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.

Shredded Chicken Tacos

The Best Shredded Chicken Tacos

If you’re a fan of Tex-Mex or Mexican food and you love Shredded Chicken Tacos, you’re in for a treat because this is the real deal and they’re so easy to make using this slow cooker recipe. The meat is fall off the bone tender and full of amazing flavor. Plus, this recipe can be used for more than just tacos. I’m talking about burritos, nachos, chimichangas, quesadillas or served over rice, it’s that versatile.

Shredded Chicken Taco Seasoning

One of the best seasonings to use for this Shredded chicken Taco recipe is Blackened Seasoning. It’s got everything you need in one and can usually be found with barbecue rubs and all purpose seasonings in your grocery store. It’s also very easy to make if you can’t find someone that carries it and you want or need to make your own. Here’s my recipe for Blackened Seasoning if you’re interested. The seasoning in the photos and video tutorial is my recipe and it’s got smoked paprika, cumin, onion & garlic powder, as well as a few other ingredients you’re going to love. It goes great with pork, beef, poultry and seafood. I highly recommend you try it, if you haven’t already. I also use kosher salt and pepper.

Diced Tomatoes, garlic and chipotle peppers in adobo sauce topped with seasoned chicken thighs and Mexican oregano.

Shredded Chicken Tacos Secret Sauce

Every recipe has that one thing that makes it really special and this Shredded Chicken Tacos recipe is no exception. In the bottom of your slow cooker, you want to add a can of diced tomatoes, chipotle peppers and some minced or chopped garlic. Then, once you add the seasoned chicken thighs, top everything off with Mexican Oregano. If you’re Crock-Pot has a heavy glass lid like mine and it doesn’t allow steam to escape, you won’t have to add any liquid. Otherwise, 1 cup of chicken broth might be necessary. The cooking time will depend on what you’re trying to accomplish. Set on low, I personally cook for 10 to 12 hours but the recommended cooking time by the manufactures is between 6 to 8. On high, the recommended time is 4 to 6 so, you decide.

De-boned slow cooked Chicken thigh meat for tacos.

De-bone the Chicken Tacos Meat

One thing I appreciate is not having to spit back out the food I’m trying to eat. Nothing more annoying to me than biting into a texture that just isn’t palatable so, there’s two things you want to get rid of after the chicken is cooked. They’re both considered one in the same, more or less, but they often separate when the meat tenderizes and that’s the thigh bone and the end cap on the bone. Then once those have been removed, feel free to fork and shred the meat.

Skillet full of Shredded Chicken Tacos meat.

Pan Fry Shredded Chicken Tacos Meat

I like to add a little more texture to the meat, in my Shredded Chicken Tacos, by pan frying the the shreds in an 8th inch of oil for about 5 minutes. Once it starts getting some color and gets a little crispy on the edges, I had a few scoops of the left over slow cooker juice. You don’t want the meat to dry out and there’s so much flavor there, it’s good to utilize and not let it go to waste.

Shredded Chicken Tacos – Slow Cooker Recipe – PMGK

Shredded Chicken Tacos Ingredients:

8 to 10 Chicken Thighs, boneless or bone in
Season with Kosher Salt & Pepper and Blackened Seasoning
1 can Diced Tomatoes
2 tbsp Chipotle Peppers in adobo sauce
1 tbsp Mexican Oregano
1 pkg Corn Tortilla’s
Oil for frying, canola or vegetable

Cook on the Low setting for 10 to 12 hours in a Slow Cooker and follow the directions in the Shredded Chicken Tacos video tutorial.

Top 5 Slow Cooker Recipes

This will very soon become your families favorite meal too!

My Favorite PMGK Slow Cooker Meal

The slow cooker is a busy parents best friend. I know if I wasn’t married, to the most amazing cook out there, that I would be using mine all the time. While Mr. PMGK was working on this top 5 list, I told him that this Chicken and Gravy recipe was my favorite of the 5. I told him I wished that he would make it more often. His response was, you know the recipe(as I shook my head and gave him the look). Everyone knows by now, I do not cook and why would I? I have him!

Slow Cooker Roast Beef always reminds me of Sunday dinners

Slow Cooker Dinners Made Easy

I can recognize the smell of Roast Beef in the crock pot anywhere. To this day the smell makes my mouth water. Very often growing up I’d wake up to the yummy smell Sunday mornings. If I was lucky I could pull a taste from the pot without someone noticing but with caution. If my mom caught me, it’d be a slap on the hand for sure. When you grow up in a home with 13 children, one crock pot full of meat is hardly enough to go around.

There is nothing little about these “lil smokies”!

Slow cooker recipes make Big Flavor meals

These lit’l smokies are so amazing! They have so much flavor. What I like best about them is that you can throw them in the crock pot and forget about them. Before you now it they’re done. They are my favorite to prepare when I have people over or when we’re making a meal that is going to take a while. No one is ever waiting around hungry for dinner if we make these to snack on while they wait.

Slow Cooker Chili no Beans

Don’t get me wrong this recipe is great but when I hear the word chili followed by the word no beans, my first thought is, “no beans?” When I think chili, I think beans! I’m Hispanic and we most definitely love our beans. However, Chili no beans are so good for so many things. They are my absolute favorite on chili cheese dogs. If you make a crock pot full of these for a party it will be gone before you now it. My husbands first intention, when he created this recipe, was to use this as a filling for fast food style tacos and burritos.

Kalua Pork Fries are a PMGK classic that I just can’t get enough of!

Slow Cooker Kalua Pork

Kalua is Hawaiian for barbecue and it’s traditionally cooked slow and low buried in the ground. Today’s technology, however, has changed drastically and allows us to use appliances like an oven or a Slow Cooker. PMGK makes Kalua Pork both ways. Either way it turns out perfect and so tender! There are benefits to cooking this dish either way. If we don’t want leftovers, we make it in the crock pot and just use a small butt roast instead of a full shoulder. If we want left overs, there are a lot of pulled pork style recipes that whole pork shoulder is good for. For example: My absolute favorite Kalua Pork recipe is our classic Kalua Pork Fries. If you haven’t tried them yet you are truly missing out but it doesn’t end there. My husband has posted Kalua Pork Burritos, Tamales and another recipe to cook the whole shoulder roast in the oven.

The top 5 best Slow Cooker Meals ever!

Are you excited to use your Slow Cooker yet?

If I haven’t gotten you excited about trying these recipes or at least using your crock pot a little more then I don’t know what will! What are you waiting for? Watch the new video above and let’s get started making dinner a whole lot easier and so much more delicious!