These slow cooker balsamic short ribs are so tender and delicious but the best part is they are easy!
***If you love EASY and DELICIOUS meals that you can make for your family in your slow cooker, please join me over on Instgram where I share ALL slow cooker recipes! Hope to see you there! Find me on Instagram at @slowcookerrecipelove ***
One of my New Year’s goals is to use my slow cooker more, at least once a week. So guess what that means? You’ll be seeing lots more slow cooker recipes here on the blog. Hope that’s o.k. If the pageviews on my 30+ easy, delicious family friend slow cooker meals is any indication how you feel about slow cooker meals, I think I’m o.k.! That post brought in more traffic to my blog the day I posted it than any other post has. Be sure and check out that post for a great resource for all the slow cooker recipes on my blog. I’ve made and eaten them all! Some of them are my family’s absolute favorite!
The best way to cook ribs is low and slow and that is just how the slow cooker does it. They cook for about 4-6 hours on low.
The first step is to cover your ribs with a spice blend made up of some of my favorite herbs – rosemary, sage, oregano, paprika and of course some garlic and onion. Just rub it all over the short ribs.
You then want to braise the short ribs, which means you brown them over high heat to seal in all those yummy juices!
Then you pop them in your slow cooker with a mixture of tomato sauce, balsamic vinegar, garlic and brown sugar and let them cook away.
They are done when that meat starts to fall off the bone!
My husband loved them and wasn’t sad at all when there was enough leftovers to take for lunch the next day.
Here is a slow cooker just like the one I love and use. Mine is just older.
***If you love EASY and DELICIOUS meals that you can make for your family in your slow cooker, please join me over on Instgram where I share ALL slow cooker recipes! Hope to see you there! Find me on Instagram at @slowcookerrecipelove ***
- 2-3 lbs. bone in beef short ribs
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 15 oz. can tomato sauce
- 1/2 C balsamic vinegar
- 1/4 C brown sugar
- 6 cloves of garlic minced
- 2 Tbsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp dried rosemary
- 1 tsp dried rubbed sage
- 1/2 Tbsp garlic powder
- 1/2 Tbsp onion powder
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- In a bowl, mix together the spice rub. Rub mixture into all sides of the short ribs.
- Heat oil in a pan over medium high heat.
- Braise the ribs for 2-3 minutes each side or until lightly browned.
- Put ribs in slow cooker and add balsamic vinegar, tomato sauce, sugar, and garlic.
- Cook for 4-6 hours on low or until meat is tender.
Recipe adapted from Practical Paleo
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sounds lovely, wish short ribs hadn’t become so expensive! Way out of my budget these days and it used to be a cheap cut! I find when foods become ‘fads’, the price jumps!
They are a bit spendy these days but it was a nice special treat.
Thank you Leigh Anne for the nice recipe. Have a great weekend!
Thanks Liz!
Sorry, I have only tried it with beef.
Super excited to hear about your New Years plan! I struggle with the crockpot thing… Looking forward to your recipes!
Thank you so much I very enjoying form your website
Leigh Anne, I am looking forward to your “crackpot” recipes. My close friend told me that is what her Grandma used to call the crockpot. I like my “crackpot” and would like to use it more, so will be trying some of your recipes. Thank you for sending them
Hi,
I would like to avoid using a slow cooker. How can I make this in my oven instead. Do I need more liquid?
Thanks
Yasmine, I have never tried making them in the oven I would just watch them to see if they need more liquid
I cooked these tonight and they were absolutely falling-off-the-bone scrumptious! I didn’t have time to braise them and I used Xylitol instead of brown sugar to keep them low carb. I cooked them 5.5 hrs in low. OMG-sooo delicious! Thank you for the great recipe.
Malaika, So glad you enjoyed them too!
I made these for dinner tonight, and they were delicious. I left out the sage (I don’t own any) and the rosemary (not a huge fan). It couldn’t have been simpler. I’m looking forward to the leftovers tomorrow. I’ve never made short ribs before, but I definitely will again.
Amy, Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a comment. I love hearing when people enjoy one of my recipes!!
The gravy was really good, I do think they could have cooked longer, some of my ribs were falling off the bone but most were not. I guess it depends on the amount of meat on the bones. But love the recipe, it was my first time to make short ribs. I will be making them again. Thank you for sharing the recipe
Nancy, The amount of meat on the bones will effect the cook time – glad you enjoyed them!
Soooo good, awesome recipe, thanks!
I never post comments but felt I had to put one on here to say how delicious these were.
Maybe it’s my slow cooker or meat on the ribs I got, but I had to leave them 7 hrs on low. Result was amazing 🙂
If you wanted to make this a freezer meal, would you braise the meat, then freeze, thaw, and cook?
If you are going to put them in the slow cooker frozen I would braise them first. If you are going to thaw before cooking I would just braise before putting in the slow cooker.
Found your recipe and site via Pinterest. This was my first attempt at short ribs and your recipe was so delicious! The only change I made was I threw in 4 halved crimini mushrooms because I love mushrooms with meat. Served with cheesy grits and roasted Brussels spouts. My hubby agreed it was one of the best meals I’ve ever made. It’s a keeper in our house! Thank you 🙂
So glad you loved them and the addition of mushrooms is a great idea.
These were so delicious and rich, YUM!! I actually used pork spare ribs (cheaper!) and didn’t have tomato sauce so I used about half the amount of ketchup and reduced the sugar a smidge. I will definitely make them again.
Tiffany, I love that you loved them!! Great substitution!