Instant Pot Short Ribs With Garlic & Wine

These Instant Pot Short Ribs cooked in a rich garlic and wine broth are fall-off-the-bone tender and are the ultimate hands-off, make-ahead dinner. You can enjoy this beef short rib recipe for a midweek meal or impress your guests at the next dinner party.

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In This Post:

• ℹ️ Recipe Overview
• 🥩 What Are Beef Short Ribs?
• 🛒 Ingredients
• 📷 How To Make It
• 📹 Watch The Video
• 👩‍🍳Recipe Tips
• 🥦 What To Serve With
• 🫙Storage Tips
• 📝 Full Recipe
• ⭐️ Comment On & Rate This Recipe

If you like this recipe, make sure to check out our Instant Pot beef cheeks, the heartiest Instant Pot beef roast and gravy, and our Italian beef sandwiches. Find more meal ideas in our collection of best Instant Pot dinner recipes here.

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Instant Pot Beef Short Ribs

Short ribs are one of the best cuts for slow cooking and pressure cooking. The gelatin, fat and connective tissues around the meat and the bone melt during cooking, resulting in the most tender and succulent fall apart beef. 

Braised in a rich garlic and red wine broth, you also get the base for the most delicious gravy sauce to pour over the ribs and whatever side dish you make (we love mashed potatoes or creamy polenta). 

Using the Instant Pot cuts down on cooking time, so you can get this meal on the table much quicker than using a slow-cooker, stovetop or oven methods. 

This beef short ribs Instant Pot recipe will show you just how easy it is to make a restaurant-quality dish in your own kitchen.

What Are Beef Short Ribs?

Beef short ribs are like the meatier equivalent of pork ribs. They’re taken from the short portion of the rib bone (the full length of ribs is much longer). The bone is actually quite small and the ribs are cut into rectangular blocks and are sometimes sold boneless. In some cases, the ribs are sold as a rack rather than pre cut individual pieces. In that situation, just cut between the bones to make individual beef short ribs.

The ribs can be braised or slow cooked boneless or with the bone-in. The bone-in pieces take a little longer and do have more flavor in our opinion. 

Beef short ribs are perfect for slow cooking and pressure cooking. You want to break down the tough connective tissues so that the meat becomes fall-apart tender. The fat marbling in the meat keeps them very juicy.

Ingredients

• Beef short ribs - you will need bone-in short ribs, about 6-8 pieces weighing about  10-14oz / 300-400g each. There is enough sauce for up to 8 pieces or so but you can use less meat and just have more sauce.  You could also use 1.5 pounds boneless short ribs.  If using boneless short rib, reduce the cooking time from 45 minutes to 35 minutes.  
• Braising broth base - onion, celery, carrots and LOTS of garlic will give the broth a lot of flavor, which will eventually become the sauce for the ribs. 
• Red wine - dry red wine is best here, go for quality if you can as we’re using a lot here and it becomes the base for the sauce but it doesn’t need to be very expensive. Suggested types are Cab Sav, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Zinfandel or Sangiovese but nothing too light like say Pinot Noir. 
• Beef stock or broth - you can use homemade, out of a carton or stock cubes with water.
• Tomato paste  - adds acidity, umami and a little tomato flavor but not too much so the beef, red wine and garlic are still the dominant ingredients.
• Herbs - bay leaves are great in braised meat dishes; plus, fresh thyme or dried thyme for more.
• To finish - a bit of honey for sweetness, a little flour to thicken the sauce and some butter to roundup the sauce. 
• Sides: while the ribs are cooking, you can prepare mashed potatoes, rice, creamy polenta or pasta to go with the meat and sauce.

How To Make Beef Short Ribs In Instant Pot

You will find the full recipe with ingredients and nutritional breakdown in the recipe card below.

There are three stages to making this lemon chicken orzo soup in the pressure cooker. The first stage is to brown the meat and cook off the vegetables using the Saute setting. The second stage is to pressure cook the beef short ribs. The third stage is to thicken the finished sauce.

Let's break it down with step-by-step photos and video. You can use a 6-quart or 8-quart Instant Pot.

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Step 1. Pat dry the short ribs with some paper towel. Season the short ribs on all sides with salt and pepper.

Step 2. Turn the Instant Pot to Saute, Normal mode, add a tablespoon or so of olive oil. Working in batches, add short ribs and brown on all sides, about 2-3 minutes per side. Add a little extra oil in between batches. Browning the meat will add a lot of flavor to the broth.

Step 3. You might end up with quite a bit of rendered fat from the short ribs. Pour off some of it, you only need about 2-3 tablespoons of fat for the next step.

Step 4. While still on Saute, add onions, celery and carrots. Cook for about 5-6 minutes, stirring a few times, until browned slightly.

Step 5. Add the garlic cloves and stir through. Press Cancel to stop the Saute process.

Step 6. Pour in the red wine and scrape the bottom of the pot.

Step 7. Let it cook off for a minute or so for the alcohol to evaporate partially. The rest will vaporize and escape the pot once you open the vent and release the pressure.

Step 8. After a minute or two, add the beef stock and add tomato paste. Stir well, scraping the bottom of the pot for about 2 minutes, so that some of the alcohol in the wine evaporates.

Step 9. Return the browned short ribs to the broth, nestling them as deep as you can. Add the thyme and bay leaves. It’s fine if some of ribs are poking out or overlapping. They will still cook, even if not covered in liquid. Make sure to scoop a bit of the broth over them.

Step 10. Secure and lock the lid. Set to Pressure Cook for 45 minutes on HIGH with 15 minute natural release. Then use the quick release to let off the remaining pressure.

Step 11. Open the lid. Carefully remove short ribs to a clean plate  (they will be very tender, so the bones may slip out; try to hold them together as you transfer them). Cover the ribs to stay warm while you reduce the sauce.

Step 12. Using a slotted spoon, fish out some of the vegetables and all of the herbs and leaves. They have served their purpose of flavoring the broth. You can also strain the broth into a pot through a sieve, then return it back to the Instant Pot. 

Step 13. Add the honey and turn the Instant Pot back on Saute setting, HIGH mode. Cook for 10-15 minutes or until the sauce has reduced by a third. Make sure to stir frequently.

Step 14. Whisk a tablespoon or two of the flour with ¼ cup of the cooking broth in a separate bowl until smoothie slurry forms. Pour the slurry into the sauce to thicken and stir in the butter to give it a glossy, rich finish. Press Cancel to stop the Saute. 

Step 15. Pour some of the sauce over the ribs on a platter or in a bowl OR return the ribs back to the pot to stir through the sauce. You can serve the remaining sauce on the side.

Finish with plenty of chopped parsley. Serve over mashed potatoes or creamy polenta.

Watch How To Make It

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Recipe Tips

• If you can’t get short ribs, you can use this recipe with any slow cooking cut of beef or even whole beef pot roast. Chuck roast, shanks, osso buco, brisket can be cut into large pieces and braised in this sauce. 
• Don’t skip browning the meat! This is a crucial step to getting the most flavor out of your short ribs and into your sauce.
• For red wine, you can use something like Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot but maybe nothing as light as Pinot Noir. It doesn’t have to be an expensive red wine but a little quality goes a long way when it comes to flavor. 

Should you worry about the alcohol content?

Most of the alcohol in red wine will evaporate during the deglazing of the pot. Then any remaining alcohol will vaporize during pressure cooking and will be trapped in the pot but will be let off together with the steam when you release the pressure (don’t worry, it’s not strong enough to combust or anything like that). The sauce doesn’t taste too winey, it kind of transforms during cooking. There might still be a small percentage of alcohol content but at a very safe level. 

For a non-alcoholic version, you can try alcohol-free wine or use extra beef broth and water and add a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce and a table of Balsamic vinegar. 
A note on the sauce: Once the beef ribs are cooking, the sauce needs to reduce quite a bit on the Saute setting without a lid (this will further evaporate any remaining alcohol). You want it to get to thickened, saucy gravy consistency. A little flour slurry at the end and butter will also thicken the sauce.

What To Serve With Short Ribs

• Serve these Instant Pot short ribs over mashed potatoes or creamy polenta and top with gravy sauce. Pasta, rice and quinoa could also be a good base. If you’re watching your carb intake, mashed cauliflower is also delicious.
• A bit of crusty bread to mop up the excess sauce would also make a nice pairing. 
• Vegetables, like steamed or stir-fried green beans, broccoli, asparagus and Brussels sprouts, will work well, as would a simple crisp side salad.
• As for matching red wine, serve with a full-body red like Shiraz or a similar wine you used in cooking.

Storing The Ribs & Sauce

Store leftover ribs and sauce in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Reheat the pressure cooker on Saute, in the oven or in a heavy pot until really hot. Once cold, the sauce will become slightly gelatinous but will melt once heated.  

Short ribs and the sauce freeze well and will keep for up to 3 months. Thaw out in the fridge overnight and reheat well.

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More Instant Pot Beef Recipes

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Full Recipe

Find the full list of ingredients, instructions, and a nutritional breakdown below. If you have questions or cook this recipe, please let us know in the comments, and make sure to rate this recipe so it’s easy for others to find.

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