Beef Short Ribs Cooked in Slow Cooker (aka Crock Pot)

I love beef ribs.  I think I did post last summer about smoking them in the smoker.  And now I have some I'm going to cook in the slow cooker (aka crock-pot).

These are really easy to do.  I used a recipe I found on the interweb but any similar ingredients you use will work fine. Adjust the seasoning to suit.

I used:

3 1/2 lbs boneless short ribs, cut to 2x2 inch squares (approx)
2/3 c flour
salt (1 tsp or so)
black pepper (1 tsp or so)
1/4 c butter
1 large onion, chopped
2 tbsp garlic, minced
1 1/4 c red wine vinegar
3/4 c chili sauce
2 tbsp Worchestershire
2 tbsp catsup
1 1/4 c brown sugar
1 tsp ground red chilies

Combine the flour, salt and pepper in a paper bag.  Put the ribs in the bag and shake it to coat them.  You may need to do this in batches.

Here are mine halfway done.  Don't they look good?  Mmmmm raw meat.

Melt the butter in a large skillet.  I have a pretty ginormous (14") cast iron skillet that's ideal for this.

Then brown de boeuf hunks in de butter.

Don't crowd the ribs - I did 2 batches.  If you crowd them, they'll wind up steaming and not getting a nice sear on the outside.

When the ribs are browned, take the out and put on a paper towel to drain.  Then place them in your slow cooker.

Combine the rest of the ingredients in the same skillet you just used for browning.  Bring to a boil, stirring.

If you've made barbeque sauce before, you'll recognize this mixture as basically a barbeque-esque sauce.  Use ingredients you like here.  The recipe I worked from called for chili powder, but I used ground molido chilies.  (Aside:  I now avoid chili powder like the plague after cooking from the Feast of Santa Fe cookbook.  My man Huntley Dent calls chili powder 'adulterated.'  So now I use the real deal).

After the sauce comes to a boil, pour it over the ribs in the slow cooker.

Cook the ribs on low for 8 hours or so.

Serve them over rice or noodles.  Since I had an 8-hour lag, I forgot to take a picture of them after they were done!

This recipe will serve 4-6 normal people, or two ukulele players.