Hearty and warm slow cooker oxtail stew. Let your slow cooker work its magic and transform a few oxtail bones and a handful of vegetables into a thick, delicious meat stew. A plate of this oxtail stew is just what you need to chase away the winter blues.
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Years ago, oxtail was a very cheap cut of meat and was classified as offal. Today, as stores have become aware of the fact that people like oxtail, the price has skyrocketed, and now it costs the same as a good piece of the top.
However, it can be quite difficult to get (remember, a cow only has one tail). You may have to place an order with your butcher. But once you get your hands on it, you can turn a oxtail into the most fabulously meaty stew, with the thickest and tastiest sauce you can imagine.
Due to the nature of the cut, there is not too much meat in a oxtail. It has large bones that run inside, surrounded by meat that contains a lot of gelatin and collagen. This melts during the long slow cooking process, forming the sauce and leaving the meat tender and succulent.
It’s about the ‘sticky
bones’
In my opinion, the best thing about eating a oxtail stew is to pick up the juicy bones and suck the sticky, fleshy, gelatinous treat from the ends. This is not a meal for the faint-hearted. This is a meal where you roll up your sleeves, grab a bunch of napkins and get good and really caught.
Beef oxtail has to be one of my favorite meats to eat. It is juicy and succulent and full of flavor. And it lends itself perfectly to a slow cooking method. After a few hours in a slow cooker, the meat is so soft that it practically falls off the bone.
Combine this with a mound of vegetables and potatoes and you have a meal that will satisfy the most voracious appetite. Oh yes, this is comfort food at its finest. Winter is coming!! Bring the oxtail!!
What ingredients do you need?
To
make a oxtail stew, you obviously need oxtail. The more the merrier. I tend to buy beef oxtail because of the size of the bones rather than the weight of the package. I normally allow one large bone per person with one or two additional smaller bones. The meat in the picture below will feed three people easily.
If you want to buy your oxtail
by weight, you should keep in mind that the oxtail is about 50% bone. You’ll need more oxtail by weight than for boneless meat like steak. There can also be quite a bit of visible fat on the pieces of oxtail that need to be trimmed mostly. For these reasons, it would allow 7 to 8 ounces (or about 200 g) of oxtail per person.
<img src="https://www.foodleclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/slow-cooker-oxtail-stew-5.jpg" alt="Ingredients for slow cooker oxtail stew
For
vegetables, you will need a mirepoix or ‘holy trinity’ of onions, carrots and celery. This is 2 parts onion to one part carrots and celery. These form the flavor base of the stew and must be finely chopped.
No stew is complete without potatoes. I like to use washed, unpeeled baby potatoes (2 or 3 per person, depending on size) but you can use any firm, peeled and cut potato into large pieces. Maris Piper or King Edward potatoes are a good choice if you live in the UK or Yukon Gold in the US.
I also add about 1 cup of grated potato to the stew. This breaks down during cooking and helps thicken the sauce.
The other vegetables are mushrooms and chopped tomatoes, and shredded cabbage. If you don’t like cabbage, you can leave it out. I find that cabbage is cooked to almost nothing, and provides additional flavor and richness to the sauce.
Sauce
For the sauce, you will need a cube of meat broth dissolved in 1 cup of boiling water, some Worcestershire sauce, tomato puree and, optionally, a little salt. If you like a richer sauce, you can also add half a cup of good-quality, full-bodied red wine, but this is also optional.
You will also need flour, seasoned with a little salt, to cover the oxtail, and also olive oil to brown the oxtail.
How to make slow cooker oxtail stew
Start by preparing the vegetables.
Peel and cut the
- onions and carrots, and cut the celery into cubes
- if you are using baby potatoes, or peel and cut larger potatoes into large pieces
- Wipe the mushrooms with a damp cloth to remove the black pieces and then cut them into quarters or halves.
- small cubes, there is no need to remove the skin first
- Using a sharp knife, Cut the cabbage into strips
- Thickly peel and grate a medium-sized potato.
. Wash potatoes
.
Cut the tomatoes into
.
.
Once the vegetables have been prepared, trim most of the visible fat away from the meat and throw it away. Top the meat with seasoned flour and brown in a little olive oil in a pan. Take your time in this step and let the meat brown well all around. You may need to do this in batches if you have quite a few pieces of oxtail.
Transfer the golden oxtail to the slow cooker, then add a little more olive oil to the pan if needed and add the onions, carrots and celery. This has the effect of softening the vegetables and also picking up the remnants of browning the meat. It all adds up to the final flavor!
Now transfer the softened vegetables to the slow cooker and add the rest of the vegetables (mushrooms, tomatoes, cabbage and grated potato). Place the potatoes on top.
Make a broth by dissolving the cube of meat broth in boiling water, then mix the Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste and salt. Pour this over the meat and vegetables in the slow cooker.
If you’re using wine, add this now as well.
Cook and serve
Cover the slow cooker with a lid and cook as follows:
High – 6 to 7 hours
- Low – 7 to 8 hours
The meat will be made when separated from the bone
.
15 minutes before the end of the cooking time check the consistency of the sauce, it should be well thickened from the grated potato that was added. However, if you think the sauce is still too liquid, make a suspension of one tablespoon of cornmeal (or cornstarch) with 3 tablespoons of water and drizzle this on the sauce to thicken it. You may not need the whole mixture, use your own judgment.
Serve this oxtail stew with
crusty bread slices to absorb the sauce, and a mound of napkins to wipe sticky fingers!
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Answers to your questions
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- South African lamb bredie (lamb stew) – South Africa’s favorite stew made with succulent lamb ribs.
- Hungarian beef goulash with spaetzle – a traditional Hungarian dish of paprika flavored beef served with soft homemade noodles.
- Slow Cook Roast Chicken Dinner: A full roast dinner cooked in the slow cooker.
. Meatball soup with vegetables and
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