Oxtails & Butter Beans

I love Caribbean food. But, have always stuck to chicken or seafood. Never really venturing out to try other meat options like oxtail or goat.  

I was maybe 7 or 8 the last time I even remember eating oxtails. My great grandma made a crazy good oxtail soup and that's as far as my oxtail experience went.

Little did I know that my sisters obsession with a local Caribbean carryout would change that!

Whenever my sister finds a meal that she really enjoys. Things tend to get pretty excessive. Like ordering or making the same thing 5 times in a row kind of excessive. This is what happened when she tried the oxtails from the local carryout. It got so bad that my mom joined her.

Finally my mother said she thought that I could recreate the dish and proceeded to purchase ingredients. Guess I had to get a recipe right LOL

Now.. I make a pretty darn authentic jerk chicken dish so I was confident that I could figure out the flavor components and create something close to what they'd been getting. But, the pressure was on. 

I mean they were expecting me to recreate and deliver them a dish that measured up to an authentic Caribbean spot. I took a week or so and then I was ready to try my hand at Oxtails & Butter Beans!!

Ya'll it came SOOOOO damn good!! Like everyone was looking for more type of good. My mother said that my version was spot on if not better than the carryouts. In that moment I felt super accomplished. 

This is not a quick recipe. Its one of those set it and forget it dishes. If you can, clean and season your oxtails the day before. You won't regret letting them rest overnight.

Serve with rice & cabbage or eat the Oxtail & Butter Beans alone. Totally up to you. I'd suggest ginger beer or a pineapple punch too!!!

Oxtails & Butter Beans

Serves 4-5

Cook Time: Crock Pot 8-10 Hours/Stovetop 3 Hours

Ingredients

* 2.5 lbs oxtails

* ¼ cup brown sugar

* 1 Tbsp soy sauce

* 1 Tbsp worcestershire sauce

* 1 Tbsp salt

* 2 tsp garlic powder

* 1 tsp black pepper

* 1 tsp all-spice

* 1 tsp browning

* 2 Tbsp vegetable oil

* 1 yellow onion chopped

* 4 green onions chopped

* 1 Tbsp garlic chopped

* 2 whole carrots chopped

* 1 scotch bonnet or habanero pepper seeds and membrane removed and chopped

* 1 cup beef broth

* 1 Tbsp ketchup

* 1 tsp dried thyme

* 2 Tbsp water

* 1 Tbsp cornstarch

* 1 16 oz can Butter Beans drained

Instructions

* Rinse oxtails with water and vinegar and pat dry. Cover oxtails with brown sugar, soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, salt, garlic powder, black pepper, all-spice, and browning and rub into oxtails.

Slow Cooker Instructions

* Prepare recipe as instructed up until the oxtails need to be browned. Brown oxtail over medium-high heat on the stovetop in a skillet. Once oxtail are browned, deglaze skillet by adding 2 Tbsp of beef broth. Add onions and carrots to skillet and stir until onions have softened. Add these ingredients to the slow cooker as well as all remaining ingredients, except the butter beans. Cook on low heat for 8-10 hours or until oxtail is tender. 30 minutes before serving, add drained butter beans to slow cooker.

Stove Top Instructions

* Follow the instructions above and then rather than placing in a slow cooker or pressure cooker, cook it on the stove on medium low heat for about 3 hours, stirring occasionally or until oxtails are tender. Add the butter beans when there is about 30 minutes left on the cook time.