My Honest Butcher Slow Cooker Short Ribs

We don’t eat a tonne of meat at our house but when I do make something for the resident carnivore (my darling boy) I don’t stint on quality. As I’ve mentioned before I’m lucky enough to live within an easy walk of  The Honest Butcher. Part of the fun of Sunday cooking (I know that sounds like an oxymoron but it is the one day when I’m not pressed for time and I can play in the kitchen) is to make dinner contingent on what fine quality ingredients I can find on sale at the grocery store. It appeals to the Scot in me I guess…adds a bit of a challenge to the process and forces me to go searching for different recipes so it doesn’t get boring. I can remember being a kid and my friends referring to specific days by the dinner that was served i.e., it’s Hamburger Helper night or it’s pork chop night. As a working parent I can certainly understand why this happens especially if only one parent is doing the cooking AND working full time (hint to other parent…this is not ok). Things were a little different at my house. Dinner was always a surprise and both my parents were very good at cobbling together a meal out of whatever we had on hand…believe it (or not) I love liver and onions because my Dad used to make it for me as a kid.  Anyway, to the Crock Pot Batman.

Ingredients:

1/3 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 1/2 lbs beef short ribs (they were supposed to be boneless according to the original recipe but I’ll just cook them a little longer)
2 Tbsp butter
1 large chopped onion
1 cup beef broth
3/4 cup red wine vinegar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup chili sauce (I used President’s Choice Beef marinade…no chili sauce to be found in my fridge)
2 tablespoons catsup
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon chili powder (I used chipotle chili powder)

Put flour, salt and pepper in a pie plate and stir to blend. Coat the ribs and shake off excess flour. Melt the butter in a big cast iron frying pan (or whatever you normally use to brown meat). Brown the short ribs well on all sides and put them in a Crock Pot (aka slow cooker). In the same frying pan add the chopped onion and saute until translucent. Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Let the works simmer for about 5 minutes and the pour over the ribs. Cover and cook on low for 9 hours.

 There was a lot of fat that came of this sucker but they are short ribs after all. I managed to drain most of it off and the sauce was super good with very moist meat. No picture this time.  We were starving and I forgot. By the time I remembered the remains looked sort of like wild dogs had attacked (sorry).