Sous Vide Southern Oxtails Recipe

5 from 8 votes

Sous Vide Southern Oxtails Recipe

Sticky-lipped, rich, and savory, my mama's southern braised oxtails recipe is slow cooked until fall-off-the-bone tender. Now, using sous vide circulator, I updated her recipe to make the most amazing smothered oxtails you'll ever have!

Prep Time5

Cook Time1 13

Total Time1 13 5

Course: Dinner

Cuisine: African American

Servings: servings

Calories: 1093kcal

Author: Eden Westbrook

Ingredients

Sous Vide Oxtails

2 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 pounds oxtail segments trimmed of excess fat
2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 bay leaf

Southern Smothered Gravy

4 tablespoon butter
1 medium yellow onion sliced
4 cloves garlic minced
¼ cup all-purpose flour
3 cups beef stock or broth
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Instructions

Sous Vide Southern Oxtails

Pat oxtails dry and season them with the kosher salt. Set up your sous vide bath and set the temperature of your sous vide circulator to 165 degrees F.
Pour vegetable oil into a cast iron pan over medium-high heat. Once the oil is shimmering hot, add the seasoned oxtails, but don't overcrowd the pan. Do this in batches if necessary, crowding will make the meat steam not sear.
Sear the oxtails on every side until each side is browned, about 2 minutes each side. Place the oxtails into the sous vide-safe bags in one layer.
Add the required amount of black pepper, worcestershire sauce, garlic and onion powders, and the bay leaf to each bag (the list amounts for these ingredients are per bag!) and vacuum seal the bags (or use the water displacement method).
Sous vide the oxtails for at least 36 hours up to 100 hours.

Southern Oxtail Gravy

Once the oxtails are full cooked and tender, start making the gravy. Remove the oxtails from the jus in the bag, you'll be using the jus to make the gravy.
In a sauté pan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the yellow onion slices to the pan and sauté them until they are golden brown, 4-5 minutes. Add the garlic to the pan and stir them in for 30 seconds.
Add the all purpose flour, and whisk for a couple of minutes to ensure the flour taste cooks out.
Add the reserved jus and the beef stock into the flour ¼ cup at a time, whisking well to incorporate. If you notice the roux getting thick and seizing up, that is perfectly fine. Don't panic, just keep adding the liquid and whisking until all the stock is in and the liquid is smooth.
Add the oxtails to the gravy and let it come to a simmer, whisking occasionally so it doesn't burn anything at the bottom, for 10-15 minutes or until the gravy has reduced and thickened.
Serve the oxtails and gravy hot over coconut rice, mashed potatoes, grits or polenta, or any other delicious side you can think of.

Notes

Storing and Freezing

Oxtails will last in your fridge in airtight containers for up to one week! You can reheat in the microwave in microwave-safe bowls just fine.

Freeze the cooked oxtail for up to one month. The sous vide safe bags are freezer safe, but you can also put them into freezer safe zip top bags.

Simply thaw the oxtail in the fridge overnight (or place them in the sous vide bath with the sous vide circulator at 100 degrees F for an hour), and reheat the dish in a saucepan over medium heat or in the sous vide bat hat 165 degrees F until heated through.

Nutrition