These Paleo short ribs are fall-off-the-bone tender and barely any work, yet are fancy enough for company. No one will even know or care you are serving them a healthy dinner!
This is short ribs with garlic and rosemary that’s baked in the oven. It’s really easy to make these short ribs partly because there are only seven ingredients.
This recipe is one I tried to copycat from a restaurant I went to. I’d never had short ribs before and I fell in love with them. Have you seen short ribs in the store and didn’t know how to make short ribs? I don’t know what took me so long to get on board with short ribs, but I had them for the first time at Disneyland earlier this year at La Brea Bakery Cafe in Downtown Disney. They were so good. I went back a few days later and had more. I had to come home and re-invent the short ribs recipe.
I don’t know how many times I saw short ribs in the grocery store before I decided to give them a try. I don’t really like BBQ ribs because they have too many ribs and not enough meat for my liking and I thought short ribs were basically the same thing. Wrong. This recipe makes the ribs taste like a really good roast, but I like the texture of the meat better and it has a richer flavor.
What are short ribs?
I kind of just always assumed that ribs were ribs. I didn’t really care that much because we hardly ever ate them anyway. When we did they were always barbecued. Well, I learned that spare ribs are pork. My dumb! Short ribs are beef. Spare ribs in pork are the equivalent of short ribs in beef. Beef short ribs are usually meatier and larger than pork spare ribs.
The extra flavor comes from the bone, the fat, the location of the meat on the cow and this technique. Browning the ribs then cooking them in a crockpot for several hours makes tender, fall-off-the-bone ribs you can sometimes eat with a spoon.
So good and so easy. I like to get this started while my children are all still at school and it’s quiet and I can turn on my favorite TV show or movie and watch while I get the ribs ready. Then they just cook away and smell insanely awesome while we do homework, clean the kitchen, do laundry, drop them off places, read to them, etc.
Then when we are done with all that stuff, I normally make a side dish by throwing a bag of cauliflower from Costco in one of my Instant Pots and cooking it for 10 minutes, then I mash it with my fork and put a good amount of butter on it. So good and so easy.
Alternately, you could make polenta. It’s more traditional and looks so pretty with it, but it can be difficult to make polenta Clean (especially to buy it Clean) and my children don’t really like polenta. It must be the texture. They love mashed cauliflower though.
This short rib recipe uses red wine, but beef broth can also be used in its place if you don’t want to use wine. If you do not have a dutch oven, the first step of browning the ingredients can be done in a regular saute pan and it can be transferred to a crockpot to finish cooking (on low for 6-8 hours).
This recipe is a great addition to our Sunday meals list. We can prepare it before leaving for church and let it cook while we are gone and then have a great meal after church as a family. I always remember having great Sunday dinners with my family growing up.
We would eat together as a family every night but Sunday’s we would have a little bit more of a nicer meal. This meal reminds me of something we would have for a special dinner. These ribs would be perfect served over polenta (as pictured) or a parsnip or cauliflower puree. Also, note that some people do not consider red wine to be Paleo. If that is you, substitute with beef broth.
Please let me know if you try this recipe. I would love to know how it turns out for you and if you have any questions! I have a whole bunch more clean eating recipes that I make for dinner all of the time.
You may also like these recipes:
Paleo Dinner Recipes Index – You Always Need More
Paleo Pork Roast Slow Cooker Recipe with Chimichurri Sauce
PrintPaleo Short Ribs Recipe with Garlic and Rosemary
These Keto braised short ribs are fall off the bone tender and hardly any work. Perfect for a fancy weekend dinner.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 120 minutes
- Total Time: 140 minutes
- Yield: 10 1x
- Category: Main Course
- Cuisine: Paleo
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
- Heat the olive oil over medium/high heat in a ceramic coated cast iron pot.
- Coat the short ribs in coarse salt and pepper and place in the hot pan.
- Cook until deep golden brown and then flip each piece over and brown on the other side.
- Remove the ribs from the pan to a plate.
- Add the onion to the hot pan and saute until onion is translucent, 4-5 minutes.
- Add the garlic and saute for 30 seconds.
- Add the tomato paste and cook for another 30 seconds, coating the onion.
- Add the red wine, if using, and let it reduce by one half. Add the beef broth and bring to a simmer. If you are not using the wine, simply add in the beef broth and bring to a simmer.
- Put the short ribs back in the pan. Toss in the rosemary sprigs, cover with a lid, and place in the preheated oven.
- Bake for 2 to 2 1/2 hours, or until ribs are fall off the bone tender.
- Serve over polenta or a vegetable puree, such as parsnips or cauliflower.
Keywords: Tender, Baked, Braised
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Sharon F.
I altered this recipe a bit because I didnt have everything but they were amazing.
★★★★★
Alex
I can’t wait to eat these!
★★★★★
Jodi
Iāve been using this recipe for years (since I was so fortunate to have found it!). Not only do I use it for short ribs, I double the recipe and use it for my 4 lb. pot roasts!! I just add a bag of baby carrots to the roasting pan and it is AWESOME!!! It is my go to for feeding a large family crowd. I serve the pot roast with mashed potatoes. By far, the BEST recipe EVER!!!
★★★★★
Brittani
OMG! Delicious- used apothic red wine & reduced it
★★★★★
Chris
Made a paste with the garlic and rosemary. Twice as many mushrooms. Reduce oil and use butter š go full time in oven as then the meat melts.
★★★★★
Chris
WOW!! Beautiful pictures. Adding to the menu
Hope Hausman
Excellent! The recipeās a keeper!
★★★★★
Lisa Roesler
Delicious dinner tonight
★★★★★
Danielle W.
Amazing!!!! Used boneless and bone-in. Both are super tasty! Will DEFINITELYI be making this again.
★★★★★
Anna I
This is our favorite short ribs recipe! We serve over garlic grits.
★★★★★
J. M. RODAK
Hi! Thank you for sharing! I just made this and it was amazing! Although I made it stovetop, but it turned out fabulous. I just wanted to let anyone who thought they could NOT make this unless they had a Dutch oven know that it turned out very well via stovetop in a big stock pot with lid. I cooked it on low heat for about 3 hrs and it was fall-ofd-the-bone delish!! So, don’t be discourage or think you have to go out an buy an expensive new pot. Just take your time and trust your nose. ?
Rebecca
Thanks for this comment. I’m sure it will help encourage lots of people!
Noreen
I made this over the weekend per the recipe and it was delicious. I served it with a cauliflower rice side. Put the leftovers in the fridge overnight, skimmed the fat off the top in the morning, then took the leftovers from both dishes, added some additional veggies, some beef broth, a splash of chicken stock and some water to make a fabulous, delicious soup! Thank you!
★★★★★
Rebecca
Sounds wonderful. Thanks for the suggestions too!
Richard Kohout
This recipe looks good. But if you serve it over polenta, it definitely will not be Paleo then!
Rebecca
So true!
Jen
Sooo good! I will make this again.
★★★★★
Rebecca
I’m so glad you like it! It’s one of my favorites too and I feel like short ribs get the “short” end of the stick sometimes, which is too bad cause they are awesome!
Miryan
I’ve made asian shor ribs inthe past and brased short ribs. This recipe looks simple and looks delicious! I will definatly be making them this week. I have all the ingrefiants already. Can’t wait!
★★★★★
Tiarra L Nelson
I made this tonight and I ran into a few problems so I decided to write here to let people know how to fix them if they happen to run into the same. My rosemary is right from the garden and is incredibly sticky like pine needles. Because of this the 4 sprigs was too much- and that’s considering that I made double what the recipe called for in meat and only used an extra 2 sprigs of rosemary- for someone buying from the store or whose rosemary is not as strong as mine this likely would not be an issue. The rosemary made it bitter because of how overpowering my bush is. This is easily fixed with fat or salt. Both fat and salt balance bitter. I opted for salted butter. I’m not sure how paleo butter is considered but it fixed the problem instantly and saved the night for us. I also wanted mine a hint less sweet from the tomato paste so I slowly add’d in a squeeze of lemon until it was the balance I like. Nobody else minded the sweetness here but they all liked the taste after the lemon (you could not taste lemon you really add in only tiny amounts to taste)- this is just me nit picking but wasn’t really a problem, it could have gone without the lemon if I didn’t have it on hand it it would have been an enjoyable meal. I made sure to simmer the sauce until the flavors were well combined because this was the first time I made this and that’s how I determined what I wanted to adjust before putting it in the oven, so I recommend others do so to account for personal preference as well. After adjusting to taste as far as the flavors in the base recipe I threw in two bay leaves and about a teaspoon of dried thyme. Overall I liked this recipe and its not the OP’s fault my rosemary was way too strong, lol I just thought I would mention it. I am going to make this again regardless.
Donna
This looks real good, I’ll have to try it real soon.
★★★★★
Lindsay
Can you make this in the crockpot? This recipe looks delicious!
Rebecca
You could. It wouldn’t be the same, but it would still be good. If I had to guess, I would say 6-8 hours on low.
Daisy
Could i do this in a cast iron ( not enameled) dutch oven? Ive heard rumors of tomato products and cast iron not working well together.
Rebecca
I wouldn’t. Tomato definitely ruins mine, although if it’s seasoned really well, you can get away with it. Some people line theirs with tin foil or just buy one of the expensive pans. That’s my least favorite part of cast iron pans.
Daisy
Thanks for confirming this for me.
Guess I’ll start saving my money for an enameled Dutch oven š
Andrea
How much tomato paste is needed? It’s listed in instructions, but not in list of ingredients.
Rebecca
2 Tablespoons of tomato paste. I like to buy the little squeeze tubes and use only what I need.