Red Wine & Sweet Chili Sauce Braised Short Ribs

1. Place your Dutch Oven or large (oven-safe) pot on the stove over medium-high heat. Add the olive oil to the pan and let that heat. You want the pan and oil to be good and hot to sear the short ribs.

2. On a plate combine the flour, kosher salt and pepper. Lightly coat your short ribs on each side with the flour mixture then place into the pot to brown. Brown the short ribs on each side, don’t be afraid to let them sit on one side for a couple of minutes so you develop that good brown crust. Once a short rib is brown on all sides remove it from the pan and place on a plate. Continue this until you have browned all of your short ribs and have placed them all on the plate.

3. Meanwhile, place the celery, carrots and onion into your food processor and grind into almost a paste. Also preheat your oven to 375 F.

4. Once all of your short ribs have been browned and set aside, there will be a good amount of fat that rendered off from the ribs. Drain off all of the fat from the pan leaving only a tablespoon or so in the pan. Add the ground celery, carrot and onion mixture to the pan and let it cook and brown over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes. Be sure to scrape all the brown bits off the bottom of the pan, those bits taste good!

5. Next add in the garlic, tomato paste and chili sauce and let the mixture cook an additional five minutes.

6. Stir in the wine and let the mixture cook for about 2 minutes.

7. Add the beef broth and water and stir until all is combined. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Yes, taste the cooking liquid! This is what is going to flavor your meat, so now’s the time to fix it if it needs fixing!

8. Place the short ribs back into the pot with the cooking liquid. Depending on the size of your pan you may have some pieces completely covered in liquid and some that stick up a little. This is fine, the goal is to get everything covered at least 3/4 of the way with liquid. Add the bay leaf and thyme sprigs.

9. Cover the pan and place into the oven and cook for 3 1/2 hours. Then uncover and cook for an additional 30 minutes to let the sauce reduce and get thick and delicious. Halfway through the cooking time be sure to stir the ribs around and if need be you can add extra water if the sauce begins to reduce too much. When they are finished cooking you will have tender, juicy short ribs that will come cleanly off the bone. Serve ribs with the sauce over the top.