Beef Short Ribs with Gravy

3 Beef Short Ribs with Mashed Potatoes and Garlic Mushroom & Onion Gravy on a red plate.

Slow Roasted Beef Short Ribs

If you’ve ever wondered why the large beef ribs don’t have much meat on their bones, it’s because they’re the rib bones that are cut away from Prime Rib/Ribeye steaks. So, if any more meat was left on the bones, it would take away from those steaks. To get a meaty Beef Rib, you need to pick up some short ribs. They usually weigh about 4 lbs but they slow roast and/or smoke beautifully.

That being said, this is one of the best and easiest ways to prepare Beef Short Ribs, without a lot of hassle. There’s hardly any prep work, a little bit of after cooking to make the gravy but the hardest thing about this recipe is the waiting. It takes 10 hours to cook these ribs, in a slow cooker, to get them juicy and tender. But, it’s worth it!

1 package of raw Beef Short Ribs, wrapped in plastic, with a detailed sticker of the contents, weight & price.

Purchasing Beef Short Ribs

Sometimes these cuts aren’t easy to find and if you find them they can be a bit pricey. They’re often cut into singles with an average of 8 Riblet portions but, sometimes, the ribs can be bought as a whole. If you’re lucky, you have a butcher that will cut them by your request or, at least, offer both.

If you can’t find short ribs or you need a cheaper alternative, I suggest you purchase a thick Beef Chuck that can be cut into rib size portions, with all of the connection tissue, that could imitate good short ribs. We’ll call it, Poor Man’s Beef Short Ribs!

Beef Short Ribs are very meaty and popular among barbecue enthusiasts because of it. They are terrific when they’re smoked on a grill and just good but different, if they’re slow roasted in the oven or in a Slow Cooker. Today, I’m going to show you a simple method I like to use in my old school Crock Pot.

8 raw Beef Short Ribs on a foam packaging plate, on the counter top.

Roasting Short Ribs

Rib meat can be very tough when it’s cooked at higher temperatures for shorter amounts of time. That’s why the prefered method is to smoke or roast for a slow amount of time and at lower temps. Both smoking and roasting embrace this methodology and I’m a big fan of the process, myself.

My Crock Pot (slow cooker), however, is old. Like 80’s old but that’s the era that made the best slow cookers. They have a heavy glass lid that traps the steam in so you don’t have to add any liquid to keep the meat from drying out. If you’ve got one of the newer slow cookers, that requires the addition of liquid as you roast, then you need to follow those cooking instructions along with this recipe, to get the same results.

Large white bowl filled with all of the cooked Beef Short Ribs and bits of Mushroom, Onion and Bell Pepper.

I season and sear all of the Beef Short Ribs, in a pan with Olive Oil, before I add them to the Crock Pot. Then I add chopped onion, bell pepper, mushrooms and parsley. Again, no liquid unless your slow cooker requires it. After 10 hours of cooking on low, I separate the Ribs from the liquid (above pic).

Large pan with Garlic Mushroom, Onion and Bell Pepper Brown Gravy, made from the Beef Short Ribs Roast.

Making the Gravy

I use the liquid, from the crock pot to make the gravy. I make a small garlic and butter based roux before I add the liquid, including all of the chopped and roasted veggies. If a deeper and more complex flavor is desired, a splash of red wine or a small amount of tomato paste can be added. I’ve had it both ways, they’re both great but I prefer it without either.

How to cook Beef Short Ribs with Gravy video tutorial by PoorMansGourmet.

Beef Short Ribs with Gravy Ingredients:

4 lbs Beef Short Ribs
1 Onion, sliced or diced
1 Red Bell Pepper, sliced or diced
2 oz Button or Portobello Mushrooms, sliced
1 sprig Fresh Parsley, chopped

Lightly season Beef with Kosher Salt and Pepper

Gravy Ingredients:

1 Garlic Clove, chopped
2 tbsp Butter
2 tbsp Flour, all purpose
Slow Cooker Liquid & Vegetables

1/2 cup Red Wine, optional
1/3 cup Tomato Sauce, optional

Kosher Salt and Pepper to taste

Season the Beef Short Ribs with Kosher Salt and Pepper, then sear all sides in a hot pan. Add sliced Onion, Bell Pepper, chopped mushrooms and parsley to the slow cooker, topped with the seared short ribs. Cook on low for 10 hours.

Extract the Beef Ribs from the pot and start cooking the Gravy in a large pan on the stove. Start with the butter, then add the garlic and flour. Stir for 1 minute until it’s pasty and starts to brown. Then add the slow cooker juice including all of it’s contents; onions, peppers, mushrooms and parsley. Cook and stir over High heat, until the gravy thickens, then turn the burner down to low. Serve Beef Short Ribs
and Gravy over mashed potatoes.

Killer Hash Browns

The Best Hash Browns

You may or may not be familiar with the local Mom & Pop diner’s in your home town that serve their specialty menu Items. My town is no different and one of the traditions at my local diner is to serve what is called, “Killer Hash Browns” or “Killers”. Technically, the Killer’s is a glorified gravy packed with 3 different pork products, cooked sausage links, ham and bacon, plus a mix of sauteed onions, bell peppers and cheese. The Killers don’t just grace the top of hash browns, however. You can order them over the top of an omelette, biscuits or, my personal favorite, a chicken fried steak. In this recipe I’m going to show you how to do it for about $10 bucks and it should easily feed 2 to 4 people.

Killer’s mix with cooked sausage, ham, bacon, onions and bell peppers.

What I use to make Killer Hash Browns

There isn’t just one way to go about making these Killer Hash Browns. You can change it up any way that you see fit. I’m going to include all of the links for each of the recipes here too. For example, you’re going to need either a frozen bag of Hash Browns or Fresh Potatoes to grade your own. You’re also going to need to make a Breakfast Gravy. You can cheat and use a powdered pack, like I do in the video tutorial, or you can make your own favorite recipe if you have one.

As I mentioned before, you’re going to need sausage, ham and bacon. A pound of each will be plenty. Also, one chopped Onion and Bell Pepper but feel free to add or supplement any ingredient. Mushrooms would be a nice addition. The rest of the basic ingredients will be listed below.

Killer Hash Browns video tutorial by Poor Man’s Gourmet Kitchen.

Killer Hash Browns Ingredients:

1 bag frozen Hash Browns
1 lb Sausage, links
1 lb Bacon, sliced
1 lb Ham, diced
1 Onion, diced
1 Bell Pepper
1 tbsp Olive Oil
3 tbsp Peanut Oil
1 tbsp Butter
2 cups Breakfast or Country Gravy
Salt and Pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350° Fahrenheit. Cook sausage for 1 hour, flipping half way through and bacon for 30 minutes. Be sure to watch and follow the instructions in the video tutorial and I’ll show you exactly how to make these Killer Hash Browns.

Beef Short Ribs

The Best Beef Short Ribs

These are the best Beef Short Ribs on the planet! I know, I’m modest but this isn’t my recipe. It’s just a real basic and classic way to cook them. It’s pretty much a Roast Beef recipe with Mashed Potatoes and Gravy. So, I really can’t take credit for it. But I don’t mind showing you the easiest way to do it, from A to Z, to keep it short and simple. Just know that you don’t have to do it exactly the way I do, so feel free to improvise. This recipe can also be done in the oven or crock-pot if you don’t have the time to baby sit a pot on the stove. Also, add your potatoes to the pot if you don’t want to make mashed potatoes.

Braised Beef Short Ribs

These ribs are nothing short of excellent and this really is, pretty much, just a Braised Beef Short Ribs recipe. The only difference is that I don’t dust the ribs with flour, after I salt and pepper. But feel free to do it, if that’s what you prefer. There’s no special reason why I don’t or didn’t. The truth is I just got in a hurry ,between cooking and filming, and I just added them to the pot before I realized. And, as you can imagine, I completely pulled a Homer Simpson with a slap to the forehead and loud, “DOH!” But, hey, can’t be perfect all the time. This is, after all, the Poor Man’s Gourmet Kitchen.

Beef Short Ribs Ingredients:

3 to 4 Beef Short Ribs
Kosher Salt and Pepper

2 tbsp Olive Oil
1/2 Onion, chopped
1 Carrot Stick, chopped
1 Cellery Stick, chopped
2 Garlic Cloves, chopped
1 Sprig Taragon, chopped
1/4 cup Flour
1/2 cup Red Wine
1/2 cup Brandy
2 cups Beef Broth

Garlic Mashed Potatoes Recipe

Be sure to follow the instructions in the Beef Short Ribs video Tutorial and I’ll show you just how easy this recipe is to make.