Short Rib Sliders (cooked in beer!)

I'm not a huge football fan, but it's hard not to get sucked into the grand hoopla that is The Super Bowl. As a former ad guy, I always prefer the ads to the game. It takes the really big bucks to be a Super Bowl advertiser. With the amount of money spent on the production and media cost of Super Bowl commercials, you could easily buy the New England Patriots football team and still have leftover change for a few Bugatti Chirons.

When it comes to the Super Bowl, it seems always appropriate, if not mandatory, to provide super food to your guests. Short rib sliders certainly fall into that category...especially ones that are cooked in beer. So let's start with the cut of beef.

You can buy two cuts of short ribs. For this recipe, I prefer the English cut (shown on the left). It has a large amount of meat attached to a large, single bone. It's beautifully marbled and it's flavor is exquisite thanks to that big bone (that's what she said).

This recipe also requires onion rings. Making onion rings from scratch is a giant time suck. So I buy Alexia onion rings at the grocery store. The batter is made with craft beer and you just bake them in your oven. But you'll need to refrain from using the brand name in the vicinity of your Amazon Echo.

This recipe works great for a crowd. You can make the short ribs in advance, so the only thing you need to do at the last minute is bake the onion rings and assemble the sliders. I serve my sliders with kettle chips. This recipe was adapted from ChezUs and it serves 4.


Ingredients
2 pounds English cut beef short ribs
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion
5 garlic cloves
3 cups dark beer
2 cups beef stock
kosher salt
Black pepper
1 bag Alexia onion rings
8 mini-brioche buns, sliced


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300º.
2. Pour the olive oil into a large dutch oven pan and preheat over medium heat. Add the ribs and brown each side; about 3 minutes per side. Remove the ribs from the dutch oven and set aside on a plate.
3. While the ribs are browning, peel the onion and garlic and finely mince. Add both to the dutch oven once the ribs are finished browning. Stir and cook for 2 minutes. Add the ribs to the dutch oven pan.
4. Pour the dark beer over the ribs. Cover the pan with the lid and slide into the oven. The total cooking time is 3 hours. After each hour, stir and add some of the beef stock until all is used. After 3 hours the meat should begin to fall from the bones.
5. The last 30 minutes, remove the lid and finish cooking. Remove from the oven and let set for 10 minutes.
6. Remove the ribs from the dutch oven. Remove rib bones from short ribs and place meat in a bowl. Shred the meat with two forks.
7. Bake onion rings.
8. Place the dutch oven on the stove. Over medium heat, gently reduce the broth, until thickened. This will take about 15 minutes.
9. Spoon the thickened sauce over the ribs. Then mix to combine.
10. Place meat in buns, add a couple of onion rings to each and serve.

Pairing: If you are serving wine with this meal, I would select a Cabernet Sauvignon. But it is the Super Bowl, after all, so my inclination would be to wash down this sandwich with a nice, cold Pilsner.