Slow Cooker

Asian Braised Short Ribs

by:
May 20, 2021
4
7 Ratings
Asian Braised Short Ribs
  • Serves 4
Author Notes

Short ribs braised in a bath of spices, soy sauce, and rice wine until the meat becomes tender and falls off the bone. —Vy Tran

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 3 pounds English-cut bone-in short ribs
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 cloves of garlic, smashed
  • ¼ cups soy sauce (Maggie or Kikkoman brand)
  • ¼ cups hoisin sauce (Lee Kum Kee brand)
  • ½ cups cup rice wine (Shaoxing brand)
  • ½ cups brown sugar
  • 3 cups water
  • 2 lemongrass stalks, tender bulb part crushed
  • 1 stub of ginger, thumb size, crushed
  • 2 cinnamon sticks
  • 5 star anise
  • kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
  • 2 green onions, white and pale green part, thinly sliced
  • cilantro leaves, chopped
  • cooked white or brown rice to serve
  • your favorite vegetables (optional)
Directions
  1. Preheat oven to 375˚F.
  2. Place ginger, cinnamon sticks, and star anise on a baking tray and bake in the oven for 10 minutes.
  3. In a mixing bowl, whisk together soy sauce, rice wine, hoisin sauce, brown sugar, and water until evenly combined. Set aside.
  4. Season short ribs with salt and pepper.
  5. Place a Dutch oven on the stove over medium-high heat and add oil.
  6. Add garlic, lemongrass, ginger, cinnamon, and star anise to the Dutch oven and cook, stirring until fragrant, about 5 minutes. Remove everything and set aside.
  7. Working in batches, add the short ribs and sear until all sides are browned. Remove ribs to a plate and set aside.
  8. Return garlic, lemongrass, ginger, and spices to the Dutch oven.
  9. Stir in combined sauce of soy sauce, rice wine, hoisin sauce, sugar, and water and bring to a boil.
  10. Return ribs to pan and bring to a simmer for about 10 minutes.
  11. Cover and transfer to oven to cook, turning occasionally, until meat pulls easily with your fork, about 2 hours.
  12. Transfer the ribs to a platter and cover to keep warm.
  13. For the glaze, remove 1 cup of braising liquid and skim off as much fat as possible from the surface.
  14. Divide the ribs among individual plates with rice, spoon the glaze over the ribs, garnish with green onion and cilantro. Serve right away.
  15. Note: this dish is best enjoyed the same day. If you have leftover, make sure the ribs are covered in braising liquid otherwise they will dry out.
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5 Reviews

Susan B.
Susan B. February 18, 2021
Made this recipe again. So easy. 2 hours at 300 was plenty of time. The aroma from the roasted star anise, cinnamon sticks and ginger is so wonderful. The dish also brings a great aroma to the kitchen.
 
Susan B.
Susan B. November 3, 2020
I liked this recipe very much. I added extra water to nearly cover ribs and gave them 3 hours at 300 degrees. Then I used Food52’s Irene Kuo’s 12345 spare rib recipe to finish the short ribs with a nice glaze/sauce instead of reducing braising liquid. I then served them with Chef Lucas Sin’s Golden Fried Rice. My short-rib-lover, Asianophile wife raved about them.
 
julie29
julie29 December 14, 2019
I made this last night and thought it was delicious. My husband and son however thought the star anise flavor was too strong. I did make a few changes - I only added 2 cups of water to the sauce since I had made a similar recipe and found the sauce to be too watery. I cooked the ribs at 325 degrees for about 3 hours. I feel I get better results with a lower oven temperature for slow cooking. The meat was perfectly tender. The sauce did not seem overly sweet to me - I thought it was very tasty!
 
Sarah
Sarah January 21, 2019
I was not a fan of this recipe. The hoisin, sugar, and mirin made for a very sweet marinade, which the anise and cinnamon only exacerbated. If I were to do this again, I would add some fish sauce and maybe use rice wine vinegar rather than the mirin, or otherwise try to balance the sugar. Further, this was extremely fatty—I would recommend a 3-4 hour braise rather than the recommended 2.
 
cynthia
cynthia February 16, 2019
Humm, questioned the fish sauce.
Thank you