Korean Style Short Rib Tacos with Cucumber Slaw
The dish takes two days to make properly, but the results are worth it! Asian flavors with beefy, tender short rib meat, spooned on warm flour tortillas with a refreshing and crunchy cucumber slaw.
This recipe is just unbelievably good. Although it is a relatively easy recipe to follow, it takes two days to make. Day One is a crock pot affair with the ribs as they cook down all day. Day Two is the all-important step of removing most of the fat from the dish, and then simmering the mixture until the meat falls apart and shreds, which makes easy goings for the tacos.
In a later iteration of this recipe, we cut back considerably on the quantity of sugar. The original recipe called for over a half cup and we found 2 tbsp was sufficiently sweet for this dish.
I give complete credit to my Number One Fan for finding this recipe on Tasty Kitchen, and then starting the cooking process. I finished it the next day. It's a very rich dish, so you actually need only a couple of tablespoons of the meat for each taco. Hence, this dish will easily yield food for 6-8 hungry people, or give you a week's worth of really fine leftovers.
Korean Style Short Rib Tacos with Cucumber Slaw
Ingredients
- 8-12 beef short ribs
- 5 tsp minced garlic
- 2 tbsp fresh grated ginger
- 3/4 cup light soy sauce (like, Kikkoman Less Sodium)
- 2 cups beef broth (like Swanson's or Kitchen Basics)
- 2 tbsp brown sugar (like, Splenda Brown Sugar Blend)
- 6 tbsp seasoned rice vinegar (like, Marukan Seasoned Gourmet)
- 2 tbsp toasted sesame oil
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes
- Fat removed short rib meat (see Instructions For the Short Ribs - Day One)
- 12-16 flour tortillas, fajita size (like, Mission Carb Balance)
- 1 whole large English cucumber
- 1 whole large carrot or 8 oz pre-shredded carrots (like, Dole Fresh)
- 1 cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped
- 4 tsp seasoned rice vinegar (like, Marukan Seasoned Gourmet)
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 dash Tabasco Sauce
- 1/8 tsp fine sea salt
- 7-8 grinds freshly cracked black pepper
Instructions
- Place all the ingredients except the ribs into the crock pot and stir well to combine.
- Add the short ribs to the crock pot. They should be completely submerged in the cooking liquid. Add a little water or more beef broth if needed.
- Cover the crock pot with the lid and set on high for 3 hours, then reduce the heat to low and cook another 5 hours.
- Remove the ribs to a platter and allow to cool for a half-hour.
- Take out the bones and any sinew. That's the light colored connective tissue between the meat and the bone. The dish looks better and the meat has better consistency without it. The meat should be falling off the bones so this step should go fairly quickly.
- Put all of the ingredients into a container to be refrigerated overnight. Be sure that the container is such that the rib meat is completely submerged and not rising above the surface of the cooking liquid. This is important so that you can easily remove the fat from the dish the next day.
- Cover and refrigerate overnight.
- The next day, you will notice a fairly deep, orange fat cap has risen to the top of the container and solidified.
- Carefully remove this orange fat cap and discard.
- Place the rib meat and all cooking liquid in a saucepan over medium heat, and simmer for 30-45 minutes.
- While the meat is simmering and the liquid is reducing, use two forks to shred the meat. Allow the liquid to reduce by half so you have the consistency of a Sloppy Joe.
- Make the Cucumber Slaw.
- Before serving, wrap the flour tortillas in a paper towel and zap in the microwave for 10-15 seconds at a time to the desired warmth.
- To make a taco, spoon some of the short rib meat into a folded taco, then spoon on some cucumber slaw and eat with your hands.
- Peel the cucumber and cut into matchsticks.
- Peel the carrot and either shred using a vegetable peeler a cheese grater, or cut into matchsticks. It it infinitely easier just to buy pre-shredded fresh carrots from your grocer.
- Add the vinegar, salt, Tabasco Sauce, honey and pepper, and toss.
- Add the cilantro just before serving, and toss again.
Notes
- When prepping fresh cilantro, strip the leaves away from the stems; wash the leaves and dry on paper towels or in a vegetable spinner. Finely chop on a cutting board.
- Serve the taco short rib meat and the cucumber slaw, along with the flour tortillas at the table family style so guests can prepare their own tacos.
- Serve with picante sauce, sour cream and shopped cilantro if desired.
- Use a slotted spoon for serving the taco short rib meat, allowing most liquid to drain away before placing on the tortilla; it makes for s slightly less messy affair.
