Braising might sound like a fancy restaurant technique, but really it's really straightforward. You're just slow-cooking tough cuts of meat in liquid until tender, and once you've mastered this method you'll be able to braise just about anything. While a lot of recipes call for braising in stock, we say skip the sodium-laden store-bought stuff or the trouble of making your own and go with a simple but delicious combo of soy sauce, rice vinegar, Sriracha, and brown sugar. We wouldn't steer you wrong.
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What you’ll need
Measuring Cups
$28 At Bon Appétit Market
Measuring Spoons
$10 At Bon Appétit Market
Chef's Knife
$34.53 At Amazon
Cutting Board
$10 At IKEA
Dutch Oven
$133 $80 At Amazon
Wooden Spoon
$7 At Amazon
Medium Bowl
$17 At Amazon
Paper Towels
$13.45 At Amazon
Tongs
$21 At Amazon
Platter
$40 $30 At Amazon
Heavy-Duty Aluminum Foil
$12 At Target
Sieve
$18 At Amazon
Heatproof Measuring Cup
$26 At Amazon
Recipe information
Yield
4 servings
Ingredients
4
1
1
4
½
½
2
2
1
¼
Preparation
Step 1
Preheat oven to 300°. Prep your ingredients before you start cooking. First, coarsely chop 4 oz. bacon.
Step 2
Wash your cutting board (or just flip it over!) so that you're not cutting vegetables on the same surface that you used to prep raw meat. Peel 1 onion and cut into quarters; set one quarter aside for the relish. Cut remaining quarters into large pieces.
Step 3
Rinse 1 3" piece ginger, then very thinly slice crosswise (no need to peel).
Step 4
Place 4 short ribs on a plate; season all over with salt and pepper, turning pieces to season every surface.
→ Short ribs out of the budget? Here are our fave cheap braising cuts.
Step 5
Heat a Dutch oven over medium-low. Add bacon and cook, stirring often with a wooden spoon, until fat is rendered and bacon is crisp, 7–10 minutes. Meanwhile, line a medium bowl with paper towels. Using wooden spoon, transfer bacon to a medium bowl, leaving fat in pot. Blot bacon with paper towels, then discard paper towels, leaving bacon in bowl.
→ Don't have a dutch oven? Time to get with the program.
Step 6
Increase heat to medium-high and add short ribs. Cook, turning once or twice, until very well browned on at least two sides, 12–15 minutes (it’s not necessary to brown all over as long as you get a sear on a couple sides).
Step 7
Transfer short ribs back to plate and reduce heat to medium. Add ginger and onion pieces to pot and cook, stirring often, until ginger is just starting to turn golden around the edges, about 3 minutes.
Step 8
Add ½ cup soy sauce, ½ cup rice vinegar, 2 Tbsp. brown sugar, 2 Tbsp. Sriracha, and 1 cup water; stir to combine. Arrange short ribs in Dutch oven in a single layer (it’s okay if they’re not fully submerged in liquid).
Step 9
Cover pot and transfer to oven. Bake 30 minutes, then remove pot from oven and turn short ribs with tongs.
Step 10
Cover pot and return to oven. Continue to bake, turning every 30 minutes, until short ribs are fork-tender and pulling away from the bone, 60–70 minutes longer.
Step 11
Transfer short ribs to a platter. Tent with foil to keep warm.
Step 12
Heat pot with juices over medium-high and bring to a boil. Cook until braising liquid is reduced by about half, 8–12 minutes.
Step 13
While juices are reducing, thinly slice reserved onion quarter. Add 1 cup pineapple chunks and sliced onion to bowl with bacon. Season lightly with salt and toss with remaining 1 Tbsp. rice vinegar.
Step 14
Place a strainer over a heatproof measuring cup and pour reduced juices through strainer. Discard solids. Let juices settle until fat rises to the top. Spoon off fat and discard.
Step 15
Pour de-fatted juices over short ribs. Spoon bacon-pineapple relish over meat and top with ¼ cup cilantro.
Step 16
Do Ahead: Short ribs can be braised 1 day ahead. Let cool in (unreduced) braising liquid, cover, and chill. Reheat over low, then proceed with recipe. If making ahead, we recommend crisping fresh bacon for the relish.
How would you rate Braised Short Ribs with a Pretty Great Bacon-Pineapple Situation on Top?
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Reviews (16)
Back to TopA nice bright short rib recipe. I used boneless chuck roast cut into short rib sized pieces, followed the cooking instructions exactly and they were done and tender (200 degree internal temp) after 90 minutes in the oven. The pineapple bacon relish was delicious and would be tasty on anything. I used reduced sodium soy sauce and am glad I did or it would have been too salty.
Anonymous
San Francisco, CA
12/5/2021
So, I am not the best cook. Let's start with that. I just got my first dutch oven and I was so excited to try something new but wanted to be easy since I'm not a pro. Guys, I COULDN'T HAVE CHOSEN BETTER. This dish was so good, so flavorful, so delicious. I-want-to-lick-the-plate kind of good. Seriously. And so easy to make. We were so sad we didn't have leftovers. I would be definitely making this again and will double up the recipe. Ps.: also used low sodium soy sauce and cooked for 2h, turning every 30min as the recipe calls.
Isabelle
Seattle, WA
11/13/2020
Literally making this right now and am so glad I read reviews for a longer cook time! I thought I was doing it wrong because they just weren’t getting that “slide off the bone” tenderness. I also always use low sodium/no salt added ingredients anyway, and glad for that! Thank you so much for the Great recipe and super helpful reviews on this! The flavors are amazing!
Annalysejarvis
Reno, NV
6/2/2020
I received a cast iron Dutch oven for Christmas from my fiance. I knew I wanted to make something with short ribs. This was the very first recipe that came up when I Googled short ribs. I made a few changes. I added 3 rough chopped garlic cloves, and I put the red onion in cheese cloth due to an allergy to the fibers in onions, but not the juice. We also couldn't find bone-in short ribs, so we got bonless. And I used a 1/3 c soy sauce. It was a big hit with my family and definitely a keeper recipe to make many more times. I'm even thinking of trying it with a pork roast.
shoomim54
Atwater, CA
1/2/2020
Wow. I stayed up until 3 am making this last night, and it was WORTH IT. The meat is tender and delicious, the juices are mouth-watering, and the pineapple relish goes with it perfectly. (My brother disagreed, but he has an inferior palate.) My only complaint is that I'm not sure where y'all are finding these massive short ribs. I bought a pack of 4, it was about half the weight called for in the recipe, and yielded a pretty small amount of meat. I ended up buying two packs, but I wouldn't have been able to fit 8 short ribs in my dutch oven.
Anonymous
Columbia, SC
10/22/2019
I was nervous to make this recipe because my family and I have very simple tastes, but I'm glad I did! It was a little salty overall from the soy sauce, but the meat was so tender and delicious; It was a hit! I will be trying more recipes out of my comfort zone from now on.
Rmstade
Damariscotta, Maine
4/30/2019
Great recipe for short ribs, and a nice departure from the typical 'braise in red wine' method (which I truly love.) I'm lost on the pineapple topping, but that is solely based on my hatred of pineapple in savory applications. Otherwise this is a great weekend recipe!
Anonymous
Saint Louis, MO
2/20/2019