My comforting oven-braised short ribs are fall-off-the-bone tender and finished with a sticky pomegranate glaze for layers of flavor. Best of all, they're actually easy to make! Use my step-by-step recipe to create impressive, slow-cooked ribs that are love at first bite.
And if you enjoy this recipe, you'll love my suya baby back ribs, too!
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❤️ Why You'll Love this Recipe
Simple to Make - This post breaks down the process for slow-cooked oven baked beef ribs that fall off the bone into just a few straightforward steps, and I have all my pro tips included for you below to help you get the ribs exactly right the first time.
Flavor off the Charts - We're adding flavor in every single step of this recipe, and you'll taste it all in the finished sweet and sticky beef short ribs. From tangy to savory to sweet to tart to smoky, these ribs are flavor bombs everybody will want seconds of!
Feels Fancy - Even though the instructions are easy to follow, the results are restaurant quality. So I totally understand if you want to save this holiday short ribs recipe for special occasions, but I highly encourage you to treat yourself whenever you can.
👉🏾 I take personal pleasure in making intimidating dishes as approachable as possible. So you should check out my frenched rack of lamb lollipops, perfect skillet ribeye steak, and crispy whole-roasted chicken next. They're all highly rated!
Featured Reader Review
★★★★★
"Amazing recipe! Perfect saucy, tangy, sweet, deliciousness. We will serve this for Christmas dinner. Hats off to Jazzmine!"
-Charlene
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What You'll Need for this Recipe
Bone-In Beef Short Ribs are better for braising than boneless simply because the bone adds more flavor to the process. I use English-cut ribs, which have one bone in each chunk of meat.
Aromatics like bay leaves, onions, and garlic combine with the spices and cooking liquid to create complex aroma and taste that comes through in every bite.
Avocado Oil has a nice high smoke point, which we need for frying the ribs. To avoid drying them out, they will only be in the frying pan for a couple of minutes, so it needs to be super hot. You could also use ghee, grape seed oil, or peanut oil.
Check out the recipe card below for full ingredients list, measurements, nutrition facts, and step-by-step instructions!
Substitutions & Variations
Orange Juice is acidic, which helps tenderize the meat and adds a zesty, citrusy flavor to the dish. I have also made this as a red wine braised short ribs recipe, and the results are similar, so you can make this swap if need be.
Beef Broth - Vegetable broth or stock can work instead. Or you can dissolve bouillon cubes or bouillon base in water.
Pomegranate Juice gives the glaze deep fruity notes, and if you can't find it near you or just want to try something else, cranberry juice, black currant juice, and tart cherry juice are close substitutes.
How to Make Braised Sticky Short Ribs
- Step 1: Rub down the uncooked ribs with salt and pepper, then let them rest.
- Step 2: Chop the carrots, onions, and garlic.
Pro Tip #1
Resting the meat allows it to come to room temperature, which is important for even cooking, and allows the seasonings and braising liquid to penetrate the meat better. Use the resting time to assemble and prep your remaining ingredients.
- Step 3: Sear the short ribs on all sides until they develop a brown crust. This step helps build flavor and lock in moisture.
- Step 4: Cook down the onions, spices, and garlic in the oil and fat rendered from searing the ribs.
Pro Tip #2
The process of cooking down the aromatics and spices is called "blooming." This deepens and infuses the flavor throughout the dish. So don't skip it!
- Step 5: Add in beef broth, orange juice, Worcestershire sauce, and bay leaves, then bring to a light boil.
- Step 6: Carefully add in the chopped carrots, then cover the Dutch oven with its lid and transfer to the oven to braise.
Pro Tip #3
The short ribs should be nearly covered by liquid once you add the carrots--if they aren't, add more! This helps keep them moist for a super tender and mouthwatering outcome.
- Step 7: Combine the pomegranate juice, honey, Worcestershire sauce, crushed red pepper, and cornstarch slurry in a small saucepan. Cook until it bubbles, then let it simmer until thickened and syrupy.
- Step 8: Carefully remove the braised short ribs and pan-fry them for one minute per side, then serve with the pomegranate glaze.
Pro Tip #4
Frying the ribs is optional, but I highly recommend it because the crisp outer layer that forms during the fry really stands up to the sticky glaze. Take it from my recipe testing trials, it just results in a better eating experience!
Pro Tip #5
Save the cooking liquid, aka pot liquor. It's full of flavor and can be used in soups, sauces, gravies, and more--similar to how you might use broth or stock. I like to let the liquid come to room temp or chill in the fridge so that the fat naturally separates into a distinct layer, which makes it easier to remove.
Make it a Meal!
Complete Your Plate: The carrots in this recipe are not just for decoration. Enjoy them as a side dish! The long cooking time for the ribs will give you plenty of time to work on any other sides, like mashed potatoes and a green veggie. To have everything ready at about the same time, I recommend starting the potatoes one hour before the ribs are done and your vegetables 30 minutes before.
How to Use Leftovers: It's not common that we have short rib leftovers, but when that happens, I like to shred the beef from the bone and mix it up with the braising liquid to use in tacos or sandwiches or sliders! Or add to it pasta sauce and pasta for a delicious ragù.
Frequently Asked Questions
You can absolutely braise the ribs ahead of time as long as you store them correctly. But I don't recommend frying them or adding the sauce if you won't be eating right away. This is because once reheated, the crust that develops during frying will be softened with refrigeration.
Store the cooked short ribs in an airtight container with a bit of the braising liquid and refrigerate. They will keep for up to five days this way.
Yes. To freeze, place the short ribs and braising liquid into an airtight, freezer-safe container with as little air inside as possible. I recommend using a container that is just big enough to hold everything so that there's little to no space left between the food and the lid. The ribs will last for up to three months once frozen.
How to Serve
Pairings: Short ribs are traditionally served with carrots and potatoes--mashed potatoes, specifically. For your potato options, I recommend pairing with either my garlic parmesan mashed potatoes or spiced sweet potato mash.
And the saucy pot liquid acts as a lil gravy. Rice, grits, and polenta are other common options instead of potatoes. Try my easy cheesy grits, sweet potato grits, or homemade yellow rice!
Temperature: This sticky short rib recipe is best served immediately while hot, with a spoonful of tangy glaze to balance out its richness.
Occasions: These are solid ribs even if you skip the finishing steps, but that glaze is what really takes this dish over the top, elevating it to a main worthy of your Christmas dinner table or date night menu-sweet and tangy with a kick of heat. The glaze is good enough to slurp from a spoon (Ask me how I know!) and cuts through the richness of the meat really nicely.
And I'm always going to advocate for more veggies on your plate, so try my lemon garlic spinach, pan-fried brussels sprouts, or garlic brown butter green beans.
More Favorite Main Dish Recipes
Looking for other recipes like this? Try these:
I hope you'll enjoy these braised short ribs with sticky sauce soon and very soon. And sharing is caring, so be sure to pin this recipe for later and follow me over on Pinterest. Thanks for reading!
📖 Recipe
Sticky Oven Braised Short Ribs
Equipment
- 1 knife
- 1 garlic press optional
- 1 4-quart Dutch oven or larger
Ingredients
For the Braised Short Ribs
- 2 pounds English-cut bone in beef short ribs
- 1 ½ teaspoon sea salt plus more to taste
- 1 teaspoon black pepper plus more to taste
- 2 large carrots
- 1 sweet yellow onion
- 8 cloves garlic
- 4 tablespoons avocado oil divided
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- ½ teaspoon white pepper
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- 2 cups beef broth or stock
- ½ cup orange juice
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 2 bay leaves
For the Sticky Pomegranate Sauce
- ½ cup pomegranate juice
- ¼ cup honey
- 1 ½ tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper
- 1 teaspoon water
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- sea salt to taste
- black pepper to taste
Instructions
Prep the Ingredients
- Rub down short ribs with sea salt and black pepper, making sure to coat all sides of the meat, then set aside to rest and come to room temperature (about 30 minutes).2 pounds English-cut bone in beef short ribs, 1 ½ teaspoon sea salt, 1 teaspoon black pepper
- Meanwhile, cut the carrots into bite-sized pieces, dice the onion and mince or press the garlic. Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.1 sweet yellow onion, 2 large carrots, 8 cloves garlic
- Warm 2 tablespoon avocado oil in Dutch oven over medium-high heat for about two minutes (should have a shimmering appearance and slide around easily when you move the pan).4 tablespoons avocado oil
- Add short ribs to pot and sear each side for about 2 minutes or until a brown crust develops.
Build the Flavor
- Remove short ribs from pot and reduce heat to medium. Add diced onion, brown sugar, nutmeg, cayenne pepper, white pepper, smoked paprika, and a few pinches of salt and pepper, and cook until onion starts to turn translucent and is fragrant (about 3 minutes). Add garlic and cook for another minute.1 tablespoon brown sugar, 1 teaspoon nutmeg, ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper, ½ teaspoon white pepper, ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- Stir and scrape the pot to unstick any caramelized bits then add the short ribs and any of their juices back to the pot.
- Add in beef broth, orange juice, worcestershire sauce, and bay leaves, then bring to a light boil (about 8 minutes).2 cups beef broth, ½ cup orange juice, 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce, 2 bay leaves
- Braise the Ribs
- Turn off heat, then carefully add carrots to Dutch oven around ribs and cover with lid. Transfer to middle rack of oven and cook for 3 hours or until meat is fall off the bone tender then remove from oven. (The short ribs should be nearly covered with liquid before braising. Depending on the size of your pot, you may need to add more broth to achieve this.)
- Scoop the carrots out of the pot with a slotted spoon and reserve the cooking liquid for later use.
Make the Glaze
- Meanwhile, combine pomegranate juice, honey, worcestershire, and crushed red pepper to small saucepan over medium heat and stir to combine. Mix water and cornstarch together in a small bowl to create a slurry then stir the slurry into the pan.½ cup pomegranate juice, ¼ cup honey, 1 ½ tablespoon Worcestershire sauce, ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper, 1 teaspoon water, 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- Heat until bubbling (about 5 minutes) then reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes or until it's thickened and syrupy, then remove from heat. Taste test and add salt and pepper, as needed.sea salt, black pepper
Finish the Ribs
- Heat remaining two tablespoons of avocado oil in skillet over medium-high heat for about two minutes (should have a shimmering appearance and slide around the pan easily when you move the pan).
- Use kitchen tongs to carefully place cooked short ribs into heated skillet and fry for about one minute per side (turn each rib twice to fry every side except the bony side) then remove from skillet. Grip the ribs firmly with tongs to move them from Dutch oven to frying skillet and while turning as the meat will be very tender and try to come off the bone.
- Serve immediately with pomegranate glaze.
charlene says
Amazing recipe! Perfect saucy, tangy, sweet, deliciousness. We will serve this for Christmas dinner. Hats off to Jazzmine!
Jazzmine Woodard says
Thanks, Charlene! So glad you enjoyed, and Merry Christmas.