Oxtail stew, a traditional Caribbean dish, turns out extra rich and tender when made in the Instant Pot.
The Instant Pot really shines when it is asked to turn a tough, chewy, cut of meat into something fork-tender and unctous. With regular stovetop cooking, it can take hours of long, slow braising for this transformation to occur. But the Instant Pot, by combining heat and pressure, radically speeds up the process of breaking down tough meats that contain a lot of connective tissue. Case in point: oxtails.
Oxtail is exactly what it sounds like. It is a cut of beef made the tail of a cow that has been cut into cross-sections. In an earlier era, when every part of the cow was used, no one would have dreamed of discarding the oxtails – along with the tongue, brains, organ meats and indeed anything else edible. They were an inexpensive cut of meat – something poor people could afford – because it took some work and time to make them palatable. But in those days, beggars could not be choosers and if peasants wanted to eat meat, they took what they could afford.
While most Americans are unfamiliar with oxtail today, it is still beloved in many cuisines – from South America to east Asia – with the most famous version, perhaps, being Jamaican. Oxtail is almost always – if not always – prepared in a stew and through long, slow cooking, the collagen in the meat breaks down and gives the stew an especially rick and silky texture. Like most peasant food, oxtail stew is comforting, hearty and soulful. If you like beef stew or short ribs, oxtail stew will be just your thing.
On the stove top, it can take 2-3 hours to make oxtail tender enough to melt in your mouth, but the Instant Pot cuts that time in half. I admit that, even with the Instant Pot, this is not a quick-and-easy recipe. Making oxtail stew is a multi-step process and the longer it cookes, the better. (The day I served this stew, I had made it early in the day – so I could take nice pictures for you all – and then kept it warm until dinner, which I think only improved the final result.) So you may want to save this project for a weekend. But if the Instant Pot is made for anything, it is for recipes like this one.
For this version of oxtail stew, I stuck with a Caribbean flavor profile: hot peppers, ginger and allspice. For extra umami, I added tomato paste, soy sauce and Worchestershire. (That’s a lot of umami!) Right before I served the stew – so this is not reflected in the photos – I added a can of rinsed and drained butter beans. I almost didn’t because my family tends to complain about beans in things. But they added a nice textural element to the stew, and no one complained – about anything other than the fact that oxtail is a weird thing to serve, generally – so it was the right call. (I am not going to get into what the difference is between butter beans and lima beans – or if there even is one – because I frankly don’t care. Butter beans is what goes in oxtail stew. Enough said.)
I served the oxtail stew over coconut rice – also made in the Instant Pot – and the combination was divine. Despite being initially weirded out – and by now, my kids should not be weirded out by anything I cook – my family was forced to admit that oxtail stew was yummy. “Now, can we go to Jamaica?” they asked. (If only, kids. If only.)
So, if you have an Instant Pot, why not make the most of it? Feel empowered to buy an unfamiliar cut of meat – something like oxtails – with the knowledge that the Instant Pot will deliver delicious, satisfying results without it taking hours and hours of your precious time.
Ingredients
- 3 lbs oxtails
- 2 TB neutral oil, like canola or grapeseed
- 1 yelllow onion, diced
- 1 hot pepper, seeded and diced (Scotch bonnet would be authentic but feel free to choose a milder one)
- 1 inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 12 allspice berries
- 1 sprig thyme
- 3 TB soy sauce
- 3 TB Worchestershire sauce
- 2 TB tomato paste
- 2 TB brown sugar
- 2 cups chicken broth or water
- 4 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
- 4 shallots
- 1 bunch scallions, white and green parts only, sliced thinly
- 1 15 oz can butter beans, drained and rinsed
- Juice of two limes
Instructions
- Season the oxtails with salt and pepper.
- Heat oil in the Instant Pot using the Saute function set on high.
- Add half of the oxtails to the pot, being sure not to overcrowd the pot, and brown on all sides, turning as needed. Remove to a plate. Brown the remaining pieces of oxtail and remove.
- Add the onion to the pot, season with salt and pepper and saute until softened, about five minutes. Add the hot pepper, ginger and garlic and saute an additional few minutes until fragrant.
- Whisk together the soy sauce, Worchestershire sauce, tomato paste and brown sugar and add it to the Instant Pot along with the allspice berries and thyme. Use a spoon to scrape up the browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pot. (This step is known as deglazing the pot.)
- Return the oxtails to the Instant Pot. Cover with the chicken broth or water. Cover and cook on high pressure for 45 minutes. Allow the pressure to release naturally for at least fifteen minutes.
- Remove the cover and using a slotted spoon, transfer the oxtails to a plate. Strain the liquid into a large, heat-proof measuring cup or pitcher, discarding the solids. Skim the fat off the top of the liquid. Return the oxtails and strained liquid to the Instant Pot.
- Add the carrots, shallot and half the scallions and cover and cook on high pressure for four minutes. Release the pressue manually.
- Add the butter beans and lime juice to the pot and turn function to saute on low heat. Saute the stew until beans are warmed through and it is thickened to your liking. Taste and adjust seasoning.
- Serve over rice garnished with the remaining scallions.
