Oven Roasted BBQ Beef Short Ribs

 

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As I am making travel arrangements for my 72nd trip around the sun next year, I have come to appreciate the wisdom that comes with age. In my youth, I was resolute that you needed a smoker to create great BBQ. Now, at what is surely the current peak of my wisdom, I have come to realize that the oven is every bit as capable of turning out the most incredible, low and slow BBQ.

Beef short ribs are one of the toughest cuts of meat. The only way to make them edible is to cook them low and slow, causing the fat to render and that delicious collagen to melt into the fibers of the meat. While a smoker can do that, your oven is just as accomplished. And it is so much simpler than a smoker.

Just 5 minutes of prep. Wrap them in foil and slap them in a 275º oven. Walk away and go about your day because you don't have to lift a finger for the next four hours. Cold and snowy outside? You give no shits because you are now the King of Indoor BBQ!

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Beef short ribs are sold two ways. The flanken cut is very thin, with a series of bones along one side. That cut is popular for Korean BBQ. The one that you want to use for this recipe is called the English cut. As you can see from the above photo, it's a big chunk of beef attached to a bone. Four hours in the oven is going to melt that chunk of beef into one of the greatest morsels to ever pass your lips.

Here are a few things to take note of. Make sure you use a cookie sheet that has a rack. The ribs are going to render a lot of fat, so you don't want the ribs cooking in a pool of fat. The mustard in this recipe is used only as a binder for the rub. It will cook off and you will never taste it. Finally, go right ahead and use your favorite BBQ rub. Mine happens to be "Famous Dave's", so that is what I called out in the recipe. Pretty much the same for the BBQ sauce. Use your fave...mine is Sweet Baby Ray's.

INGREDIENTS

6 English-cut beef short ribs

Yellow mustard

Famous Dave's Rib Rub

Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ Sauce

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 275º.
2. Place rack inside of cookie sheet and set ribs on top of rack, meat side up.
3. Squirt about a tablespoon of mustard on each rib. Then spread the mustard with your hand so that the entire top surface is covered in mustard. Then sprinkle each rib with the rib rub.
4. Cover the ribs/cookie sheet with foil and crimp so that it is air tight. Place cookie sheet in oven.
5. After 4 hours, remove cookie sheet from oven. Move rack to upper level and turn on your broiler.
6. Remove the foil covering the ribs. Brush each rib with a generous amount of BBQ sauce. Put rack under the broiler and cook the ribs for 2 to 4 minutes...just enough for the sauce to caramelize. Then serve.

Pairing: An ice cold Pilsner...or a Zin.