If you’re ever going to try something with your crockpot, this is the thing to try. Unless you don’t like easy deliciousness. If you’re anti-easy-deliciousness, then please, do not do this, you will hate it. In fact, just stop reading now.
The basis for the recipe comes from here. All I did for the first run was alter the spiciness.
As you’ve probably noticed, most everything created in the OSK involves jalapeño or Rotel or red pepper–heat of some kind. And I haven’t even touched on the dozens of pepper sauces collected by The Husband. He has a certifiable inability to say no to the pepper sauce aisle. He also has an inability to refrain from singing when he hears me bust out the first few lines (or even a whistle) of a tune he knows. Can’t help himself. One of my life’s greatest joys is to hum or softly sing a few words, wait patiently for a moment, and hear him take the bait by picking the song up where I stopped. This drives him crazy, and me to giggle fits.
Anyway. More on the pepper sauce another time. The sing-song compulsion, too. Right now: short ribs greatness awaits.
The OSK lineup (2 lbs beef short ribs, 1 sweet onion, 2 japapeños, 1 jar Stubbs spicy BBQ sauce):
Two pounds of ribs is more than enough for us and just right for the small 3-qt. crockpot, but if I were cooking for more people and using a larger crockpot, more BBQ sauce might be in order to make sure the ribs were covered. And where there’s more sauce around here, there’s also more japapeño. Gotta keep the tomato-to-fire ratio up and all.
I forgot to include the garlic in the lineup and it got its feelings hurt. So to make amends I agreed to a solo portrait. Therefore behold, The Garlic from Whence Four Cloves Were Minced:
Brown the ribs for 15 minutes at 400 degrees. (A broiler sheet is helpful for allowing the juices to drip away from the meat, but not necessary. And really, it amounts to two things to wash instead of one, which reminds me how I haven’t yet told you the DISHWASHER DIED LAST FRIDAY. After a week of cooking and collecting utensils and plates and whatnot. But you know what? I was so glad I’d been using the crockpot all week because no pots and pans to hand wash. Rock on, crockpot.)
While the ribs are browning, dice the 2 japapeños, half the onion, and 4 cloves of garlic.
When the browning is complete, transfer the ribs to the crockpot, add the diced ingredients . . .
. . . and empty the bottle of sauce over the top of it all.
Turn the crockpot to low, put the lid on it, and walk away for 8-9 hours. (Eight hours on low was just right for 2 pounds; might take closer to 10 for 4-5 pounds. Alternately: cooking on high should take about half as long.) But unless you just have to, maybe don’t walk too far–the saucy simmering smells that build throughout the day are totally worth hanging around in the vicinity of the crockpot.
Eight hours later the ribs were fall-off-the-bone tender. I got so distracted by how fantastic they were when I sampled the doneness, that I forgot to grab the camera and snap an after-photo. Plus, I’d coupled the ribs with an incredible corn casserole recipe from Pioneer Woman (seriously: go here and make this), so basically the explosive savoriness happening with the ‘buds was too much for me to simultaneously focus my thoughts on blog planning. I’ll be making them again. Maybe next time I’ll remember to photograph-then-scarf.
However.
Knowing how anxious she is to try the ribs herself and to prove I had finally listened to her pleas to make the PW corn casserole, the distraction of the ‘buds was not too much for me to focus on taunting The Other Valley Girl with a picture of my plate via text.
It was almost a catastrophe, though, because while trying to walk to the table and take the picture with my phone, I just almost dropped the plate. Can you tell which side was almost lost to the floor? THE RIBS.
But I’d have picked them up off the floor. And eaten them. They’re that good.
Printable version: OSK – BBQ Beef Shortribs
(As for PP, I’m just really not sure here. I don’t know how to factor in the cooking in the sauce all day, if that factors in at all–someone more experienced with this is invited to give an answer. The points for 3 oz. of “cooked short ribs” are 11 on the WW site, so I used that for the ribs. And leading up to this meal, I feasted only on zero-point veggies and water so I wouldn’t run over my target. It was well worth the trade!)
Thank you so much for the particular recipe, I cooked the idea today and all my friends loved it. All had double helpings. Even my better half! Donetta Ziegel