Rabo Encendido or Rabo Guisado [Video+Recipe] Oxtail Stew

Rabo Encendido or Rabo Guisado [Video+Recipe] Oxtail Stew

Learn how to make rabo encendido or rabo guisado, a tender, flavorful, spicy oxtail stew with flaky, fall-off-the-bone beef tail and a lot of vegetables, a popular Caribbean delicacy.

Course Dinner, Lunch

Cuisine Caribbean, Dominican

Keyword dominican oxtail recipe, rabo encendido in english, rabo picante, spanish oxtail recipe

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 1 30

Total Time 1 40

Servings servings

Calories 918kcal

Author Clara Gonzalez

Ingredients

4 lbs oxtail cut in the joints [1.8 kg]
1 teaspoon oregano (dry, ground)
¼ teaspoon pepper (freshly-cracked, or ground)
Juice of 1 lime
2¼ tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil (soy, corn, or peanut)
2 diced carrot
1 cup boiled chickpeas
¼ cup pitted green olives
2 large red onion chopped
2 cubanela (cubanelle pepper) (cubanelle) peppers, chopped
4 sprigs thyme (fresh) (optional) remove the sticks, we'll just use the leaves
8 tomato chopped
1 cup tomato sauce or 3 tablespoons of tomato paste
2 celery stalk chopped
4 garlic cloves crushed
½ Scotch bonnet pepper or habanero, crushed
4 sprigs parsley or cilantro, minced

Instructions

1. Seasoning

To season the oxtail, place it in a large bowl and add oregano, black pepper, lime juice, and a tablespoon of salt. Let it rest covered in the fridge for an hour or two.

2. Cooking the oxtail

Once it has rested, heat the vegetable oil in a large pot or, preferably, a large dutch oven over medium-high heat.
Stir in oxtail and cook stirring until it browns. It may release some liquid, just let it evaporate eventually and cook until it browns.

3. Cooking the oxtail

After browning the oxtail, add a cup of water, and cover with a tight-fitting lid.
Reduce heat to medium and simmer covered until the meat is very tender, uncovering and stirring every 5 minutes or so, and adding small amounts of water as it becomes necessary to prevent it from scorching.
This may take about an hour (or more), depending on the quality and freshness of the oxtail. You can shorten the time by using a pressure cooker or Instant Pot. See the instructions in the notes below.

4. Make the sauce

When the meat is very tender (test with a fork), let the water reduce and add the carrots, chickpeas, olives, onion, cubanelle pepper, thyme, tomatoes, tomato sauce, celery, garlic, and Scotch bonnet pepper to the pot. Cook, stirring, until onions become translucent.
Add 1 ¼ cup of water, and simmer covered until the carrots are cooked through.

5. Serving

Taste and season with salt and pepper to taste and stir in the parsley, then remove from the heat.
Serve hot. Oxtail has a lot of collagen, so it will start to congeal once cooled down.

Video

Notes

To cook in a pressure cooker: Brown in a regular pot per recipe instructions. Then place in the pressure cooker and add enough water to cover the meat, plus two extra cups. When it comes to pressure cooking, it's better to have too much water than too little. I never start mine with less than a quart of water (1 liter).

Place the pressure cooker lid, seal it, and start it over high heat. Once the whistling starts, lower the heat to medium-low. Stop it 15 minutes after it started whistling. Let it cool down (per manufacturer's instruction, then carefully remove the valve and open it to check the meat for doneness. Repeat for another 15 minutes if necessary.

Nutrition