Red Wine Braised Short Ribs with Mushrooms: Beef short ribs slowly braised in red wine until they are melt-in-your-mouth tender, finished with mushrooms for a delicious cold weather dinner. Originally published in December 2014, we updated based on a February 2020 remake of this red wine braised short ribs. Allow at least 6 hours to marinate the ribs, in addition to the cooking time.
Jump to:
Inspiration for the recipe
I originally came up with this Red Wine Braised Beef Short Ribs for a wine club gathering back in the fall of 2014. I was looking for a dish that can simmer until the group is ready to eat, but needed something different than the variations of beef stew such as my Porcini Mushroom Beef Stew.
These beef short ribs get cooked low and slow for about three hours, giving plenty of time to let that rich beef flavor get really intense. By the time the ribs are ready to serve, the meat practically melts in your mouth– “like butter” was a common refrain as folks dug into this savory dish.
In developing my plan for the dish, I referred to this recipe Jeff from foodwineclick shared.
My original plan was to serve pieces of the meat topped with a mushroom sauce. But with the beef braising for an extended period of time, you get that meat falling off the bones quality. I lean into that, taking the meat off the bones and finishing the dish by simmering it with mushrooms for a richly flavored meal.
Tips for making braised short ribs
Here are a few tips for making these braised short ribs; click here to jump down to the recipe for the full details.
About beef short ribs
Short ribs are cut from a portion of the longer rib bone; thus the name. We get individual short ribs, known as “English cut”, with each bone coming separately along with a piece of meat.
There is usually a good amount of fat along with the meat when you get short ribs. This adds nice flavor through the slow cooking process; but you will want to pull out the bigger pieces of fat prior to serving.
You need to consider the weight of the bones plus the fat when determining the amount of short ribs to buy. Our recipe calls for 3.5 pounds of short ribs, which winds up generating about 6 servings.
Red wine for this recipe
The short ribs get marinated overnight in a red wine based marinade.
Now, you may have read the advice that you should cook with the wine you will serve with the dish. Let’s not get carried away that notion, people!
We initially made these braised short ribs to serve at a wine club dinner with an impressive array of wines to sample, including a great Australian Shiraz that was paired with the ribs. I sure don’t have the budget to cook with bottles of wine that priced in the $30 to $50 range!
The piece of the “cook with what you’ll serve” advice I do subscribe is that I cook with a similar style wine to what we will drink with the dish. And you do what it to be something drinkable. For this recipe, I have used an inexpensive Merlot that just barely qualified on the drinkability factor. I was happy to put it to work cooking!
More recently, I made these short ribs with an inexpensive Chianti.
Steps for making braised short ribs
Here’s an overview of the steps for making the short ribs; click here to jump down to the recipe for the full details including ingredient list.
- The short ribs should marinate for at least 6 hours. So either start putting the marinade together the night before you plan to cook the dish, or the morning you plan to cook to allow enough time.
- Combine the marinade ingredients in a pan, and bring the marinade to a brief boil. We have skipped the heating the marinade step, but have read there are benefits to heating it.
- Let the marinade cool, then pour it into a sealable bag with the short ribs. Seal tightly, and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours.
- Remove the short ribs from the marinade, reserving the marinade. Scrape off large bits of marinade ingredients that may be sticking to the ribs. Find 3 garlic cloves and a sprig of rosemary from the marinade, and mince for later.
- Strain the reserved marinade through a sieve, into a bowl. This will prevent you from biting into a hard juniper berry or something like that later!
- Chop up the vegetables as shown above, then heat them in a large Dutch oven or other oven proof pan.
- Add the short ribs to the vegetables, and brown each side of the ribs. You will likely need to brown the ribs in two batches.
- Once the ribs are browned, add the liquid and other remaining ingredients. Bring to a simmer, then cover and braise at 275 degrees convection / 300 conventional. The ribs braise for 3 hours.
- Start cooking the mushrooms with about 30 minutes of braising time left.
- After the ribs have braised for 3 hours hours, carefully move the Dutch oven to the stove top. Move the short ribs to a platter, and remove the meat from the bones. Cut the meat into bite sized pieces, discarding large chunks of fat. Put the cut meat back into the Dutch oven.
- Add the mushrooms to the Dutch oven along with the beef, and stir to combine all the ingredients. Simmer for 5 to 10 minutes to let the flavors meld.
- Serve the short ribs over mashed potatoes or butter noodles. First scoop the beef and mushrooms with a slotted spoon, the scoop some extra sauce to serve over the beef.
Cut the meat into bite sized pieces, discarding large chunks of fat. Put the cut meat back into the Dutch oven.Wine pairing
As you may have guessed, these braised short ribs call for a big, bold red wine. We initially enjoyed these ribs with a good Australian Shiraz, that is definitely a nice option.
For our recent remake, we opened a bottle of the 2015 Pierre Rougon Vacqueyras ($24), a Grenache / Syrah / Mourvedre blend typical of the Southern Rhone. Vacqueyras is an appellation (AOC) along the banks of the River Ouvèze, and can be an affordable alternative to Châteauneuf-du-Pape.
I get bright berries on the nose of the Vacqueyras. Cherry fruit on the palate with notes of black pepper. Good structure, making it a good match for this hearty short ribs dish.
Both our pairings involved Syrah (which goes by Shiraz in Australia). But you could certainly call upon a big Cab to go with these short ribs, too!
Recipe card
Red Wine Braised Short Ribs with Mushrooms
Beef short ribs slowly braised in red wine until they are melt-in-your-mouth tender, finished with mushrooms for a delicious cold weather dinner.
- Prep Time: 45 mins
- Cook Time: 3 hours 30 mins
- Total Time: 4 hours 15 mins
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
- Category: main
- Method: braising
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
For the marinade
- 4 cloves garlic
- 3 sprigs rosemary
- 2 sprigs thyme or 1 tsp dried thyme
- 10 white peppercorns
- 6 cloves
- 8 juniper berries
- 1 tsp coarse salt
- 3.5 cups dry red wine such as Chianti
- 3.5 lbs beef short ribs
For braising the short ribs
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onions, finely diced
- 2 carrots, finely diced
- 1 parsnip, finely diced
- 1 stalk celery, minced (optional)
- 1 cup beef broth
- 1 tsp minced rosemary (from the marinade)
- 3 cloves garlic, minced (from the marinade)
For the mushrooms
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 large portobello mushroom, stem removed and chopped
- 10 oz package sliced button mushrooms
- 1 shallot, chopped
Instructions
- Make the marinade: Combine all the marinade ingredients–the garlic through the red wine–in a large pan. Bring the wine to a boil, simmer for 10 minutes, and then let it cool a bit before combining with the ribs. (see notes)
- Let the marinade get to work: Place the ribs in a plastic storage bag. Carefully pour the marinade in with the ribs. Squeeze the air out, and seal the bags tightly. Place in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours, or overnight.
- Prep the ribs: Preheat oven to 275 convection / 300 degrees conventional. When you’re getting ready to braise the ribs, remove the short ribs from the marinade, reserving the marinade. Scrape off large bits of marinade ingredients that may be sticking to the ribs. Find 3 garlic cloves and a sprig of rosemary from the marinade, and mince for later.
- Strain the marinade: Place a large bowl in the sink, and place a finely meshed sieve over the bowl. Pour the marinade through the
- Sauté vegetables: Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large oven safe dutch oven. Add the onions, carrots, celery, and parsnip to one dutch oven or skillet; add the other half of the veggies to your second cooking vessel, or hold aside to do in 2 batch. Cook the veggies until they soften, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Brown the ribs: Add the short ribs to the veggie mixture. Turn the meat over every few minutes to brown the meat on each site.
- Braise the short ribs: Have the oven preheated to 275. Once the meat has browned in the dutch oven, add the broth, rosemary, minced garlic and 1.5 cups of reserved marinade. Bring to a boil, then cover and move from the stove top to the oven. Cook for at least 3 hours, until the meat is very tender. Check every hour or so to make sure you still have liquid in the dutch oven.
- Prepare the mushrooms: Start this as you get within 30 minutes of finishing the beef slow cooking process. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet on medium. Add the shallot, sauté until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms, cook until they sweat, about 5 minutes.
- Prepare the ribs: After the ribs have braised for 3 hours, remove the Dutch oven from the oven and place on the stove top. Remove the cover from the beef. You should have some excess liquid. Scoop a ladleful of the broth from the beef into the mushroom skillet. Cook the broth down until it is mostly absorbed. Remove the short ribs from the dutch oven, and place on a platter. Cut the meat off the bones–it should slide off very easily and some meat will have come off the bone during the cooking. Cut the beef into smaller bite sized pieces, and removed large pieces of excess fat.
- Finish the dish: Put the chopped beef back into the cooking vessel, and stir it into the broth. Stir the mushrooms in with the beef. Simmer for 5 to 10 minutes to blend the flavors and reduce the sauce a bit. The beef can be served at this point, or kept warm on low heat until you are ready to serve.
- Serve: Serve the beef and mushrooms over buttered noodles or mashed potatoes. Scoop the beef and mushrooms out with slotted spoon, then scoop the desired amount of additional sauce to serve over the beef. And of course, serve it with a glass of red wine!
Notes
- I have made this marinade without heating the marinade ingredients, but have seen heating the wine recommended a couple places, to best tenderize the meat, so am leaving the recipe that way. But it seems to come out fine if you want to skip heating the wine and mix the marinade at room temperature.
Tips for scaling up the recipe
- You will need two bags to fit a double portion of short ribs. Double the marinade quantity, and divide it between two bags to marinate the ribs.
Slow Cooker Option
- Marinate the short ribs as described in the instructions.
- Brown the beef with the vegetables in a large skillet, as described above. Transfer the beef and veggie mixture from the skillet to the slow cooker. Add the broth, 2 cups of reserved marinade, rosemary, optional spice blend and minced garlic to the slow cooker. Cover and cook for 2 hours on high, 6.5 hours on low, or 10 hours on low.
- When the short ribs have cooked in the slow cooker for the desired amount of time, remove the meat from the bones as described above. You can either put the meat back into the slow cooker with the liquid along with the cooked mushrooms, or finish the dish in a large pan — combine the liquid, meat and mushrooms and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes.
More recipes like this
If you like this recipe for braised short ribs, check out some more of our favorite beef dishes!
Renee
Yummy! And totally making me crave short ribs now.
Shelby
This sounds absolutely wonderful. You will usually find me with a glass of wine on my loveseat every evening. Its my favorite way to end the day.
Cooking Chat
A good way to end the day, Shelby! We have a glass of wine with the majority of our dinners.
Deanna Samaan
Ohhh I will love making this! Yummo!
Liz
Pure comfort food! Your short ribs would be a huge hit at my house!
Hezzi-D
Short ribs are always a favroite in our house and braising them in red wine is such a great idea!
Tara
I am in love with this recipe!!
Cindys Recipes and Writings
You definitely know your beef, David! Yum!
Cooking Chat
Thanks Cindy, we do like a good beef dish here!
susan // the wimpy vegetarian
Fabulous dinner for a cold winter night by the fire!!
Alice
if it serves 12 at your house, thats like three days worth of ribs for lunch at our house! 🙂 amazing!
Cooking Chat
Huh, we don’t have 12 at our house very often, Alice. Made it for a wine club dinner, which had 12 attendees.
Ala
I’m no expert at cooking meats well but my family loves braised short ribs–I’m totally saving this one for my files!
Cooking Chat
Thanks Ala, it’s a keeper!
Sarah
This is like a fancier version of my mom’s recipe – she’d love this!
Julie @ Texan New Yorker
One of my *favorite* cold weather dishes on this planet. So awesome!
Serena | Serena Bakes Simply From Scratch
These look so tender and juicy! Love Braised Short Ribs!
Amy
This sounds absolutely perfect for this time of year and it’s just so tasty!
Taylor Kiser
Low and slow brings out the most incredible flavor! These short ribs look incredible!
Cooking Chat
That’s right! Love low and slow cooking this time of year.
Krissy Allori
These sound amazing. You are making me crave ribs now. I’ll be adding this to my menu plan for next week for sure.
Carrie Robinson
Oh yum! Now this is my kind of comfort food! 🙂
Cooking Chat
Thanks Carrie!
Andrea Metlika
This looks incredible and the marinade sounds marvelous. I can’t wait to try this.