There are tons of different ways that you can flavor braised short ribs, but the steps to making them remain the same. To start, pat the meat dry and season with salt, pepper, and whatever other spices you want to include. Then you can proceed with browning the meat in a pot with some oil. Patting the meat dry before adding to the pot helps to get a good sear and encourage browning. One important tip with this step is to not overcrowd the pan as doing so makes it difficult to get the nice brown crust that we want.

Next, the meat gets set aside and we move on to aromatics, herbs, and whatever else you might want to include. I keep it simple with onion and thyme in the recipe below, but some other things you could add are leeks, fennel, garlic, tomato paste, carrots, celery, rosemary, mushrooms, potatoes, etc. (Lots of options, obvi.)

After the flavor agents have had some time in the pot, I add a bit of flour. This will help to thicken the liquid that we add later to result in a luscious sauce. As you can see in the photos, the sauce at the end of the braising process isn’t super thick with just 1 teaspoon of flour, so feel free to use more if you prefer a thicker gravy.

Speaking of liquid, this recipe simply calls for beef stock, but some other ingredients to consider are wine, whiskey, beer, tomato sauce/purée, milk, or even cola. (I also add in a few bay leaves to the mix, but don’t sweat it if you don’t have any in your pantry.