This post may contain affiliate links. Read more at our disclosure policy.
Smoked Beef Short Ribs finished with a Red Wine Braise are truly the ultimate beef short ribs (and one of my favorite meals ever)! Comes with wine pairing recommendations.
This recipe has dinner party or holiday meal written all over it!

Beef Short Ribs are my ultimate comfort food. This is *the* single cut that turned me from a vegetarian into a meat-lover. When done right itโs super tender and full of incredible beefy flavor and a rich butter-like texture.
What it comes down to for a memorable meal is technique and starting with high quality beef. We start with Snake River Farms beef, season them liberally with a simple rub, and then follow the technique below for the best results. Itโs the technique and amazing marbling from beef short ribs thatโs going to give you that melt-in-your-mouth buttery texture that I love about a slow cooked smoked beef short rib.
Types of Beef Ribs
Most commonly you will see beef short ribs and back ribs. Beef short ribs are also synonymous with plate ribs. The 13 beef ribs that extend from the spine would fall under the back ribs, and extending downward. The beef plate, or beef short ribs, will come from the lower portion of the ribs (similar to spareribs on a pig).
You can see our full plate rib recipe here.
How to Buy Beef Short Ribs
- Marbling: When buying beef short ribs, look for marbling throughout. At the minimum look for USDA choice. We proudly use Snake River Farms for American Wagyu and Double R Ranch beef for USDA prime.
- Size Matters: Make sure the bone length is consistent, like three or four inches AND the height. You will often see various sizes of height, and those will all cook at different times. To avoid an overcooking experience, tell your butcher that you want a specific length on the bone (roughly 3 inches) and that they all have uniform height. Consistency in size will ensure that they will all cook the same.
- Make sure they are SHORT ribs, not beef chuck back ribs! These are two different areas from the cow. You want โshort ribsโ for this.
How to Trim and Prepare Smoked Beef Short Ribs
Trim: Use a sharp knife to remove that silver skin membrane at the top of the rib. (Not the bone side) This is not fat. The silver skin is a tough membrane that should be removed. This does not remove flavor, it removes a tough membrane that is not pleasant to eat. A good short rib will have plenty of marbling throughout the cut.
This exposes the marbling and allows your rub to connect directly with the meat, and not fat or the silver skin. It also allows smoke to get at that meat easier than trying to work through the silver skin.
How to Season Short Ribs
With any meat, I add some kind of slather or liquid. This allows my rub to stick. In this case, I go simple with extra virgin olive oil and make sure I coat all sides of the beef rib. I then follow that with a generous amount of dry rub.
I love the natural beef flavor, so I stick with an equal mix of kosher salt and pepper in order to let the flavor of the meat shine. But if you have a favorite beef rub, feel free to use that instead. And be generous when applying the rub because as your meat cooks, it sweats out and you can lose some of that flavor. So donโt be shy.
We make a larger amount of rub in this recipe and if you donโt use it all, simply store the rest for the next beef cook.
How to Smoke Beef Short Ribs
We follow a simple method for smoking beef short ribs in the smaller cuts.
- Smoke โ Smoking uncovered for a period of time to add the flavor.
- Spritz โ Adding a liquid spray to coat the meat and allow extra liquid for the smoke to adhere to.
- Braise โ Adding smoked short ribs into a liquid braise, or bath, to continue to infuse more flavor and render the meat to the desired finished temperature.
- Rest โ Allowing short ribs to rest, off the heat, in order to allow the meat to slightly cool and maintain the tender texture.
- Smoking adds the initial smoked flavor to the short ribs as the smoke and lower temperature add flavor and start to cook out the intramuscular fat.
2. Spritz: Then spritz during the smoke process to add flavor and give the good smoke something to adhere to. You can use whatever liquid you like for this. For this recipe weโre going with savory flavors with red wine, beef broth, and Worcestershire sauce in equal parts.
Would you like to save this?
3. Braise (or wrap in liquid): In a baking dish (or foil pan), add wine, more broth, salt and pepper, and butter, and cover the dish. This adds extra flavor into the meat and finishes rendering out that fat.
4. Finish and Rest: Pull and rest the smoked beef short ribs once your meat thermometer slides into the meat like warm butter, itโs usually between 200 and 205 degrees F. We like a digital thermometer like this one. Here it is important to focus on the texture, not timing. As frustrating as it can be, the rendering is the most important step, so be sure to focus on how it feels when that thermometer probe eases into the meat.
Rest for 15 minutes allowing the juices to redistribute, then eat.
Best Charcoal and Wood For Beef
We use lump charcoal for all of our cooks. Lump charcoal has a more natural wood smoke flavor to it and has large chunks.
For wood, cherry is great for short ribs for color and a sweeter smoke flavor. Oak works well too.
- If using a pellet smoker like a MAK Two-Star General consider a blend of 60% cherry to 40% oak.
- For offset smokers, try starting the cook with lump charcoal and wood, then use logs or chunks for the remainder of the cook.
- For a Big Green Egg โ mixing the lump charcoal and wood chunks works great and you wonโt need to refill through this cook.
Beef Short Ribs Video
Related Recipes
- Beef Short Ribs
- Smoked Beef Plate Ribs
- Smoked Beef Brisket
- SPG โ Beef Rub
- Wine Marinated Smoked Tri Tip
Wine Pairing
The texture of Smoked Beef Short Ribs is so soft and tender with that amazing infusion. Much of the fat has rendered out, but what you are left with is juicy, melt-in-your-mouth meat. We also let the meat braise in that wine for awhile, picking up some of those concentrated rich and savory flavors. Iโm looking for a red wine that has a somewhat rich and velvety texture, with medium to low tannins and deep fruity flavors (not ripe or overly sweet). I want something full-bodied, but not overly intense, and I want some acid to refresh the palate.
I like Sonoma Valley Cabernet Sauvignon for this. Rich and bold, but not overly tannic, with deep blackberry, black cherry, and blueberry fruit, pepper, vanilla, and toasty notes. It really works well with the richness of the meat. The wine and meat are perfectly in tune and balanced with each other.
Smoked Beef Short Ribs Recipe
Smoked Beef Short Ribs with Wine Braise
Ingredients
- 4 pounds short ribs
- ยผ cup extra virgin olive oil
- ยฝ cup rub, your favorite beef rub, or the one below
Beef Rub
- 1/4 cup kosher salt
- 1/4 cup coarse black pepper
Spritz
- 1/3 cup beef broth
- 1/3 cup dry red wine
- 1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
For the Braising Liquid
- 1 cup dry red wine
- 1 cup beef broth
- 1 tablespoon rub (from above: salt and pepper combination)
- 2 tablespoons butter
Instructions
- Preheat smoker to 225 degrees with fruit wood.
- Trim silver skin off short ribs, coat with olive oil and season liberally with salt and pepper (depending on the size of your short ribs you may or may not use all of the dry rub. Just make sure itโs applied liberally based on the size of your meat).
- Place short ribs on the smoker for two hours and prepare your spritz.
- After two hours begin spritzing ribs every 30 minutes for one to two hours. Look for the meat pulling back off the bone and a good mahogany color as the indicator it is ready for the braise.
- When the color looks good and meat is pulling back from the bone (internal temp of roughly 165 degrees F or 3 to 4 hours on smoke), add to an aluminum pan. In the pan add the braising ingredients: wine, beef broth, dry rub (or salt and pepper), and butter. Cover tightly with foil and put back into the smoker.
- After one hour, use a meat thermometer to probe short ribs, the ribs are done when you can insert the thermometer and the feel is like inserting into butter. There should not be much resistance, if itโs not like butter it is not quite done yet, and keep cooking until it is. Could be up to two hours in the braise.
- After you have determined itโs done (roughly 200 โ 205 degrees Fahrenheit), remove from smoker and let sit covered for 15 minutes.
- Remove from bath and serve with your favorite side and a glass of delicious red wine.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This post was first published in June of 2017, and updated in June of 2020 with additional process photos and recipe specifics in terms of time on the smoker.
*This post contains affiliate links for Snake River Farms and the ThermoWorks Mk4 Digital Thermometer. We only recommend products we use and love! And all of the products mentioned above are those we use regularly.
If you like this recipe weโd truly appreciate it if you would give this recipe a star review! And if you share any of your pics on Instagram use the hashtag #vindulge. We LOVE to see it when you cook our recipes.
Going to try your red wine braised smoked short ribs later this week. Just curious, โ the wine that you mentioned โ is that what you used in your braids or is that what you paired to drink with the meal??
Alan, for that recipe yes, thatโs what we used because that is what we had on hand. But you can use any rich red wine that you would otherwise plan on drinking. Avoid โcooking winesโ.
What smoker are you using? It looks like a Yoder but Iโm not sure.
Yes, you are correct. Itโs a Yoder Chisholm.
What are you putting the ribs on(whitish in my browser) when you serve them?
Good question. We like to serve them over a puree (parsnip puree, celery root puree, or similar). Mashed potatoes would work well too. Just something to soak up the juices from the meat and wine sauce. Risotto would also work nicely. You honestly donโt need anything, but if you were looking to round out the dish, then something to soak up the liquid would be my recommendation.
Hi Mary,
Iโm a little confused about the comment to make sure you use short ribs and not beef ribs. I thought that short ribs are beef ribs which are cut from either the chuck or plate? Please clarify. Thanks!!
Mike, we use the term beef short ribs as many of our readers are grabbing from a butcher counter those pre cut plate ribs versus going with the entire plate. You could use the full plate and get the same outcome. Thanks for the comment!
After smoking what is your opinion on doing the braise in the oven?
Very doable. We keep it on smoker as we have the wood burning, but you wonโt get smoke through the foil. So you can definitely finish in oven.
I tried this recipe this weekend and it was amazing. Thank you for posting! One question about the braise โ in your video the liquid barely covers the bones but in many braise recipes the liquid covers most or all of the meat. Can you comment on if you have tried with more liquid?
We donโt find itโs necessary for this particular recipe. This is because itโs smoked for so long that that aids in tenderizing the meat. When it is in the braise we do flip the meat so that each side gets some of that additional liquid braise.
If we werenโt smoking it first for so long, and instead doing it traditionally in a large stock pot, we would cover most or all of the meat like you see in most other recipes.
Iโve never tried making short ribs before, but saw this recipe and just had to try it. We used this recipe for Fatherโs day, and they were incredible. I came back to here, because Iโm working this weekend to incorporate these ribs and flavor into a chili for a chili cook-off at the end of October. Let the testing begin.
OMG I have to think a short rib chili will be amazing, weโd love to hear your recipe or at least the main star ingredientsโฆcause we donโt want you to give away any award winning secrets :), send photos on Facebook!
This looks fabulous! What kind of Wood did you use, and once the ribs are wrapped do you need to continue using wood chips?
Joann, we use fruit wood. Predominantly cherry or apple, and yes you can wrap and use just charcoal. No need for wood at that point.
I wish I had a smoker or even a grill! Is there an alternative to cooking these in the oven at all ?
Ashlee, first, consider getting a weber kettle grill. Even a smaller size, you can smoke and then put into your oven at an affordable price. But if you canโt or donโt have the facilities to do this, you can slowly braise the short ribs in the sauce. Technique is a little different as you would brown them in a dutch oven and then put liquid and simmer in the oven. Lotโs of option there too online. But maybe check out the Weber kettle!
Is there some other liquid besides the red wine that you can suggest to go with the broth and Worcester?
You could just go extra on the broth if you wanted, and season it until you like the flavor. You could also add just a little juice if you wanted it a little fruity and sweet (like apple juice or other).