a 35-mile round trip to Ellensburg anyway, and a lot shorter trip to our freezer for Alderspring meat! I have my grandma’s old Griswold dutch oven. There’s nothing like vintage cast iron, and we have a big collection of it.
Lynnea in central WA forestland
HI Lynnea,
Yes, it’s always a good thing when McDonald’s is far away! We don’t even have one in within three hours of the ranch. I’m pretty jealous of your rosemary! I just can’t get it to grow here at all. Also you’re right, there’s nothing like cast iron…we have a few pieces, but I wish we had more. Hope you enjoy the ribs. 🙂