Before you run for the hills, let me tell you about oxtails and why you should cook with them. The oxtail is perfect for slow cooking or braising. Oxtail from a grassfed cow is full of healthy fat and gelatin making it perfect for the low and slow cooking times of your crockpot PLUS adding awesome minerals to your meal. It is generally a cheaper cut of meat as well and you can use both the meat and the bones! You will see what I did below!
Oxtails also seem to impart an amazing and rich beef flavor that deemed this soup, the best smelling soup I had ever made. It will take the chill right out of you on a cold day! If you are do not partake in cheese, don’t worry oxtail soup is just as good on it’s own! I promise!
This soup is really simple but has an amazing flavor. Other than cutting onions it’s about as easy as it gets!
Oxtail and Onion Soup
Oxtail and Onion Soup
Enjoy a flavorful beef and onion soup!
Ingredients
- 3-4 large sweet onions
- 6 tbs butter
- Salt and Pepper for seasoning
- 1-2 pounds oxtail- amount is not super important. I grabbed one pack at the meat counter.
- Water
- Optional- extra fat for browning the meat
- Optional- cheese like the french onion classic Gruyere
Instructions
- Chop all the onions. I did this with the shredding attachment to my mixer. They do not need to be tiny pieces, we are going to slow cook them and caramelize them.
- Salt and pepper the oxtails generously. NOTE: take the time right now to count how many oxtail pieces you have so you don’t end up with bones in your soup later. Trust me, write it down, do as I say not as I did…! Whoops!
- Next you have two options: brown the oxtails in a pan for a couple minutes on each side with some lard, butter or coconut oil or skip it. Browning will add some additional flavor, but isn't need 100% needed.
- Turn your slow cooker to low.
- Cut the butter into chunks and put at the bottom of your slow cooker.
- Put all the chopped onions on top of the butter.
- Place the oxtails on top of the onions.
- Cook on low for 4 hours or until onions are fairly caramelized.
- After onions are nice and caramel color, add enough water to cover the onions and oxtails plus about 1.5 inches. You will be making a very light bone broth by leaving the bones in for this step.
- Continue cooking on low for about 5 hours.
- At the end of the 5 hours, fish out the oxtails. This is where that note you left comes in handy.
- On a cutting board, shred the meat off the bones and return to the soup. Let the meat re-warm a bit before serving.
- Save bones for further making of broth. I put my in a ziplock and into the freezer they went.
- To serve, season again with salt and pepper to taste. If serving with cheese get out a baking sheet. Ladle soup into a narrow mouthed bowl or mug, layer some slices of cheese over the top and broil on the cookie sheet until bubbly. Serve each bowl on a plate as it will be very hot!
- Extra soup keeps easily in a airtight container for at least a week.
Notes
A note about ingredients: to get the most nutrients from this soup, try and use grassfed butter, grassfed beef and Real Salt!
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
10Serving Size:
1 cupAmount Per Serving: Calories: 150
I hope you enjoy this slowcooker oxtail and onion soup!
Cheers,
Heather
P.S. Looking for more slowcooker meals? Try beef shank cross cuts!
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Adam Trainor says
May 24, 2015 at 12:55 pmThis sounds awesome. Now I just have to find where they sell oxtails. I’m sure I’ve been walking past them forever in my local grocery… this is going to be interesting. Thanks!
Heather says
June 2, 2015 at 5:50 pmThanks Adam! We were able to get them at our local grocery store but I have not seen them at chains YET! They are getting popular as it is such a flavorful part. If you can’t get them, you could use some soup bones and stew meat instead.
Nick says
December 14, 2016 at 12:01 amThat cheese looks awesome!