Boneless short ribs with an Asian sauce that is ready in under an hour! Yes, with a pressure cooker, you can have fork tender beef with the flavors of Hoison sauce, garlic and ginger. Serve it over rice, and you have a scrumptious dinner!
These last few weeks, my pressure cooker has been quite the workhorse. I want to cook dinner, most every night, for my family. But, I want speed and simplicity, and I don’t want to skimp on flavor. That’s not asking much, is it?
I did a little stocking up in the meat department at my local Whole Foods. These are grass-fed short ribs. I love slow-braising them, and serving them over polenta. Delish! The only problem is, you need 2 hours– or more– to yield tender and flavor ribs. This doesn’t work, when you get home at 5pm.
I bookmarked a recipe for Asian-Style short ribs from Cook’s Illustrated’s “Pressure Cooker Perfection“, and this seemed like a good time to make the recipe. It sure seemed simple enough.
The braising liquid/sauce has hoison sauce (yep, I keep a jar in my pantry), garlic, fresh ginger, soy sauce, dry sherry, scallions and cayenne pepper. I took less than 15 minutes to make the braising sauce.
NOTE: For those of you who don’t own a pressure cooker, or still can’t overcome an unnecessary fear of them, you can adapt this recipe for your oven or a slow cooker. The only difference is that the pressure cooking time is 35 minutes. In the oven, factor in two hours, or with a slow cooker, factor in 4-6 hours.
I have an electric pressure cooker, with a non-stick insert. UPDATE: Since posting this, I have upgraded to an Instant Pot and I love it!
Using the browning cycle (which is the same as heating a stove top pressure cooker on medium-high heat), fresh minced garlic and ginger is cooked for about a minute. Then the hoison sauce and the rest of the ingredients are added (a printable recipe card is at the very end of the post).
Asian Short Ribs Pressure Cooker Style
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 1 2-inch piece ginger, peeled, sliced into 1/4-inch-thick rounds, and smashed
- 1/2 cup hoisin sauce
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons dry sherry
- 4 scallions white parts chopped coarse, green parts sliced thin
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 6 8-ounce boneless beef short ribs, trimmed (don’t buy bone-in, see notes)
- 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro minced
Instructions
- Build flavor: Cook oil, garlic, and ginger in pressure-cooker pot over medium-high heat until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Stir in hoisin sauce, soy sauce, sherry, scallion whites, and cayenne, then add beef.
- High pressure for 35 minutes: Lock pressure-cooker lid in place and bring to high pressure over medium-high heat. As soon as pot reaches high pressure, reduce heat to medium-low and cook for 35 minutes, adjusting heat as needed to maintain high pressure.
- Naturally release pressure: Remove pot from heat and allow pressure to release naturally for 15 minutes. Quick release any remaining pressure, then carefully remove lid, allowing steam to escape away from you.
- Before serving: Transfer short ribs to platter, tent loosely with aluminum foil, and let rest while finishing sauce.
- Strain sauce into fat separator, let sit 5 minutes, then pour defatted sauce into small bowl.
- Stir scallion greens and cilantro leaves into sauce and serve with ribs.
Notes
I love short ribs. These look great. I'll have to give them a try.
Your blog is singlehandedly making me wish for a pressure cooker!! Everything you make in it looks great!
Sounds like you're making good use of the pressure cooker and this meal looks yummy.
These shortribs look great, I usually fix mine in the crockpot. Many years ago my Pressure Cooker exploded and I am afraid to use one since then 🙂
No question we are going to love this recipe, Debby. Those Asian flavors are some of my favorites. I have seen boneless shortribs at Costco. Have you ever tried them? Not quite as spendy as WF.
These look awesome! I don't have a pressure cooker, but I'll definitely give this a whirl in the slow cooker!
I have never used a pressure cooker – I think it's a fifties hangover. Remember those dreadful stories of them exploding? I understand the technology has improved greatly. I ought to get started!
I have an electric pressure cooker in the box non used for over 2 years! Scared! Anyone ever use?
Safe?
Hi Deb,
I made an 'edition' of this almost as soon as I saw it. Second 'edition' is late this evening. Oh, it is good! I agree that boneless vs. bone-in rib is better, but… What I've done is to substitute medium chunks of "Tri-Tip Steak, (A cut from Tri-Tip roasts, probably unique to Costco) for the standard short ribs. I don't bother with browning, cook 38-40 minutes and per your suggestion, increase the sauce/fluid volume by at least half. The is a wonderful meal and a great excuse to use ginger, gr. onions garlic and 'sticky rice' in abundance. With veggies elsewhere, this is a grand meal and thanks.
Of note: I use an very old (maintained) rattle-top PC, one that does lose some moisture, so I add a little more.
I've sent this method to three others and two of us are cooking it this evening. Thanks again for the fun, the great pix and the creative ideas. Like you, I wish that I could spend the day cooking. For one and with a forest to run, it won't happen and I appreciate your notes toward semi-fast cooking. Please consider me a hugh fan. -C.
What a wonderful comment! Tri-tip sounds like a great substitute. I would definitely double the sauce! It's delicious over rice!
As for the stove top pressure cooker question… yes, it's safe. I used a stove top for years, before buying an electric one. Heaven forbid that anyone tries to take away my PC. Lightning would hit them!
I'm trying these today after seeing the recipe on the Cook's Illustrated website. Just wanted to note that the recipe I found there notes that if you substitute bone-in beef ribs for the boneless ribs called for in the recipe, that you should increase pressurized cooking time to 1.5 hours. That may account for the ribs not being as tender as you had hoped in your initial trial of this recipe.
i should also note that in addition to increasing the cooking time to 1.5 hours when using bone-in ribs, you also add 3/4 cup of water to the pot with the rest of the ingredients and simmer the sauce after de-fatting it to thicken it.
Dear Anonymous,
There are some times in the CI pressure cooking cookbook that I don't totally agree with (as do other reviewers). 1.5 hours in a pressure sounds like way too long! I made this recipe, again, with boneless short ribs and the recipe turned out great! That reminds me, that I should update that fact.
I make these often. They are wonderful! I had trouble finding boneless short ribs but Costco carries them so I usually get them there. Thank you, love this recipe!