Most people know oxtail soup from oxtail soup. And then only from a jar or bag. But real oxtail is a beautiful piece of meat packed with collagen and connective tissue that makes for great taste. We are going to smoke oxtail and stew to cover a bowl of fries.
This is oxtail. A whole oxtail divided into smaller pieces of about 3 cm running from thick to thin. Or vice versa if you start on the other side. The meat doesn’t look very appetizing, but it is. You cannot prepare oxtail like other beef. You will have to stew it to get the meat tender.
We first sprinkled the oxtail with salt and pepper and then put it in the fridge overnight. Mostly the salt does its job. The meat becomes even more flavorful, and the surface tissue breaks down.
After an hour or two of smoking, it already looks delicious. You just can’t eat it yet. The meat is still too tough. That is why we are going to stew the meat.
With every Kamado Joe, you get a so-called accessory rack. You usually place your platesetters here so that you can barbecue indirectly. But a Dutch Oven also fits precisely. In the Dutch oven, we first bake some cubes of bacon and caramelize some onions and garlic. That is a top base for any stew.
Then brown sugar, tomato paste and a few bottles of beer are added. Then the lid is put on, and we wait 3 hours for the steam to do its job.
After 3 hours of steaming, the meat is so soft that it almost falls off the bone. Here and there you have to help a little with two forks. We do this while the Dutch Oven remains above the fire so that the moisture can reduce to a thicker sauce.
Before you started, you counted how many pieces of oxtail you put in the pan. They must all come out again. That saves a visit to the dentist.
We have provided a large bowl of fries and put the meat over it. Grab a nice beer and enjoy it.
Ingredients
- 1.5 kilos of oxtail
- Black pepper and salt
- Little olive oil
- 3 onions. sliced
- 3 cloves of garlic. pressed
- 100 grams of bacon cubes
- 40 grams of tomato paste
- 3 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 bottles of beer
- 250 ml beef stock
Instructions
- Sprinkle the oxtail parts with salt and pepper and leave it in the fridge overnight.
- Prepare a barbecue with an indirect heat of about 120 to 150°C (248 to 302F) with a chunk of smoking wood. Place the oxtail pieces on the cooler side of the grates and close the lid. Let the meat smoke like this for 2 hours.
- Remove the oxtail from the grill and place a Dutch Oven. Fry the bacon and then add some olive oil. Then you add the onion, garlic, brown sugar and tomato puree. Stir fry until the onion is soft and brown.
- Add the smoked oxtail along with the beef stock and empty the two bottles of beer. The meat is not covered completely. Close the lid for 3 hours.
- The oxtail is ready when the meat separates easily from the bone. Serve with fries.
