What Are Oxtails and How Can I Use Them?
Oxtails rewards a little know-how: how to choose them, cook them, store them, and substitute in a pinch. Browse 20 recipes to cook with them.
Key Points
- Crosscut sections of beef tail, rich in bone, marrow, and gelatin; a whole tail runs 1½ to 2 pounds.
- A tough cut that needs 3 to 4 hours of low, slow braising or simmering to turn silky.
- Brown the pieces hard first; the deep sear carries the flavor of the finished dish.
- Cook a day ahead and lift off the chilled fat cap so the dish is rich, not greasy.
- Best swaps are osso buco beef shank or short ribs; skip lean cuts that dry out.
What are oxtails?
Oxtail is exactly what the name says: the tail of a cow, cut crosswise into thick rounds of bone surrounded by marbled, gelatin-rich meat. Each segment runs from a wide, meaty piece near the body down to a small nub at the tip.
A whole tail usually weighs 1½ to 2 pounds (700 to 900 g).
It is a tough, hardworking cut, which is the whole point. All that connective tissue and bone breaks down into deep, beefy flavor and a silky body that no quick-cooking steak can match.
Cooking With Oxtail
Oxtail wants time and liquid. Braise it or simmer it low and slow for 3 to 4 hours, until the meat slides off the bone and the broth turns sticky from dissolved collagen. Rushing it leaves the meat rubbery and the bone still gripping.
Always brown the pieces hard first. A deep sear builds the roasted flavor that carries the dish, and the rendered fat gives you a base for onions and aromatics.
The corpus here leans heavily on soup, and for good reason. Loaded Vegetable Ox Tail Soup and Aunt Rose Mc Call's Ox Tail Soup both use the tail as the backbone of a long-simmered broth.
Oxtail & Potato Stew in Tomato Sauce and Thick Oxtail & Lentil Stew turn it into a thick, spoon-coating meal instead. Browned oxtail also makes a famously rich base for the beef broth in Hanoi Beef & Rice-Noodle Soup (Pho Bac).
Pairing and Common Mistakes
Oxtail loves bold, acidic company. Red wine, tomato, soy and star anise, and plenty of onion all cut its richness, and a final squeeze of lemon wakes everything up. Root vegetables, barley, lentils, and butter beans round it into a meal.
The biggest mistake is not making room for the fat. Oxtail throws a lot of it, so cook the dish a day ahead, chill it overnight, then lift the firm fat cap off the top before reheating. You keep the flavor and lose the grease.
The second mistake is under-seasoning the long simmer. A four-hour braise dilutes salt, so taste and adjust near the end rather than at the start.
Substitutes
Nothing quite matches what oxtail brings, but you can get close. Beef shank cut osso buco style is the best swap: same crosscut bone, same marrow, same collagen, and it braises in similar time. Short ribs give you the rich, fatty meat and silky sauce without the marrow bone.
Beef cheeks deliver the gelatin and pull-apart texture but no bone, so add a marrow bone or extra beef stock if you want that body. Veal shank works for a lighter, paler version.
Avoid lean cuts like round or sirloin. They go dry and stringy over a long braise instead of turning tender.
Buying and Storing Oxtail
Look for pieces cut at least 1½ inches (4 cm) thick with a good ratio of red meat to bone; thin tip pieces are mostly bone and best saved for stock. A little surface fat is fine, but skip anything grey or sour-smelling.
Many butchers sell oxtail frozen, which is no problem at all for a braise.
Frozen, it holds well for up to 3 months; thaw overnight in the fridge before browning. Cooked oxtail and its broth keep 3 to 4 days refrigerated and freeze beautifully, since the gelatin reheats right back to that glossy texture.
Quick facts
- In Chinese
- 牛尾
- British (UK) term
- Oxtails
- en français
- queues de boeuf
- en español
- rabos
Recipes using oxtails
There are 20 recipes that contain this ingredient.
Star Anise Beef-Rice Noodle Soup
A star anise beef and rice noodle soup in the style of Vietnamese pho: a long-simmered oxtail and shank broth scented with charred ginger, star anise, and cinnamon, over rice noodles, beef, and fresh herbs.
Pho Bac (Hanoi Beef & Rice-Noodle Soup)
A savory and hearty soup made with succulent beef, hot chili sauce and bean sprouts.
Hanoi Beef & Rice-Noodle Soup (Pho Bac)
Authentic Hanoi-style pho bo with slow-simmered oxtail and beef bone broth, star anise, charred ginger, rice noodles, and paper-thin sirloin. This traditional Vietnamese beef noodle soup recipe takes 5 hours but rewards you with deeply aromatic, soul-warming bowls.
Daube De Queue De Boeuf
Oxtail is one of the most economical and most flavorful cuts of meat, and one that takes well to marinating for days in a hearty mixture of red wine, herbs, and vegetables. The longer you marinate the mixture, the more flavorful it will be, but be sure it marinates at least 3 days. Oxtail is also a fatty cut -- give yourself plenty of time to allow the stew to cook and then cool, so all the fat can be skimmed off. Serve this with thick noodles in warmed soup bowls, accompanied by a tossed salad, and of course, a robust red wine.
Ochsenschwanzsuppe(Ox Tail Soup)
Ochsenschwanzsuppe, a classic German oxtail soup simmered for 5 hours with vegetables, thickened with browned flour and butter, and finished with Madeira wine. Deep, beefy, and velvety.
Hanoi Beef & Rice-Noodel Soup (Pho Bac)
Authentic Hanoi-style beef pho with charred aromatics, star anise, cinnamon, and a 6-hour broth. Crystal-clear, deeply savory, topped with paper-thin raw beef cooked by the hot soup.
Pho
Pho bo (Vietnamese beef noodle soup) with oxtail broth, charred onion, star anise, and fish sauce poured boiling over rice noodles and paper-thin raw beef that cooks in the hot broth. Garnish with cilantro, scallions, and lemon.
Favourite Ox Tail Soup
Oxtail soup simmered until the meat falls off the bone, then finished with potatoes, mixed vegetables, and tomato paste for a rich, hearty bowl. A classic stick-to-your-ribs soup served as is or ladled over white rice.
Easy Ox Tail Soup
Easy oxtail soup with onions, carrots, and turnip simmered together in one pot. The flour stirred in at the end gives the broth body without needing a roux or separate thickener.
Sep-Dinner: Oxtail Consomm
Oxtail consomme is a crystal-clear fine-dining broth made from slow-simmered oxtails, aromatics, and an egg-white raft clarification. The classic French technique gives a rich beef flavor in a see-through bowl.
Oxtails in Red Wine Sauce
Oxtails braised in red wine with celery, leeks, carrots, and a French-style sauce made from the reduced braising liquid. Rich, fork-tender, and worth every one of the 4 hours.
Braised Oxtails in Cabbage Leaves on Mashed Potatoes
Oxtails braised 4 hours in red wine with tomatoes and capers, then stripped, stuffed into cabbage rolls with Parmesan, and baked golden. Served on mashed potatoes for the ultimate comfort meal.
Loaded Vegetable Ox Tail Soup
Loaded vegetable oxtail soup with butter-browned tails, carrots, turnips or cabbage, celery, and a splash of sherry. A French-leaning broth fortified with thyme, bay, and beef stock for restaurant-style depth.
Aunt Rose Mc Call's Ox Tail Soup
Old-fashioned oxtail soup with rice, carrots, celery, and tomatoes simmered for hours until the meat falls off the bone. A make-ahead family recipe that develops deeper flavor on day two.
Hot Oxtail Stew
Hot oxtail stew simmered low and slow with garlic, bay leaves, and crushed red chili until the meat falls off the bone. A hearty one-pot stew finished with carrots, celery, and tomatoes.
Oxtail & Potato Stew in Tomato Sauce
Southern-style oxtail and potato stew in a thick tomato base loaded with corn, carrots, and celery. Optional macaroni or okra stretch the pot further, served with cornbread or saltines.
Ochsenschwanzsuppe or Ox Tail Soup
Ochsenschwanzsuppe is the classic German oxtail soup. Slowly simmered oxtails build a rich beef stock, then puree with root vegetables and finish with Madeira.
Oxtail Stew with Mixed Vegetables
Oxtail stew with mixed vegetables simmered low and slow until the meat falls off the bone. A simple braise built on browned oxtails, beef stew seasoning, and frozen mixed vegetables stirred in near the end.
Thick Oxtail & Lentil Stew
Thick oxtail and lentil stew with juniper berries, thyme, and root vegetables. Slow-simmered for 3 hours into deeply rich, fall-off-the-bone braised beef heaven.
Backyard Booyah
Backyard booyah, the giant slow-simmered meat-and-vegetable stew of the Upper Midwest. Beef, soup bones, and chicken cooked until they fall off the bone, then loaded with vegetables in a kettle.
