Served With a Fork, Knife, and Spoon

One-dish meals. Let me see a show of hands for who likes them. That's what I thought. I love one-dish meals. Cutting right to the chase, today's one dish meal is not something I had ever really thought of before. Why? Oxtails. I actually have no idea how popular this cut of meat is. Have you ever had them? Twenty six years I went without this fabulous food. Well, better late than never.

Country Oxtails

Recipe altered slightly from Paula Deen's original

3 lb oxtails
Salt and pepper for seasoning
1 tsp olive oil
1 can beef broth
1 cup red wine
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
6 cloves garlic, lg ones cut in 1/2
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
2 bay leaves
1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
1/2 Vidalia onion, cut into 6 wedges
6 sm new red potatoes, cut in 1/2
4 med carrots, cut into 2" lengths
1 pot hot buttered rice

Preheat oven to 300 to 350° F.

Sprinkle the oxtails liberally with salt and papper on both sides.

Coat the bottom of a heavy oven-proof Dutch oven with the olive oil. Once heated, add the oxtails and sear on all sides. Remove and set aside. Scrape up the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Add the beef broth, red wine, Worcestershire sauce, and garlic cloves. Stir. Add basil, oregano, bay leaves, hot sauce, tomato sauce, and the reserved oxtails. Stir to combine all ingredients together.

Cover tightly, place in oven, and bake for 2 to 3 hours.

Remove from oven and bring to a simmer on stove top. Add the sweet onion wedges, red potatoes, and carrots to the pot. Cover and simmer until potatoes are almost tender, roughly 15 minutes.

Serve oxtails with the vegetables over hot buttered rice.

There they are. Biscuit-sized pieces of pure flavor. That's right, oxtails are packed with flavor. Forget filet, go for these!

I've said it before, I'll say it again: Anything cooked in wine is a winner in my book.

This was a little nerve wracking for me. I'd heard that you can put non-stick cookware into the oven with some precautions taken, but I wasn't ready to just take a chance on my {beloved} pots and pans. I did research--a lot of research--and found that you can put non-stick cookware into the oven up to 350 degrees. I also put tinfoil on the handles for a little extra insurance. I probably won't be doing this took often, though; it makes me nervous and I have my eye on a few new pieces for the kitchen anyway. :-)

Funny story. You know how the recipe calls for 6 small new potatoes? Mike apparently does not know what a small potato looks like, so, after breaking all the potatoes down, I put about 2/3 into a ziplock bag and froze them for later. Yeah, that's just a portion of the potatoes there.

And voila! Country oxtails or, as I like to call it, oxtail stew. Is that not a hearty looking meal? You may still be wondering about the post title though. Why did I mention all three utensils? Because you really do need all three to eat this. The fork and knife are necessary for getting the meat off the bones, which is really pretty easy since it's falling off after cooking for so long anyway. Also, I recommend nibbling on the cleaned off bones too. Don't let any of that goodness go to waste! Then, after the meat is off the bones, you can start shoveling it in with your spoon.

You know what else makes this one-dish meal great? Oxtails are really cheap! They might even be seen as kind of throwaway cuts. Love it!

Bonus:
I want to show off my new favorite kitchen feature. My new kitchen island! I've always wanted an island and I finally have one! We ordered it online and I came home one day from work one day the other week to find that Mike had put it together for me all by himself! Isn't he the best? :-D I love you, Mike. I love you, island!