easy beef osso bucco
Osso Bucco, Gremolata, and a gorgeous glass of wine.
The weather has finally changed in Seattle and I’m here for it! We also learned that our annual beef delivery is arriving a month early so I need to use up the last of our store from this past year. Each year I have to balance making sure we don’t have a lot of beef at the end of the year and not run out too soon. I’m down to stew meat, one package of NY steaks (a happy surprise!), a couple of ground packages, and beef shanks.
I decided to do a big batch of Osso Bucco with the shanks; we would eat half and the rest I would freeze for a quick meal. Osso Bucco is one of those stand-out dishes in a restaurant that appears on menus in the fall & winter; it makes your head turn when it breezes by your table. Traditionally, Osso Bucco is made with veal but you can substitute beef and it’s still a beautiful dish. In one of my old restaurants, we would serve it with its six-inch-long bone still in the middle, nestled on top of the creamiest polenta ever, a killer demi-glace, a sprinkle of gremolata, and a tiny spoon to scoop the remaining marrow out. With presentations like this people often think Osso Bucco is a complicated dish. It’s not hard it only takes time. The longest active time is the browning of the meat and then you put everything else in and throw it in the oven. It’s so, so simple! I love meals like this that are seemingly difficult but use ingredients you likely have in your pantry.
Osso Bucco is rich, it has a ton of flavor from being cooked so long at such a high temperature. The gremolata adds come punch and brightness to it; do not omit it!
You could do this in the Instant Pot too but the smell in my house was amazing from cooking this low and slow in the oven. I served this with parmesan polenta and it was divine. My husband and I enjoyed a bottle of wine with dinner. And, my kids didn’t even take one bite of it. They had leftovers from the night before.
I adapted the Gourmet cookbook recipe (thanks, Ruth Reichl) to use what I had at home. Their ingredient list is long and I didn’t have time to pull everything together (or do all that chopping!).
Make sure you have all your mise en place ready before you start!
Beef Osso Bucco
Ingredients:
6-6.5 lb cross-cut beef shanks (or veal)
Salt & Pepper- to season the shanks and the braising liquid
1 stick unsalted butter
1-2 Cups Dry White Wine
2 Turkish Bay Leaf
6 sprigs flat leaf parsley
8 sprigs fresh thyme
1 yellow onion, sliced into rings
4 medium carrots, chopped
4 tablespoons garlic- this ended up being about 1.5 heads of garlic
2- 15 oz. cans diced tomatoes (you could use fresh chopped Romas too)
3 Cups chicken or beef stock (I used chicken because that’s what I had)
Gremolata (recipe as written from Gourmet)
¼ cup minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1 ½ teaspoons garlic (about three cloves)
The puppy wanted in on the action (see bottom left of this photo).
Method:
1. Pull out your beef shanks about 30 minutes before you want to brown them to take off the chill.
2. Make a bouquet garni. With about 12” of cheesecloth place thyme, parsley, and bay leaves; wrap with twine.
3. Pre-heat oven to 300.
4. Heat a large dutch oven over medium heat and add half a stick of butter.
5. Meanwhile, season each shank on both sides with salt & pepper. Don’t be stingy! You can certainly dredge each piece with flour to help form a crust. I didn’t on the off-chance by daughter would try. She has Celiac Disease so I often omit this step. She of course didn’t have any!
6. Once the butter is melted add in beef shanks (you will have to do this in batches). Don’t move them for a few minutes. Once you can lift each shank without the meat sticking flip them over.
7. Once the first batch is browned, transfer to a platter and cover loosely with foil to keep warm.
8. Heat remaining butter and brown the next batch of shanks and remove to platter once browned on both sides.
9. Remove all but two tablespoons of butter/fat in the pan.
10. Add your onions and sauté until just tender.
11. Add carrots and garlic and stir until garlic is fragrant but don’t burn it!
12. Add your wine to deglaze the pan then add in tomatoes & stock.
13. Add all shanks back to the pot and make sure they are covered with the liquid. Add you bouquet garni now. You may need to add a bit more broth to keep it covered.
14. Cover pot, bring to a simmer, then place in your pre-heated oven for about 3 hours. I like to check the tenderness at about 2 hours. I like my meat falling off the bone for this dish so you may need to go longer than three; it all depends on how large each shank is!
15. Using a slotted spoon carefully lift each shank out and transfer to a roasting pan and cover loosely with foil (keep your oven on).
16. Remove bouquet garni and discard. Pour the liquid through a fine-mesh sieve into a large saucepan and push the solids to get as much braising liquid out as possible. Skim any fat you can from the sauce.
17. Boil the braising liquid until it reduces to about 3 cups, about 15-20 minutes.
18. Baste the shanks with some sauce and place in oven for 15 minutes, basting three more times.
19. I made my quick-cooking polenta & gremolata during this time.
20. To serve place polenta in a bowl, nestle the shanks on top, and sprinkle with gremolata. If you can, drink some Barolo with it!