Braised Short Ribs Crockpot Style

Who knew what new experiences in the kitchen cooking with the Sweet As Pie Cooking Club would bring?   I have rarely eaten short ribs must less cook them!   Yet I was looking forward to trying the Pioneer Woman's Braised Short Ribs .

Short ribs are not in demand around here.  I bought the only 2 bone-in packages that the grocery store had.  Then I headed to the kitchen to get out my dutch oven.   Uh...the dutch oven?   Oh.  No.  I.don't.own.one.  At least, not one that can go in the oven.  How have I made it this far in life without one?

Ok.  Quick.  Plan B.  Most roast and baking that requires 2-3 hours in the oven I do in the crock pot.  Not because I don't own a dutch oven, but because I was a working mom who wanted to have real food ready after a day of work or soccer or whatever to feed the fam when it was time to eat.   So why not throw the short ribs in the crock pot instead of the oven?   So there it is...Plan B...crockpot style.

Pioneer Woman covers all the steps and ingredients in detail in the recipe link above.  I started with regular bacon since I had that on hand already.  If you want to use pancetta and have trouble finding it, check the deli.  In my neck of the woods, it would most likely be found at the deli counter instead of the meat counter.

Season the ribs with salt and pepper.  Then roll them around in the flour.  Again, Pioneer Woman does the details of this messy process in her post.  I gladly refer to her for that!

Carrots and onions all chopped and ready to go.

Grab the red wine with the most unique name you can find just for fun.

Everybody in the pool.  Well, almost everybody!



Now, everybody's in the pool.  The crock pot that is.   Add the fresh rosemary and thyme.  Cook it on High for 3-4 hours or until the meat is falling off the bones.

We had both creamed potatoes and the Creamy Goat Cheese Polenta that PW mentions in her post.  The creamed potatoes were just in case we didn't like the polenta...another plan B.

I always thought polenta was just "grits".  And just grits would have probably worked here.  I wanted to give polenta a try too.  So would any yellow corn meal do?   What about self rising?  ???  I don't know, so I got the plainest yellow corn meal on the shelf and went with it.

 

Corn meal, water and salt.  Doesn't sound very appetizing now, does it?



Add in the goat cheese and it becomes a rich and tasty side dish.   Goat cheese is kinda strong, so beware if you try it. 

On a scale of 1 to Heaven (as the PW rated them), I'd say they are not Heaven, not really even close. The ribs were very good though.   I prefered the polenta with mine, but the meat-and-potatoes Bassman preferred the creamed potatoes.    He enjoyed some of the leftovers last night and said it was good again.

Kerry

Pin note:  This is simply my experience with this recipe.  If you'd like to pin it, please click on the Braised Short Ribs link at the top and pin the Pioneer Woman's original recipe and post.

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The Sweet As Pie Cooking Club and Tasty Tuesday Parade of food at: