Instant Pot Oxtail: Forget about simmering for hours on the stove. In this recipe, 45 minutes of pressure cooking creates tender, fall-off-the-bone oxtail with a rich sauce made from the liquid in the pan.
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Now, this is a pretty simple recipe, but don’t be fooled. Simple doesn’t mean boring. Oxtail is the perfect cut for the pressure cooker. It contains a lot of hard connective tissue, fat, and bone, and requires long, slow cooking to melt into tender meat that almost falls off the bone. Or you need to apply pressure. That’s where the Instant Pot comes into play. It takes just over an hour to cook the oxtail in a pressure cooker using a long slow braise (cooking the oxtail in a small amount of liquid).
Ingredient notes and substitutions
An oxtail is exactly what its name suggests: the tail of a bull. Oxtail is not a common cut of beef in the United States, but it is becoming easier to find these days. In the past, I would have told you to check out your local Mexican market. You can now find them at your local grocery store (if you dig deep into the meat case), and Costco sells them whole tails cut diagonally and sealed in freezer bags. If you can’t find oxtail, substitute bone-in beef short ribs cut into 2-inch pieces. Beef Soup: I love homemade beef soup, but it’s a pain to make. I always have homemade chicken soup in the freezer, so I always substitute it with homemade chicken soup. Store-bought soup is also fine. You can use water, but I prefer soup because it adds flavor to the liquid in the pot. Dried thyme: If you have fresh herbs, use that instead. I buy fresh herbs for my “chicken mix” at the store and use a sprig of rosemary, a sprig of oregano, and a few sprigs of fresh thyme. Or, for dried herbs, use an Italian seasoning blend in place of dried thyme. Worcestershire sauce and soy sauce: Both add richness and flavor to the broth. You can omit them if you like, or use all Worcestershire sauce or all soy sauce.
🛠 Equipment
6 quart pressure cooker
fat separator
📏Scaling
This recipe easily doubles in a 6-quart pressure cooker, but you’ll need to brown the oxtail in two batches. If you cut all the ingredients in half, this recipe will fit in a 3-quart pressure cooker, but again, you may need to brown the oxtail in batches to make it fit. Cooking time remains the same. It takes the same amount of time to cook one 3-inch oxtail, no matter how many are in the pot.
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Instant Pot Oxtail Recipe
author: Mike Vrobel
Total time: 1 hour 20 minutes
yield: 6 for one person 1×
explanation
Braised oxtail is easy to make in the Instant Pot. Thanks to pressure cooking, you can have an easy and delicious braised oxtail in just over an hour.
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 pound oxtail, cut into 3-inch lengths
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup Beef soup (preferably homemade) or chicken soup or water
1/2 teaspoon drying thyme
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
Instructions
Grill the oxtail on one side. Set the vegetable oil in the Instant Pot to sauté mode and heat over high heat until the oil begins to shimmer (or use medium-high heat on your stovetop PC). Sprinkle oxtail with 1 teaspoon sea salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Add the oxtail to the pot in a single layer (it barely fits in a 6-quart Instant Pot; think jigsaw puzzle) and roast until the bottom is well browned, about 5 minutes. Flip the oxtail and immediately proceed to the next step. Add thyme and liquid. Pour the soup into the pot and scrape the bottom of the pot with a flat wooden spoon to loosen any brown bits stuck to the bottom. Sprinkle the oxtail with dried thyme and drizzle the Worcestershire sauce and soy sauce all over. Pressure cook for 45 minutes on natural release: Lock the pressure cooker lid. Cook on high pressure for 45 minutes in an electric pressure cooker (using Manual, Pressure Cook, or Pressure Cook – Custom mode in the Instant Pot) or on high pressure for 40 minutes on your stovetop PC. Let it sit for another 20 minutes until the pressure naturally drops. (If you’re in a hurry, you can immediately release any remaining pressure after 15 minutes.) Remove the lid by tilting it toward you to avoid hot steam. Drain the oil from the sauce and enjoy. Remove the oxtail from the pan using tongs or a slotted spoon. The oxtail will fall apart, so be gentle. Pour the cooking liquid into a fat separator to allow it to settle and separate the fat. Pour some of the degreasing liquid over the oxtail, and leave the rest on the table to use as a sauce. enjoy!
Preparation time: 5 minutesCooking time: 1 hour 15 minutescategory: sunday dinnermethod: pressure cookercooking: american
nutrition
Serving Size: 2-3 slices of oxtail
calorie: 318
sugar: 0.5g
sodium: 518.8mg
fat: 11.1g
carbohydrates: 1.1g
protein: 50g
cholesterol: 88.5mg
☃️ Storage
Oxtail is great for leftovers. I store it in a 2 cup container with some of my non-fat sauce. Store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Alternatively, remove the oxtail meat from the bones and shred it while hot and store in a two-cup container. (Leftover oxtail is great for tacos or shredded beef sandwiches).
variations
fancy version
If you want a fancy recipe: After roasting the oxtail, remove it to a platter. Add the chopped onion, carrot, 2 crushed garlic cloves, and 2 tablespoons tomato paste to the pot. Cook vegetables, stirring and scraping with a flat-bladed wooden spoon, until onions are softened and paste begins to brown, about 5 minutes. Pour in 1/2 cup of red wine (such as Merlot) and scrape up any browned bits of onion and tomato paste from the bottom of the Instant Pot. Return the oxtail to the pot and proceed to the “Add thyme and liquid” step.
Add cornstarch to the liquid in the pot to thicken it.
To thicken the sauce after cooking: After defatting the liquid in the pan, whisk together a cornstarch slurry (1 tablespoon cornstarch mixed with 2 tablespoons cold water) and add to the defatted liquid.
tips and tricks
Burnt on one side:
For the best balance of flavor and speed, sear only one side of the meat. The cooking liquid will dissolve any browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pot, and the browned bits will add flavor to the stew. If you’re in a hurry, you can skip the browning step. The oxtail is still tasty, but not as good as expected. Or, if you have the patience, you can brown the meat on multiple sides for even more flavor. “One Side Brown” is my compromise between flavor building and speed.
FAQ
Only one cup of soup or water? Is that enough?
Yes, you need enough water to pressure the cooker. This is what makes this a braise rather than a stew. Meat is cooked in very little liquid. Why 1 cup? Because most pressure cookers have a minimum liquid volume of 1 cup (or less). If the cooker requires more liquid, add the minimum amount of liquid specified in the manual.
Oxtail has a lot of fat, so should I trim it off before cooking?
I don’t trim oxtails. Render the fat in the pressure cooker and use a fat separator to remove the fat from the liquid in the pot before pouring it over the oxtail. This will remove enough fat and make it delicious. However, if you really want to trim it before cooking, just go ahead. Nothing changes in the recipe. (Oxtail contains a lot of intramuscular fat, so a fat separator is needed at the end.)
What to add to braised oxtail
I love this oxtail with mashed potatoes to soak up the sauce and a green vegetable (like green beans) on the side. I usually eat it with bread or rolls or dipped in sauce.
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