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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.
Check out more of my Crock Pot Beef Recipes:
Easy Slow Cooker Beef and Barley Soup
And here is a slow cooker just like the one I love and use.
Short Rib Crock Pot Recipe
Balsamic Slow Cooker Short Ribs
Ingredients
- 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
Spice Rub
- 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
Instructions
- 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.
Nutrition Facts:
***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 ***
JMA says
Can you use red wine for a sub for the tomato sauce?
Leigh Anne says
You could use it along with the tomato sauce but you need the tomato sauce.
Barb says
Absolutely delicious. I made the recipe as written except I had to use boneless short ribs. These were the best short ribs I’ve ever eaten.
Angie says
Short ribs with balsamic vinegar and tomato sauce is the best. Meat fell off bone and taste was excellent. Thank you
Tiffany says
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.
Leigh Anne says
Tiffany, I love that you loved them!! Great substitution!
Jenncolley06 says
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 🙂
Leigh Anne says
So glad you loved them and the addition of mushrooms is a great idea.
Laura says
If you wanted to make this a freezer meal, would you braise the meat, then freeze, thaw, and cook?
Leigh Anne says
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.
Natalie says
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 🙂