Why It Works
- Cooking down the stock concentrates the flavors and creates a syrupy, sticky sauce.
- Like pulled pork, the shredded oxtail is mixed with the reduced stock for a filling that is moist but not wet.
- Sliced pickled hot cherry peppers provide a bright acidity to balance out the richness of the shredded meat.
You know what we need more of in this world? No, no. I mean aside fromMr. Wizardepisodes and eternal puppies. We need more slow-cooked, fall-apart tender meat sandwiches. Sure, we've got barbecue—pulled pork on a bun, brisket on white bread, and the like—pastrami and corned beef make the list, as do some Mexican torta fillings, or a good beef Po' Boy, or a Chicago-style Italian beef. If you want to stretch it,maybeyou can even count a Sloppy Joe among the mix. Still, it's not enough.
Up in my part of Harlem, soul food and French cuisine define the restaurant scene, which means that EVERY supermarket in a 10-block radius sells a steady stream of oxtail. Why not start our braised meat sandwiching right there?
For this sandwich, I go with a very European-style braising method: I start by giving the oxtails a good hard sear to develop browned flavors, then add a mirepoix of onions, carrots, and celery, along with a bit of tomato paste for body and color. To this mixture, I add some red wine (which I reduceto maximize flavor), and then some chicken stock. If you have a good homemade beef stock, that would be best, but if you're going store-bought, chicken is the way to go (store-bought beef stock has very little actual beef in it and has an off-putting, tinny flavor).
From there, it's into a low oven for some slow cooking.
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Oxtails are like the Fort Knox of connective tissue. They're collagen repositories. If people were connective tissue, then China would be oxtails. (Or does that analogy go the other way around?)
This is the secret to the ultra-rich, mouth-coating texture oxtail gets after cooking. See, as it simmers away in its bath of flavorful liquid, the most important change that takes place in is that the collagen—a tough, stretchy, rubbery tissue—slowly breaks down into gelatin. This gelatin is a protein that dissolves in water and forms a very loose matrix, giving that water thickness and texture.
The key to a successful braised meat sandwich is to make sure that you cook down the stock enough that the meat can form a tight, marmalade-like layer. Wet meat is rarely appropriate in this world, and certainly not in a sandwich. Your goal is to get that braised and shredded oxtail to the consistency of good pulled pork. Moist, but not wet.
How do we do that? I like to pick the bones out of the stock after they're fall-apart tender, then while they cool, strain that stock through a fine mesh strainer and carefully reduce it on the stovetop. As it reduces, the flavors concentrate, but more importantly, the gelatin that was extracted and created from all that connective tissue will concentrate, forming a tighter and tighter protein net, until the resulting reduced stock is almost syrupy and sticky in texture.
This is exactly what we're going for. Stirring the picked and shredded meat from the oxtails back into this reduced stock results in a sandwich filling (or toast spread or burger topping or any number of other applications) that is unrivaled in terms of sheer, juicy meatiness.
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To be honest, that's the most important bits of the recipe right there. The rest is just window dressing. I pile my oxtail onto the bottom half of a split and toasted ciabatta roll, then top it off with some pickled hot cherry peppers (I love those things for their vinegary heat), and some slices of nicely aged Gruyère or Comté cheese before broiling it all and closing up the sandwiches.
Serve these suckers with some good cornichon-style pickles and a glass of full-bodied red wine to wash it down. It's a sandwich that eats like a steak.
January 2014
Recipe Details
Braised Oxtail and Gruyère Sandwiches
Cook5 hrs 10 mins
Active60 mins
Total5 hrs 10 mins
Serves6 servings
Ingredients
For the Oxtail:
1 tablespoon canola orvegetable oil
2 pounds oxtails
1 large onion, roughly chopped
1 large carrot, roughly chopped
2 stalks celery, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 1/2 cups dry red wine
3 cups homemade or store-boughtlow sodium chicken stock
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons finely mincedfresh parsley
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the Sandwiches:
6small loaves of ciabatta or hearty sandwich rolls
3/4 cup sliced pickled cherry peppers (optional)
12 ounces Comté, Gruyère, or Swiss cheese, thinly sliced
Directions
For the Oxtail: Adjust oven rack to center position and preheat oven to 250°F. Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over high heat until shimmering. Add as many oxtail pieces as will fit in a single layer. Cook until well browned, about 6 minutes. Flip pieces and cook until second side is browned, about 4 minutes longer. Transfer to a large plate and repeat with remaining oxtails until all oxtails are browned.
Without removing any oil or rendered fat, add onion, carrot, and celery to now-empty pot and cook, stirring and scraping up browned bits from the bottom, until vegetables are well-browned, about 10 minutes total. Stir in tomato paste until vegetables are coated. Add wine and cook, scraping up browned bits. Simmer until reduced by half, about 5 minutes. Add chicken stock and bay leaves. Return oxtails to pot, bring to a simmer, cover with the lid slightly ajar, and transfer to the oven. Cook until oxtail meat comes easily off the bone, about 4 hours.
Using tongs, transfer oxtails to a large bowl. Set aside until cool enough to handle. Meanwhile, strain stock through a fine mesh strainer into a medium saucepan. Discard solids. Place saucepan over medium heat and simmer stock until reduced to about 3/4 cup, about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, remove oxtail meat from bones and shred with fingers or two forks. Return meat to stock as it simmers. Finished stock/oxtail mixture should be very thick and sticky. Stir in parsley. Season to taste with salt and pepper and set aside. Oxtail mixture can be made up to 4 days in advance.
To Make the Sandwiches: Preheat broiler to high. Slice bread in half horizontally and place cut-side-up on a rimmed baking sheet. Broil until lightly toasted, about 2 minutes. Remove from broiler. Divide oxtail mixture evenly between bottom halves of bread. Top oxtail with pickled cherry peppers and slices of cheese. Remove top halves of bread from tray. Broil bottom halves until cheese is melted, about 4 minutes. Close sandwiches and serve.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/__opt__aboutcom__coeus__resources__content_migration__serious_eats__seriouseats.com__images__2014__01__20131128-ox-tail-sandwich-06-577cdc7e57e54e879aa50f4775ce36f9.jpg "Braised Oxtail and Gruyère Sandwiches Recipe (3)")
Special Equipment
Dutch oven
Notes
The oxtail mixture is also great served on its own with a sweet-and-savoryRed Onion Jam.
Read More
- Easy Oven-Cooked Pulled Pork
- Roosevelt Avenue-Style Cemita Sandwiches
- Beef Barbacoa
