My favorite dish is oxtail, and I make it for my frozen food company as well as for all of my friends. Everybody enjoys it. Given how tasty it is, I refer to it as “God’s food.” It’s a really fatty meal, but it’s so delicious! Here in Africa, oxtail is easily accessible, but I’ve heard it may even be found in the US.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 3 hrs 15 mins |
| Total Time: | 3 hrs 35 mins |
| Servings: | 6 |
| Yield: | 6 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 cup chopped celery
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
- 2 cubes beef bouillon
- 10 cups water
- 6 whole black peppercorns
- 2 bay leaves
- ¼ cup canola oil
- 3 pounds beef oxtail, cut into pieces
- 1 large onion, chopped
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 (12 ounce) can kidney beans, drained
- ¼ cup cornstarch dissolved in
- ½ cup water
Instructions
- Place celery, garlic, tomato paste, bouillon cubes, and water into a large Dutch oven; stir until the tomato paste has dissolved. Add peppercorns and bay leaves, place over medium heat and bring to a simmer.
- Meanwhile, heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add oxtail and cook until browned on all sides, about 10 minutes. Remove oxtail from hot oil and place into Dutch oven. Pour out all but 1 tablespoon of oil from the skillet, reduce heat to medium, and cook the onion until softened and translucent, about 5 minutes; add to oxtail.
- Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for 2 1/2 hours. Season with salt and pepper, recover, and continue to cook until the oxtail is tender, but not falling off of the bone, about 30 minutes.
- Remove oxtail pieces and place into a serving dish. Add kidney beans to Dutch oven and return to a simmer. Thicken with cornstarch dissolved in water, simmer for 1 minute until thickened and clear. Pour sauce over the oxtail.
- Oxtail should be ready when a knife slices easily through the meat. It should not be overcooked otherwise it will fall off the bones and go stringy – and if not cooked long enough it will not come off the bones easily enough. I normally find 3 hours cooking just perfect.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 669 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 23 g |
| Cholesterol | 250 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 6 g |
| Protein | 74 g |
| Saturated Fat | 13 g |
| Sodium | 1092 mg |
| Sugars | 5 g |
| Fat | 32 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Will make again. Used 3 oxtails. Only change. Lots of rice
Absolutely loved the flavor of this recipe, however, I believe I made this as directed even simmering it longer but the oxtail just wouldn’t come off bone. I ended up wrapping and baking low and slow for two hours then deboning it by hand and adding it to soup. I also thought it would thicken up a lot more with the cornstarch. I would make this again though knowing what I need to do now because the flavor is just that good.
This is by far one of the best and easiest way I’ve made oxtail. The taste is definitely what catches my attention. Great on you Gail.
I love this it gets better ever time
Simply a Winner!
Have never eaten anything like this so we weren’t sure what to expect. Followed the recipe exactly. The house smelled wonderful by the time hubby got home, he even commented on how good it smelled. This dish was so great!!! Although it was time-intensive it was fairly easy to prepare and it looked so fancy sitting in the serving dish. WIll definitely make this again.
It was a good recipe. The seasoning needs to be tweaked. I would substitute beef broth in place of water in the future. To improve the flavor profile I added more salt, Worcester sauce and Cajun seasoning. I also wanted more veggies so I added a can of corn. Not bad for a first time. I served over white rice and enjoyed the meal.
I made nearly as written. I used 4 pounds of meat, because the store only had 2 pound packages. I would recommend using 4 pounds of meat, because meat is good. The only change I would make is using 2 cans on beans instead of 1. One can didn’t seem to be enough. Thanks for sharing the recipe with us Americans!
I was nervous about making oxtail for the first time but this recipe was super easy and had most ingredients on hand. I didn’t have kidney beans so I substituted Baked Beans with Onions instead. Came out good! Overall, I thought this dish was pretty good and will make it again for sure!
I follow everything according the recipe and the dish came absolutely delicious
This is a great recipe!! We added carrots and skipped the cornstarch and it was lovely. We also did this in the pressure cooker to save some time. Next time we plan to tweak the recipe a bit and add some heat and a few other spices just to play with it, but it was delicious as written.
This is such a wonderful stew recipe! I substituted pig tails (much more easily available in my part of the US than oxtails), doubled the amount of celery, and cooked the stew in a crockpot instead of a Dutch oven. Just, WOW! Will definitely make this recipe again!
Lovely recipe. I did not add corn starch but added some carrots and sweet potatoes.
It has no flavour. The meat is super tender though.
Love this recipe so very much. I only used 6 cups of water, added 2 cups dry red wine, carrots, mushrooms. My husband hasn’t stopped asking for this, one of our favorites!
This was the best oxtail soup ive ever had and everyone i made it for agrees. Well done!!!
Delicious! Modified to be one pot recipe. Added carrots and cauliflower. Eliminated cornstarch.
This is really great. I cook this almost weekly as its a really delicious stew. I use a slow cooker and as advised in the comments, on low for 4 hours and high for 2 plus I added barley at the final hour. Really delicious recipe. Thanks
Wow this was a big hit! This was my first time cooking oxtail, not to mention, I had never tried it before either. Wow was so good! The only thing I did different was add some carrots and an extra can of kidney beans. Doubt it did much to change the flavor, but 1 can didn’t seem like very much and carrots because why not? 🙂 Excellent recipe! Will be making this again!
I absolutely LOVED this stew! I replaced the kidney beans for the HEINZ baked beans, these thicken the gravy so there was no need for cornstarch! My husband and 2 year old loved it too. Will be making this again and I recommend this recipe!! OH BTW… i used a crock pot. I wanted to go take a nap 😉
I made this recipe today following the instructions exactly and it came out so good my family ate seconds. Thank you!