Have you ever tried beef ribs? I did once, and I hated them. It was just after I got married, and we had moved into our first apartment. I found a package of beef ribs on a shopping trip and decided to give them a try. I don’t remember what recipe I used, but they were the toughest, dryest, most flavorless things that have ever come out of my kitchen. They were so bad that I didn’t even serve them, and they went straight into the trash, never to be served again. Fast forward to today, and I’m gearing up to make these Argentinean-Style Grilled Short Ribs With Chimichurri. I keep hearing how wonderful beef ribs are, and I have finally decided to give them another chance. I hope I don’t regret this!
Fresh herbs, garlic, olive oil, and red wine vinegar come together in a tangy sauce that works wonders on steak, contrasting the heavier flavors and textures inherent to beef.
The Ingredients
So, here we are, and I have to find flanken-style beef ribs for a grilled short ribs recipe. Well, it turns out this cut isn’t something my usual grocery store carries. They had English cut beef ribs, which are cut parallel to the bone. Then there are flanken ribs that are cut across the rib bones, so instead of one long bone running through the meat, you get 4-5 cross-sections of bone.
Flanken style is a totally new cut for me. I had to do some (online) hunting and ended up ordering from Wild Fork. They had 3-pound packages of 4 ribs for $6.98 a pound. Not too bad, and the ribs were very meaty.
That left me to raid my pantry for the spices, vinegar, and olive oil. I had them all, so all I had to do was pick up some fresh parsley and oregano, which my regular grocery store had. Easy peasy.
The Process
One of the reasons I selected this grilled short ribs recipe was that it sounded so easy, and it was. This recipe was actually two separate recipes, and each had its own time listed. The ribs totaled 30 minutes, and the chimichurri totaled 15 minutes. I planned for everything to take 45 minutes, but things went faster than that:
- 7 minutes to prep
- 10 minutes to preheat the grill
- 11 minutes to grill
- 28 minutes total
I could have saved a few minutes by preheating the grill while I made the chimichurri, but I didn’t realize it at the time.
The prep work was really making the chimichurri. It’s literally adding the ingredients to a food processor and blending until smooth. I scraped down the sides with a spatula a couple of times, but that was it. The rest of the prep work was sealing the ribs with salt and pepper.
Grilling
After that, I ran outside to preheat the grill and oil the grate. I have a propane grill, so I only turned on one of the two burners per the instructions.
Oh, and I need to share a new trick I came up with. We always do this back and forth shuffle when we grill because we take the raw meat out on a plate, bring the dirty plate back inside, and take a second clean plate back out for the cooked meat. It’s kind of a pain because our patio isn’t close to the kitchen, and there are plenty of obstacles between the two.
Tip: Prep your meat on nested sheet pans, and take everything outside at once. When you put the meat onto the grill, move the dirty sheet pan underneath the clean one. Then you can cook and bring everything back inside all at once.
Grilling the ribs was as simple as you would imagine. I kept the lid closed as much as possible and used tongs turned the ribs about every two minutes. It took an extra minute for the meat thermometer to reach 125℉, and that was the only “difficulty” I had. Well, that and keeping my husband at bay. The smell of the ribs lured him outside and got him very interested in dinner.
