If you have an instant pot you can create this quick and easy short rib meal that will provide an excellent comfort dish in a fraction of the time.

Ingredients:

• Short ribs
• Dark brown sugar
• Worcestershire sauce
• Soy Sauce
• Salt
• Pepper
• Seasoning salt
• Canola oil

We started by thawing the short ribs, and removing them from the packaging. They rarely need any trimming. Next, we seasoned them with salt and pepper on all sides generously. Then we set the instant pot to “saute” and put some oil (vegetable, canola, grapeseed, or other high temp oil) in the bottom of the pan to heat up. While it was heating we got the rest of the ingredients together.

We do a lot of shopping at Kroger as you can tell from the photo but it is also to show that you don’t always need fancy things to make good tasty food; any variation/brand of these items will work

Once the instant pot and oil was hot we began browning all sides of the short ribs. Please be careful, splashes are possible and can cause painful burns. The searing aids in the flavor depth of the finished product but can be omitted if you are short on time. Once you get some good color on all sides it is time to turn the heat off and prepare for braising.

Braising differs from stewing in the fact that a braising liquid does not completely cover the ingredients. They are sitting in liquid, not swimming in it. For this reason the amount of Coca Cola can be varied as long as you have liquid covering ¼-½ up the sides of the short ribs. Pour in the Coca Cola. Then add ½ a cup of dark brown sugar and ¼-⅓ of a cup of Worcestershire and Soy sauce. Finally, we added around a 1-1 ½ Teaspons of seasoning salt. Once all this was added, the lid was placed on the instant pot, and it was programmed for 30 minutes at high pressure.

After 30 minutes of high pressure, the pressure was released and the meat was removed from the instant pot. We then used the “saute” feature to cook down the remaining juices into a sauce, and it took about 10 minutes. While that was happening we sliced the meat off the short ribs into pieces small enough for my children to handle.

We served it over mashed potatoes with steamed baby carrots. Our kids had no complaints and it was a nice comfort food meal for a rainy day that was prepared in about an hour.

Variations on this recipe using a dutch oven, a crock pot, a traditional pressure cooker or even normal pans on the stove are possible. Times and temperatures would be different. You need to ensure a long cooking time to break down the connective tissues and fat in the short ribs to get the tender, juicy, and succulent meal you see here. The instant pot provides this when you don’t have the 3-5+ hours to spare.