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Flanken done in the Instant Pot requires less cooking time.
Flanken-Style Short Ribs
Despite its unusual name, all flanken is merely a cut of short ribs.
They are pretty easy to find in New York City because it’s the preferred cut. Many of eastern European descent; especially Jewish people prefer them..
They have a lot of flavor because of all the exposed bone. Instead of one large bone like the more standard cut, flanken have at least 4 small bones with the marrow exposed. That produces the most excellent flavor.
While short ribs of any cut require a long and preferably slow cooking time, the Instant Pot comes to the rescue producing great results in about half the time.
No Instant Pot?
I can urge you to buy one and am pretty sure you won’t be sorry. However, if this appliance isn’t in your future, no problem.
Your slow cooker can do a bang-up job although it will take at least 8 hours and possibly 10 to get them to that “fall-off-the-bone” consistency that most folks love. Just dump everything in (I would leave out the 2 cups of water) except the thickening and you’re set to go. I always brown any meat before slow cooking since I think the flavor is better. However, it’s not necessary.
Another option is your oven. Just make sure you have a nice heavy–preferably cast iron–dutch oven and cook at 300 F/150 C for around 3 hours. As with the slow cooker, do any thickening at the end of cooking.
Don’t Do Mushrooms?
Then just leave them out and substitute another cream soup. Cream of celery would be good here, but it’s your choice.
If you make your own cream of soups, you could try my cream of onion soup in this since it will enhance the oniony flavor of the recipe quite nicely I believe.
The Recipe
Instant Pot Creamy Mushroom Flanken-Style Ribs
Ingredients
- 3 lb flanken-style short ribs
- 2 tbs oil
- 1/4 cup onions chopped
- 1/2 cup dry red wine
- 2 cups water
- 10.5 oz cream of mushroom soup (1 can)
- 1 pkg dry onion soup mix
- 8 oz mushrooms cut in quarters
Thickening:
- 3 tbs flour
- 1/4 cup water
Instructions
- Set Instant Pot to "saute" at high heat. Add the oil then brown the ribs on all sides--you may have to do this in batches. Since these ribs are long, I generally cut them in half so they're easy to handle. Remove to a plate and drain any accumulated fat, leaving about a teaspoon in the pot.
- Fry the onion and mushrooms on the saute setting at medium heat until onions are soft and mushrooms begin to sear. Then deglaze the pot with the wine, scraping up any browned bits. Add the water and onion soup mix; stir well.
- Add the ribs back to the pot and cook at high pressure for 40 minutes. Release the pressure as soon as the time is up.
- Remove the ribs, set the pot to saute at medium heat and whisk in the mushroom soup. If you desire a thicker sauce, mix the flour with the 1/4 cup water and stir into sauce. Let the sauce cook for 5 minutes then place the ribs back in the pot to heat through.
