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Simple Oxtail Ragu

A hearty and delicious meaty ragu that will leave you asking for more. Perfect with pasta, creamy mashed potato or chapati.
Course: Main Course
Keyword: oxtail

Ingredients

  • 2 tbsp cooking oil
  • 1 kg oxtail
  • Salt
  • Black pepper
  • 1 medium red onion finely chopped
  • 1/2 head garlic crushed
  • 1 inch thick ginger crushed
  • 1 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce optional
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 2 rosemary twigs
  • 3 thyme twigs
  • 2 cups chicken stock
  • Fresh parsley roughly chopped
  • Grated parmesan cheese optional

To thicken the sauce (Corn starch slurry)

  • 1 tbsp cold water
  • 1 tbsp corn start

(Beurre Maine)

  • 1 tbsp unsalted butter softened
  • 1 tbsp all purpose flour

Instructions

For Pressure Cooker

  • Put sauté function on your pressure cooker and add about two tablespoons of oil
  • Season the oxtail with salt and black pepper on all sides.
  • In the hot oil, sear the oxtail in batches. Brown all sides of the oxtail and set aside.
  • Once all pieces are seared, add onions and cook until translucent.
  • Add garlic and ginger and cook for 30 seconds or until fragrant.
  • Add tomato paste and cook for about 2 minutes.
  • Add worcestershire sauce if using. Then add about a half cup of chicken stock to deglaze the pan. Use a wooden spoon to scrape all the browned bits. For a pressure cookers, its important all bits are scrapped off to avoid a burn spot.
  • Once deglazed, add back the seared oxtail pieces, the rest of the chicken stock , bay leaves, rosemary and time.
  • Close the lid of the pressure cooker, ensure the knob is on the sealing mark. Put the pressure cook function and set a timer for 45 to 50 minutes.
  • Once the timer goes off, allow the pressure cooker to release pressure naturally for 15 minutes.
  • After the 15 minutes, release the residual pressure manually and once the valve drops, you can safely open the pressure cooker.
  • Remove the oxtail pieces, remove the herbs and discard. For the oxtail pieces, shred the meat to add back to the sauce.
  • With the shredded meat back in the sauce, put back the saute function and thickened the sauce if needed.
  • If using a corn starch slurry, in a small bowl mix corn starch and colder and stir it into the sauce. The slurry thickens the sauce and makes it look glossy.
  • If using the beurre maine, knead the softened butter with the flour, then add it to the sauce. Stir to cook.
  • Turn off the pressure cooker and add chopped fresh parsley and grated parmesan cheese if using.

If cooking on the stove top

  • Follow the searing procedure but now in a dutch oven or heavy sufuria. Once deglazed, cook the oxtail, while covered on low heat for 3 to 4 hours or until tender
  • Once cooked, shred the meat and thicken the sauce if need be.

If using the oven

  • Follow the searing procedure but now in a dutch oven on the stove top then transfer the dutch oven in a pre heated oven. , Cook while covered at about 165 degrees C for about 3 hours or until tender.
  • Once cooked, shred the meat and thicken the sauce if need be.

Video

Notes

For this recipe, you can also use red wine to deglaze.
Work with about a half cup of a dry red wine for this.