Apple Butter Braised Short Ribs

If you all haven't noticed my love for apples is a little extreme. It's my favorite fruit, I mean it only doubles that it is so versatile when being used to bake, cook or just eat in general. My favorite dishes are savory dishes that apples tend to compliment - pork chops baked with apples, sweet potato gnocchi with chicken, bacon, apples and a brown butter sauce. I could go on and on, but apples are forever my go to if I want to add a little sweet to my dish. 

I made apple butter and boy, was it good. I've been craving the goodness of southern cooking lately and it brought me back to home. Though, when you make apple butter in the slow cooker, you tend to end up with many, many batches of it. Not complaining but as I didn't make it thinking of canning, I had to use it within 2 weeks. Lets just say the other posts that are about to show up, all pretty much use apple butter. Apple butter got my creative kitchen juices flowing, so this is how this delicious, mouth-watering, fall off the bone dish made its way into my kitchen.  

These braised short ribs got two thumbs up from my husband as he stuffed his mouth and told me how good they were, oh - and that we must have them again. Braised short ribs are so easy to make your own sauce, and just go, but when you come back, you come back to the best, easy meal.

Ingredients:

makes 4-6 servings

Braised Ribs:

salt & pepper to taste

extra virgin olive oil

Apple butter (best to make ahead in advance in crockpot or use store bought):

adapted from brown eyed baker.

3-6lbs apples (a mixture of fuji, gala, and pink lady is what I used)

1 cup dark brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

a pinch of cardamom & ginger

Additional needs:

apple cider or apple juice

2 cloves garlic, chopped

sweet onion

water

I highly recommend that if you don't have a cast iron, that you get one. If you don't have one, you can use a normal pan.

First, place crockpot on low heat. Then, get a large pan and cover the bottom with just enough olive oil. Now, take your braised ribs and season them with salt and pepper to your taste. once the oil is heated sear all sides about 1-2 minutes. You're not trying to cook these, just seal the juices in. Now that all sides are seared, place into crockpot.

Take a medium size bowl and combine apple butter, and just enough apple cider or juice and very little water. You don't want the mixture to be watery, but you don't want it as too thick either. I recommend using apple cider if you can find it, as it will give your ribs an even stronger flavor but if you don't have any, apple juice will do just fine. Add chopped garlic, and your desired amount of sweet onion to the apple butter mixture.

Top the braised short ribs with the mixture, making sure they all are nicely covered with the sauce and let cook for 6-8 hours. Some may fall off the bone, but that is perfectly okay. 

If you want, take the sauce after placing the braised ribs on a cutting board to cool, strain the sauce over a pot on medium high heat and boil for about 5-10 minutes or until sauce is thick and drizzle over your meat before serving. Sweet potato mash goes great with this meal. White or brown rice with veggies would as well. 

Tell me what you paired these delicious ribs with!