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Hey you! Guess what? I made ya dinner. A real dinner! And it involves beer braised short ribs, cabbage cilantro slaw, pickled red onions, and Oaxaca Cheese! I hope you’re on your way… these babies won’t last long!
Let’s talk beer and short ribs for a moment!
We rarely keep beer in the house. The main reason for this is that we love beer. Well, that and because the whole self control thing never was our cup of tea, thus we maybe end up crushing a 6 pack (I just felt so college typing that) on a Sunday night and then end up very much so paying for it the following morning, making that all too familiar declaration of “I’m NEVER drinking again” slither from our mouths… even though we know it’s not true 😉 Will we ever learn?!
Probably not! But that’s ok. I have learned a new trick for putting my beloved brews to work – BRAISING! Ah, braising. It’s such a wonderful thing. And when you take an already amazing technique and add beef and beer… it’s like – HELLO FABULOUS.
These short ribs are cooked low and slow (you could probably do this in a crockpot I reckon, but I don’t own one – gasp – so I just quickly browned them in the dutch oven, then added the liquid and cooked them on the lowest possible flame; they turned out excellent) in a seductive liquid mix of beer, spices, garlic, and onion until they’re literally falling off the bone and apart.
You’ll have no problem shredding the ultra tender flavor packed meat with the simplest rub between the fingers… but you may have a hard time NOT eating it all before it goes in the tacos. The meat makes your entire house smell so good.
The other half of these tacos is where our cabbage cilantro slaw, pickled red onions, and Oaxaca cheese come in. They’re all painfully easy to prep, and you really don’t have to worry about them until the meat is 3/4 of the way done cooking. The slaw is a simple mix of shredded red cabbage, cilantro, lime, and salt – seriously simple stuff. The pickled red onions are just sliced red onions soaked in sugar and vinegar – again, easy stuff! And the cheese is, well, cheese! All you need to do is crumble. Heavily of course 😉
This recipe makes 12 tacos, lightly stuffed, and I say with 100% honesty we ate all 12 in a matter of minutes and could have gone another round… so double (or triple) up if you’re feeding a crowd. Also, a dash of hot sauce. Do it!
Beer Braised Short Rib Tacos with Cabbage Cilantro Slaw and Oaxaca Cheese
Ingredients
- 3 pounds beef short ribs
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon chipotle powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon coriander
- 2 cloves garlic, smashed
- 1/4 red onion, cut into two large pieces
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup of your favorite beer (this is basically one bottle with a nice big swig or two taken from it), I used Brooklyn Lager
- 12 taco tortillas
- 1/2 head (get the tiniest one you can find) of red cabbage, thinly sliced
- 2 limes, zested and juiced
- 1 large red onion, thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 6 ounces oaxaca cheese, crumbled
Instructions
- *The short ribs take between 6-8 hours to cook, so keep this in mind when planning to cook.
- Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once sizzling, add short ribs and sear on all sides until golden brown; about 1 minute on each side. Remove and place in the dutch oven.
- In a small bowl, combine salt, pepper, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, chipotle powder, cumin and coriander; mix well. Sprinkle the mixture over the short ribs, gently rubbing it into the meat. In a separate bowl combine beer and vinegar, then pour mixture in to the dutch oven.
- Finally heat the dutch oven over LOW flame, and cook for about 8 hours, or until the meat is literallt falling off the bone.
- Once meat has finished cooking, remove carefully using kitchen tongs and transfer to a large clean cutting board. Let the ribs cool until you can touch them for an extended time without getting burnt, then remove the meat from the bone. This should be very easy and just involve you using your fingers to sort of rub the meat apart.
- When your meat has cooked about 7 hours, make your slaw and onions!
- In a large bowl combine cabbage, lime zest, lime juice with a pinch of salt; toss well.
- In a separate large bowl combine thinly sliced onions with vinegar, salt, and sugar. Mix well, then let sit at room temperature for at least 1 hour.
- Crumble cheese and place in a small serving bowl.
- To serve, warm tortillas in the oven for a few minutes, then assemble tacos with meat first, then cabbage, then crumbled cheese. And EAT 🙂
These were GREAT! I love, love, loved them.
Also, I know this is from a couple year ago, so…sorry to pick apart an older post, BUT…
Your recipe calls for some smashed garlic (and then doesn’t say where that works in), and there’s no amount for, or mention of, cilantro in the ingredients list for the Cilantro/Lime slaw. BUT! It wasn’t hard to figure out the cilantro, and these came out awesome, even without the garlic (that I also forgot about).
I used a stout for these, and cooked slow and low in the Dutch Oven, in the oven instead of on the stovetop.
Anyway, again…these were really awesome, and I’ll make ’em again. And again. And again.
Everything about this is making my mouth water! what a delicious combination of flavours!
These look and sound fantastic! Definitely going to try making these short rib tacos with a dark, chocolatey stout.
Braised short ribs are a favorite around here. I never thought to turn them into a delicious taco. Love!
I want these tacos for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Fabulous! I’ve had all of these elements as nachos! They were fabulous, too! I’m glad you discovered braising.
Short rib tacos!!! Agh, my dream food. These look delicious Ashley!!
I’m having a taco party on Sunday and I’m going to go on the hunt for some short ribs now so I can add these to the menu!
Oooohhh girl – these look incredible! Oaxaca cheese is so good <3