This recipe turned out beautifully and although the prepping may be a bit more involved than just a one-pot dump sorta getup, the joy I got just knowing that this knockout of a meal would be ready without much more effort on my part, sorta made me swoon in anticipation.
Whether you are prepping this for serving the same day or the next day, the "doneness" test is really a matter of personal preference. Me? I like the oxtails super tender and falling off the bone BUT still on the bone. You may have to play with this a little bit based on your taste factors, but I found it super easy and just as rewarding to make this dish using the InstantPot.
Get ready, it's so worthy.
Ingredients for Dredging:
- Flour
- Italian seasonings (Rustic Tuscan from Costco is great)
- salt, pepper
Ingredients for Osso Bucco:
- 1-2 lbs of fresh, pre-cut oxtails
- 1-2 fresh carrots, diced
- 1-2 stalks of fresh celery, diced
- 1 red onion, diced
- 2 fresh or dried bay leaves
- a bouquet garni of fresh thyme, rosemary (I tie it in a string to make fishing it out easier later)
- 1 tbsp of Better than Bouillon roasted garlic (optional)
- 1 c of dry white wine
- 3 c of chicken stock
- 2 tbsp of tomato paste
Dredge the meat:
In a lidded container, ziplock, bowl or plate, add about 2 c flour, 1 tbsp of Italian seasonings, salt and pepper. Dredge the oxtails, coating the oxtails well. I use a lidded click-clack style container to make quick work of this, shaking the oxtails in the dredge, with the lid on, of course.
Prep the InstantPot for Bucco:
- On Saute mode, add a tbsp of coconut oil and a tbsp of butter or ghee.
- Sear the oxtails, browning on all sides. I find that I have to turn the Saute function back on a few times but I didn't mind that. It seems that the Saute function prevents the pot from getting too hot so I didn't burn them at all, which was kinda nice as a fail safe.
- Once the oxtails have all been browned, I remove them from the InstantPot to a clean plate so I can saute the veggies and let the browned meat rest in the meantime.
- Add the chopped veggies and tomato paste, stirring to incorporate and being careful not to let it burn as the sugars in the tomato paste will start to caramelize.
- If you start to see it sticking, then go ahead and add the white wine to help with the deglazing of the browning bits while the veggies saute a few minutes more.
- Once the tomato paste has been incorporated, add the rest of the chicken stock, the bay leaves, the Better than Bouillon if you are using it and the bouquet garni of fresh herbs.
- Put the InstanPot lid back on. Press Cancel to stop the Saute mode.
- Select Pressure Cook for 40 minutes and leave it to steam vent naturally. I usually cook this overnight so once this goes off, I will put it on Stew mode just to cover my overnight cooking goodness. This is entirely optional and might be handy if after the first Pressure Cook, using natural steam release, the meat isn't as tender as you'd like.
I don't usually add any additional salt until after it's done cooking as the BtB contains a good bit of sodium. If you need it, add salt and pepper to taste just before or at serving time when you can taste it properly.
Other traditional garnishes:
- Zest of a lemon or orange
- fresh rosemary and thyme
- fresh parsley
- lemon wedges
Serving Suggestions:
I typically serve this dish with pasta or gnocchi of some sort. One of my go-to starches is orzo pasta but you can use whatever you prefer, including rice, baked potatoes, baked baby reds, veggies, whatever floats your bucco boat.
I was pretty blown away by how good this turned out. It is a simple recipe really and the hardest part is just prepping the diced veggies and browning the meat. If you can do that, then you can rock the house with this dish.
I don't think, however, that if I was serving more than 4 people, that I'd use this method unless I had two intantpots. In that case, I'd just do it the old fashioned way and slow cook in the oven using a Creuset of some sort at 325 for 3-4 hours or so.
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