Instant Pot Short Ribs
For the longest, I always wrote off short ribs. Everything else on a menu sounded better and I definitely hadn’t ever tried to cook them myself. That was until I saw Samin Nosrat make them on Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat. She made them seem so simple & full of flavor. Then, I saw some at the butcher counter & I knew I had to try them.
Let’s be real, some recipes take a few attempts & some I’ll nail the first time. Most are done at least twice, because the first time around I’m usually going by feel & not measuring everything precisely. That’s probably been the toughest part about developing recipes to share: taking time to measure every splash & dash I toss in. Okay, that & actually sitting down to type up the recipe once I’ve finalized it 🙈 (this is my apology for being away so long, Maddie! 😂)
This was one of those that took 5+ times to hone. Special thanks to Whole Foods for always having more short ribs when I needed them & Chase for always being okay with eating more of them. The first attempt it was the cooking time that was off, then too much acid from tomato paste & wine (whoops), then I didn’t have celery & didn’t think it really mattered. You know, the usual suspects.
But, after all, I figured it out & am excited to share!
It all starts with the short ribs! You’ll need about 5lbs or 8-10 ribs for this one & it’s easily adapted to fewer if needed- you’ll just have more saucy sauce per rib. 😏
You can also make this in a dutch oven if you haven’t hopped on the Instant Pot bandwagon yet.
Taking a tip from Samin, salt your meat when you get home from the grocery store; kosher salt is perfect for this. And, after skipping this step once, I realized how much of a difference it makes in the flavor of the entire dish. Before you start cooking, let the ribs come to room temperature.
Once your short ribs are all salty & at room temp, turn your instant pot on medium heat using the sauté function. Add some avocado oil & brown the ribs in batches, making sure all sides are browned. This should be 3-4 minutes max each side.
Set the ribs aside & toss in your chopped veggies: carrots, celery, & onions. Add a little more oil if the pan is dry. Once their softened, add in the garlic, all of it. The entire head. Just chop it in half & throw it in. Next add the tomato paste (and do not take your time here because it might burn and you might have to dump it all out & start this part over again like I hear some people may do sometimes when they’re sautéing tomato paste with veggies 😬🤦🏻♀️). Stir to coat the veggies then add in the wine, let simmer for a couple minutes to take the edge off, then add the broth.
Now to get cozy: nestle the ribs into the broth mixture. Put the lid on your Instant Pot, make sure it’s in sealing mode, and set to manual high pressure for 60 minutes.
Hang tight while they talk & get all tender & decide to fall off the bone.
When the 60 minutes is up, let the Instant Pot release pressure naturally. Because you packed that sucker so full, this may take 30+ minutes. IT’S WORTH IT OKAY?! Go make some polenta or mashed cauliflower to go with your dinner.
Once your Instant Pot is safe to open, remove the ribs & turn the pot to sauté on medium heat. You can either strain out the vegetables or grab you immersion blender & zhush it all up in to a thick, delicious sauce.
Note, if you want an instagrammable short rib, take care when removing them from the pot as the ribs will likely fall apart & away from the bones.
Serve the ribs drenched in the sauce & garnished with chopped Italian parsley & enjoy!
- 5 lbs beef short ribs 8-10 ribs
- 1 medium yellow onion
- 4 stalks celery
- 2 medium carrots
- 3 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 cups dry red wine
- 2 cups beef broth
- 1 head garlic
- 2 tbsp avocado oil
- kosher salt
- ground black pepper
- parsley for garnish
- When you bring your short ribs home, take them out of the packaging & liberally salt all sides. Put them in a sealed container & place in the fridge until about an hour before you're ready to start cooking.
- Once the short ribs come to room temperature, heat your instant pot to medium heat using the sauté setting. Add a tablespoon of avocado oil and sear the short ribs on each side for 2-3 minutes. Do this in batches of about 3 short ribs at a time so the pan doesn't get too crowded. Add more oil as needed between batches.
- While the short ribs sear, dice the onion, celery, and carrots and cut the head of garlic in half. Once the short ribs are seared set them aside and add the vegetables to the pot. Add a half teaspoon of salt & sauté over medium heat for about 8 minutes or until the vegetables are soft.
- Add the tomato paste to the vegetables and stir until well combined. Cook for about a minute then add the wine and broth, scraping the bottom of the pan to get up all the brown bits. Let simmer for a few minutes to let the alcohol cook off. Taste the broth & salt & pepper as needed.
- Turn off the heat & nestle the short ribs back into the pot, making sure each is submerged in the broth and vegetable mixture.
- Place the lid onto the instant pot & manually set it to high pressure for 60 minutes. After the time is up, let the instant pot release naturally (this could take 30+ minutes).
- Remove the short ribs from the pot & set aside. Strain the solids out of the broth then set the instant pot back to medium temperature simmer for 30 minutes to reduce the broth into a delicious sauce.
- Serve the ribs with the sauce & garnish with fresh chopped parsley.
- If you don't want to strain out the vegetables, you can fish out the head of garlic then blend up the mixture using your immersion blender before reducing. Be careful of the hot liquid splattering!
- This dish is easily adapted to a dutch oven: while sautéing your vegetables, preheat the oven to 325 degrees. After the ribs are well nestled in the pot, cover and braise in the oven for 2-2 1/2 hours or until tender. Reduce the sauce in a sauce pan on the stove over medium heat.
