This Beer-Braised Short Ribs Recipe Delivers Bold Flavor with a Surprise Ingredient

Stouts are known for their inky black color and luscious head of foam, a dense and nutty deviation from the typical golden hues of ales and IPAs. It’s the beer we tend to reach for in winter months, when the heaviness alone is enough to warm us in freezing temperatures. It’s also a great beer to use for cooking, not coincidentally for adding intense flavor to wintery dishes like stews, braises, and pot roasts. The dark, nutty flavor is the perfect way to enhance lean cuts of rich beef, leaving behind a warm and flavorful gravy to spoon over soft veggies.

Stouts are often used in hearty stews as a roasted, malty flavor undertone. In this short ribs recipe, developer Michelle McGlinn makes the stout-filled broth into something unexpected by adding spicy, smoky ancho and guajillo chiles. Paired with fall-off-the-bone tender short ribs, the flavor becomes rich, deeply savory, and slightly smoky. Paired with creamy mashed potatoes, these saucy short ribs will have you hibernating all the way until summer – as if you needed another reason to stay in on a snowy winter night.

First, head to the butcher and find around 1 ½ to 2 pounds of thick, meaty short ribs. Meaty, according to Ina Garten, means about 1 ½ inches of meat on top of the bone, which ensures more meat and less fat in the final dish. From there, you’ll just need salt, pepper, and oil to begin the searing process. For the braise itself, you’ll want to grab a yellow onion, garlic, tomato paste, Dijon mustard, beef broth, peppercorns, paprika, a cinnamon stick, and a stout beer. When you think of stouts, you probably think of Guinness — no need to overcomplicate it, use Guinness or your favorite stout otherwise. The last thing you’ll need are dried ancho and guajillo chiles, which you can find at most grocery stores or in Latin American markets.

Preheat the oven to 325 F.

Heat a pot over medium heat.

Add chiles and toast until fragrant, about 1 to 2 minutes.

Remove the chiles from the pot and add the oil.

While the oil heats up, season the short ribs on all sides with salt and pepper.

Add the short ribs to the oil and sear on each side, about 4 minutes per side.

Add the garlic and onion and cook until fragrant and slightly softened, about 5 minutes.

Add the tomato paste and mustard and stir to coat.

When the tomato paste begins to stick to the bottom of the pot, pour in the stout to deglaze, scraping the brown bits from the bottom.

Add the beef broth, paprika, peppercorns, cinnamon stick, and the toasted peppers to the pot.

Cover and roast in the oven until fall-apart tender, about 3 hours.

Serve with mashed potatoes or side of choice.

Short ribs are the dish everyone needs to know how to make (save for vegans and vegetarians, of course). Short ribs are hard not to like and make a great meal to serve to guests you want to impress. Because short ribs are rich and meaty, you’ll want to prepare sides to balance with the heavy protein. Mashed potatoes are never a bad thing, and are a classic pairing that let the beef ribs shine. To elevate the carb a little bit more, swap parsnip or celery root for the potatoes, whipping the root vegetables into a creamy purée. If root vegetables aren’t your thing, try pairing with homemade spaetzle or gnocchi, which offer a pasta-like pairing to the beef. Short on time? Make a quick batch of rice or orzo instead.

With the protein and carbs down, you’ll just need a few vegetables to brighten the plate (and make it somewhat healthy). Easy options include sauteed asparagus, wilted spinach, or steamed broccoli, but you could also elevate the veggies by making glazed carrots, braised fennel, or crispy Brussels sprouts. And if you don’t have time for making all these sides? Throw some carrots and potatoes into the pot with the beef, add a little more broth, and let everything cook together.

Many stores these days sell dried peppers that can usually be found in the produce aisle (near the dried mushrooms) or in aisles that house Latin American foods like tortillas, salsas, and beans. Because chiles are used in Mexican cuisine for dishes like birria, you’ll find the best selection of dried chiles in Latin American-specific markets. Ancho chiles are dried poblanos that have a very mild, almost-chocolatey flavor, and guajillo chiles are smokier, with fruity, tea-like flavor notes. The two work well with deep and nutty stout, but you can swap for other chiles that offer more heat.

For a more intense spicy flavor, add or swap in chiles de árbol, which notably pack more heat than ancho chiles on the Scoville scale. If you’d rather have more smoky flavor, swap instead for chipotle chiles, which are about half the heat of chiles de árbol and plenty more smoky. If you can’t find dried chiles at all, don’t worry — you can sprinkle in cayenne or a spoonful of chipotles in Adobo sauce for a little extra heat.