Costco had amazing USDA Prime chuck short ribs so I splurged on a pack. I did not realize these were the thin cut variety but it worked to my advantage because I wanted to have them for dinner tonight.

The preparation on this was salt and pepper on the meat, vacuum packed and in my sous vide for 8 hours at 158 degrees. Short ribs are perfect for sous vide because the collagens predictably break down with time and application of heat, and you can’t rush this process else you will end up with tough chewy ribs that don’t do justice to the cut. The full cut short ribs can go for anywhere from 12 to 72 hours, at temperatures from 129 to 185. The longer you cook them, the lower the temperature can be. These being thin cuts and prime with great fat marbling, I opted for 8 hours.

I prepared a sauce of beef stock, red wine, diced garlic, thyme, and some tamarind. I have a chunk of tamarind that I cut a piece off, approximately 1″ square. Steep in boiling water for 5 minutes and use just the tamarind water for the sauce. Reduce the sauce down and add 1 tbs. of butter as a final step.

Sauce:
1/2 cup red wine
3/4 cup beef stock
1 tsp garlic
3 tbs tamarind water per instructions above
1 sprig thyme
1 tbs butter

I removed the short ribs and seared them on my grill to give them color and served. I left the diced garlic in the sauce when I served because the meat itself did not cook in a braise and I wanted to impart some additional flavors that would have ordinarily been picked up from the braising process.