Slow Cooker Beef Short Ribs with Rich Gravy

Fall-apart beef served with a rich and meaty red wine gravy.  This is serious comfort food. The whole family devours my Crockpot Short Ribs! Plus they make THE BEST leftovers too.

📋 What do we need?

🧑‍🍳 How to make slow cooker short ribs

***Full recipe with detailed steps in the recipe card below***

Heat some oil and sear the short ribs. You can do this in a pan, or directly in your slow cooker if you have a searing function (my crockpot does this and I love it!). You want them nicely browned all over.

Then we add onions and soften them, before adding in garlic, red wine, stock, thyme, tomato paste, sugar, bay leaves, salt, pepper and Worcestershire sauce.

Bring everything to the boil (transfer to your slow cooker at this point if you were doing this part in a pan) and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

After that time the meat should be starting to fall apart. Ladle most of the liquid into a pan

Bring the liquid to the boil, then turn down the heat to a simmer. Stir in a little cornstarch slurry to thicken, then turn off the heat.

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Let’s talk mashed potato. One of my childhood dream-foods – I’ve always loved mashed potato.  It’s got to be proper mash though.

By that I mean laced with lots of butter, a good drizzle of thick cream and some freshly ground salt and pepper.  Done like that, I just want to sit on the sofa and eat it straight from the pan.

An absolute must for me is a potato ricer. Have you tried one?

I have a thing against traditional mashers – they just don’t work for me.  I always end up with lumpy mash.  Potato ricers may just be one of my favourite kitchen inventions. I use this OXO good grips one.

No peeling needed, no need to work up a sweat, endlessly bashing those potatoes.
For emergency mash (I’m not the only person to have ever used the words ’emergency mash’ am I?) you can even shove a whole potato in the microwave to cook and then put it through the ricer.

Any leftover mash and veg is fantastic fried up into bubble and squeak patties.

The mash for this meal is served with a deliciously meaty red-wine gravy – meaning it’s pretty unlikely you’ll have any leftovers anyway.

Let’s just have a close-up look at that meat again…….

This post was first published in May 2015. Updated in December 2018 and again in June 2022 with new photos, video and tips.Updated since with recipe improvements and for housekeeping reasons.

🍲 More fantastic Slow-Cooked recipes

(Either slow-cooker or cooked slowly in the oven or on the hob/stove-top)

Fish

BBQ Salmon

Slow Cooked

My Favourite Slow Cooker Recipes

Asian

Chinese Beef Curry

Meat

Slow cooker gammon

Meat

Lamb Kleftiko

Meat

Lamb Barbacoa

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