11 Common Mistakes to Avoid for Perfect Oxtail Stew

Once upon a time, oxtails were considered a poor man’s meat, and a quick look at them will tell you why. They are literally nothing more than cross sections of the tails of cattle, irregularly shaped disks of meat and connective tissue surrounding a big chunk of bone. They can be messy to eat, and unless they’re cooked with care, they can turn out tough, dry, or greasy. It’s no wonder affluent cooks and eaters gravitated towards more tender cuts with a bigger ratio of meat to bone.

But necessity breeds creativity, and resourceful, budget-conscious cooks discovered that with gentle, careful stewing, humble oxtails turn unctuous, buttery, and fall-off-the-bone tender. And with the addition of bold seasonings, they transform into a celebration-worthy feast. Unfortunately for longtime fans of oxtails, the secret is out, and the popularity of the once-overlooked cut has caused its price to skyrocket. So, if you plan to cook oxtail stew, you should aim to get the best possible return on your investment. Here to help you out are a team of experts: Maricel Gentile, chef-owner of Maricel’s Kitchen and author of Maricel’s Simply Asian Cookbook; Bernard Janssen, executive chef and culinary program manager for Zwilling J.A. Henckels; Kyle Taylor, chef and founder of HE COOKS; Darian Bryan, chef-owner of Bratts Hill in Buffalo, New York; and London Chase, executive chef of Mango Bay in Brooklyn, New York.

A general principle in cooking is that to get the best results, you must start with good ingredients. We all know there’s a world of difference between an expertly trimmed prime steak from a high-end steakhouse and a grilled chunk of mystery meat from a roadside diner. And while stewing might appear to be the great equalizer for inferior meat (it’s the classic technique for tenderizing tougher cuts), quality still matters.

“Not all oxtail is created equal,” Kyle Taylor warned. “Avoid anything with too much fat and bone, or if the color looks pale.” Bernard Janssen shared other signs to watch for. “Look for pieces with a good balance of meat and connective tissue. You want a deep red color with some nice white marbling,” he said. “Avoid pieces that look too lean or have a greyish hue, which could indicate they aren’t fresh. And if possible, get them cut into even-sized pieces so they cook consistently.” This is exactly what Darian Bryan does. “For my restaurant, I buy the whole tail frozen and have my butcher cut it into 1.5-inch pieces to get the best quality and consistency,” he said.

A common mistake when cooking oxtail stew is seasoning and cooking the meat without cleaning it first. This may seem counterintuitive, since we don’t normally clean chops and steaks before cooking — but it can help you build up a clearer sauce with less scum as the stew cooks. Raw oxtails can contain loose bone and fat fragments that can muck up your stew, and taking the time to get rid of them will pay off in the end.

“The number one mistake is not cleaning the oxtail correctly and thoroughly,” Maricel Gentile said. “Rinse them in cold water, then give them a quick blanch to remove impurities.” Other cooks have their own preferred methods of cleaning oxtails. Bernard Jannsen simply gives his oxtails a quick rinse, while Darian Bryan rinses his in vinegar or lime juice. But whatever method you choose, Janssen advises one important final step. “Pat them dry — excess moisture will prevent a proper sear,” he said.

Oxtails are not pretty pieces of meat. They often come laden with fat and connective tissue, and while these are a big part of what makes properly cooked oxtails so rich and flavorful, they can also make improperly cooked ones greasy and unappetizing. Make no mistake, a successful oxtail stew will never be a low-fat meal — but the key is to ensure it contains just enough fat to add flavor and a good mouthfeel without adding visible grease.

And according to our experts, a good way to make this happen is to trim extra fat from your oxtails before you cook them. “The first step is to trim any large, excessive pieces of fat. You want enough fat for flavor, but too much will make your stew greasy,” Bernard Janssen said. In short, you don’t have to go crazy and cut it all off -– it’s better to err on the side of caution, since you can always remove excess fat later.

Well-cooked oxtails are rich and powerfully flavored on their own — their intense beefiness is why fans are willing to pay a premium for them. But as part of a stew, they need supporting players that are bold enough to balance their flavor and create a harmonious dish. This is why classic oxtail stew recipes feature assertively flavored ingredients such as tomato paste or red wine.

Our experts offered helpful tips to coax the most out of these flavors. An important step is to season the oxtails before you start cooking. “Another mistake is under-seasoning. Oxtail has a bold taste, so don’t be shy with salt, pepper, and aromatics,” Bernard Janssen said. Darian Bryan and London Chase take pre-seasoning a step further and call for marinating the oxtails before cooking to add even more flavor. In addition, many oxtail stew recipes call for aromatics such as chopped onions and garlic to be browned in fat to form a flavor base for the stew. “Don’t rush this step — low and slow gets the best flavor,” Janssen said. Recipes typically call for liquid, such as broth or wine, to be added after this step, and there’s a reason these steps happen in this order: As Janssen explains, this lifts the browned bits from the aromatics from the bottom of the pan, adding even more flavor to the dish.

Among the many reasons so many of us crave oxtail stew is its enticing toastiness — that wonderful, almost caramelized aroma and flavor that come from well-browned meat. If you perk up at the scent of a hot steak coming off a grill, you know why this aroma matters in a good oxtail stew. This browning and flavor development are products of the Maillard reaction, which is technically a series of chemical reactions in which sugars and proteins react to heat and transform into new (and flavorful) compounds.

To coax this flavor from oxtails, you need to sear them thoroughly before you start to braise them. “One common mistake is skipping the browning process,” Bernard Janssen said. “Searing them well before braising builds a deep, rich flavor.” The key to success is to take your time: To develop the right flavor, the meat needs to be thoroughly browned, not just heated through. “Brown them in a heavy pot over medium-high heat,” Janssen said. “Don’t overcrowd the pot, or they’ll steam instead of sear.”

Your choice of cooking vessel can make or break a dish. If you wouldn’t dream of cooking an omelet in anything but a nonstick pan, you understand what a difference this choice makes. And to cook oxtail stew, you want a pot that enables each step of the recipe to unfold as desired. Obviously, you’ll need a pot big enough to hold the stew without overflowing. But the pan’s surface area counts too: The bottom of the pan needs to be big enough to hold all your oxtails (or at least a good-sized batch of them) with some space left between them — this allows them to sear properly, rather than steam in the heat of neighboring pieces.

Furthermore, you should also seek out a sturdy pot with heavy bottom, which will facilitate both searing and braising. A thick-walled cooking vessel holds heat better, a useful quality if you’re searing oxtails that are still cold from the refrigerator. It will also distribute heat more evenly and help you avoid scorched spots if you have a wonky burner on your stove. The steady heat generated in these pots is also ideal for the long simmer needed to render oxtails tender.

Among the most disappointing problems home cooks encounter with oxtails is meat that turns out dry and tough, rather than moist and melting. The secret to avoiding this pitfall is patience and a gentle touch -– oxtails need thorough cooking, but they don’t react well to high heat. “A low simmer, around 85-95 degrees Celsius (185-205 degrees Fahrenheit), is ideal,” Bernard Janssen said. “If you let it boil too hard, the meat will tighten up before it has time to break down, making it tough.” Maricel Gentile agrees. “Don’t boil aggressively,” she warned. “[A] low boil or high simmer is okay.”

Oxtails (and other cuts used in braises and stews) require this gentle treatment to allow the meat’s plentiful connective tissue to break down, which makes the meat more tender and gives it the rich mouthfeel we expect in a good braise. (Higher cooking temperatures don’t cause this process to happen faster.) If you don’t want to stand by your stove waiting for the low, slow cook to run its course, you can cook your oxtails covered in the oven, or as Janssen recommends, use a slow cooker for the simmering stage.

A good oxtail stew is a labor of love. Maricel Gentile affectionately recalled that her family’s kare kare, a traditional Filipino oxtail stew was “a whole day ordeal, and I loved it.” The process required meticulously hand-ground flavorings and thickeners and a multi-step cooking process in which ingredients were cooked separately and added to the stew at different points of the long simmer.

And even for simpler oxtail stew recipes, you should plan on an all-day project. Because oxtails require low, slow cooking, they’re not something you can throw together after work on a weeknight. Besides the time needed to prep the ingredients and sear the meat, you’ll need to factor in several hours for cooking — about 8 to 10 hours in a slow cooker or 5 to 6 hours at 250 degrees Fahrenheit, according to Gentile. While this is largely hands-off work, it’s essential for the success of your dish. “Patience is key,” Bernard Janssen said. “If it’s not tender after a few hours, keep going.”

At its best, oxtail stew is rich and saucy, with a thick, deeply seasoned gravy imbued with the flavor of the meat. A big contributor to this flavor and richness is fat from the oxtails. However, too much fat can create an unappetizing slick of grease on top of your stew, even if you trimmed your oxtails before cooking them — much of their richness comes from stores of fat hidden in the meat itself.

For this reason, an essential step to making oxtail stew is to skim off any fat the collects on the surface as the stew cooks. You can do this progressively as the stew cooks, or, as Bernard Janssen recommends, make the stew ahead of time, chill it, and remove the solidified fat in a single step. This will improve the flavor and appearance of the stew in multiple ways. “Letting the stew sit overnight in the fridge makes it even better,” Janssen said. “Plus, you can easily remove any solidified fat before reheating.”

A well-made oxtail stew is more than just a pile of meat. Most versions contain chunks of cooked vegetables, such as carrots or potatoes, that offer a welcome bit of color as well as a nice contrast in flavor and texture. But all too often, home cooks find that their vegetables dissolve into mush before the meat has had the chance to cook through completely. The stew is still tasty, but it lacks that extra polish and visual appeal.

The solution to this is to avoid the common mistake of adding your vegetables to the stew at the same time as the oxtails. “Oxtail takes hours to cook, but veggies break down faster,” Bernard Janssen explained. “Stagger your ingredients. Root vegetables like carrots and potatoes can handle a long cook, but still get too soft if added too early, so put them in for the last hour or so. More delicate vegetables, like peas or greens, should be added in the final minutes.” Or alternately, as Maricel Gentile’s family recipe instructs, you can cook the vegetables separately and add them to the stew when the meat is done to preserve their color and texture.

When most Americans think of oxtail stew, the classic Western European versions come to mind: a flavor base of aromatics such as onions, garlic, and celery and a deeply flavored sauce of stock, sometimes wine, and herbs. And while it’s delicious, it’s not the only way to enjoy oxtail stew. “The meat is also great for using in more innovative dishes like pasta and sandwiches,” Kyle Taylor said.

In addition, cooks outside the Western European culinary tradition have developed their own flavorful versions of oxtail stew. For instance, Maricel Gentile’s favorite version is her family’s kare kare, a hearty Filipino stew featuring oxtails, tripe, and beef stew meat simmered in a rice-thickened peanut sauce and served topped with colorful cooked vegetables including eggplant, bok choy, and banana blossom. Oxtail stew is also beloved in Jamaica, and at his Jamaican restaurant in Buffalo, New York, Darian Bryan serves a traditional version that features browning — a caramelized sugar base that gives the stew a deep, rich flavor and color. His version is finished with butter beans and chunks of cooked carrots. In addition, Cuban and West African cooks have their own brightly flavored versions of the dish  – and if you’re an adventurous cook, they’re well worth exploring.